The Cave of Gold

by Everett McNeil

  CHAPTER I

  EL FEROZ

  "Whoa!"--"whoa!" With quick jerks on their bridle reins Thure Conroyaland Bud Randolph pulled up their horses and listened shiveringly.

  Again that same shrill whistling scream of dreadful agony and fear, thathad caused them to rein up their horses so suddenly a moment before,came from the valley beyond the brow of the little hill up which theyhad been slowly riding, and chilled the very marrow in their bones withthe terrible intensity of its fear and anguish. Then all was still.

  "What--what was it?" and Thure turned a startled face to Bud. "It didn'tsound human and I never heard an animal scream like that before. Whatcan it be?"

  "I don't know," Bud answered, his face whitening a little; "but I amgoing to find out. Come on," and, swinging his rifle into position whereit would be ready for instant use, he started up the hill, his eyesfixed in the direction whence had come those fearful screams.

  "We'd better go a little slow, until we find out what it is," cautionedThure, as he quickly fell in by the side of Bud, his own rifle heldready for instant use. "It might be Indian devilment of some kind. Youknow dad's last letter from the mines said that the Indians were gettingugly; and if it is hostile Indians, we want to see them first."

  "You bet we do," was Bud's emphatic rejoinder, as he again pulled up hishorse. "Now, just hold Gray Cloud and I'll scout on ahead and see what'sgoing on down there in the valley before we show ourselves," and,sliding swiftly from Gray Cloud's back, he tossed his bridle rein toThure, and, rifle in hand, started swiftly and as silently as an Indiantoward a thick clump of bushes that grew directly on the top of thelittle hill.

  Thure deftly caught the bridle rein; and then sat silent and motionlesson the back of his horse, his eyes on his comrade, waiting in tenseexpectancy for the moment when he would reach the clump of bushes andlook down into the valley beyond and see the cause of those strange andterrible cries that had so suddenly and so fearfully startled them.

  Bud, carrying his cocked rifle at trail, his form bent so that the leastpossible part of his body showed above the grass of the hillside, ranswiftly until he had almost reached the brow of the hill and the clumpof bushes. Then, crouching closer to the ground, he crept cautiously andslowly to the bushes and, gently working himself into their midst,carefully parted the branches in front of his face until he had a clearview of the little valley below. At the first sight he uttered anexclamation of surprise and wrath and threw his rifle to his shoulder;but, with a regretful shake of his head, he almost instantly lowered thegun, and, turning quickly about, motioned excitedly for Thure to advancewith the horses and started on the run to meet him.

  "Indians! Is it Indians?" Thure cried anxiously, the moment Bud was athis side.

  "No," panted the boy, as he leaped into his saddle. "It's _El Feroz_;and if I've got anything to say about it, he has made his last kill.Come on," and his eyes glinted with wrath and excitement, as he dug hisspurs into the flanks of Gray Cloud and galloped furiously up the hill.

  "_El Feroz!_ Bully!" and Thure, with an exultant yell, struck the spursinto his horse and galloped along by his side.

  At the top of the hill both boys pulled up their horses and looked downinto the valley. The valley was small, not more than half a mile across,and through its center ran a little stream of water, fringed with bushesand small trees. On the near side of this fringe of trees and bushes andonly a short distance from where our two young friends sat on the backsof their horses, crouched a huge grizzly bear over the body of a horsethat was still quivering in the death agony.

  "The brute!" exclaimed Thure angrily, the moment his eyes had taken inthis scene of violence. "So that was the death scream of a horse weheard! Well, I never want to hear another! But, we've got you now, youold villain!" and his eyes swept over the little valley, free, exceptfor the fringe of trees and bushes, of all obstructions, exultingly. "Ifwe let you get away from this, we'll both deserve to be shot. Now," andhe turned to Bud, "you ride to the right and I'll go to the left and wewill have the brute between us, so that if he charges either of us, theother can take after him and shoot or rope him."

  "Good!" agreed Bud. "But, say, let's rope him first. Just shooting istoo good for _El Feroz_. Remember Manuel and Old Pedro, whom he killed,and Jim Bevins, whom he tore nearly to pieces and crippled for life, tosay nothing of the cattle and the horses he has killed. And now that wehave him where he can't get away, I am for showing him that man is hismaster, strong and ferocious as he is, before killing him. We could nothave picked out a better place for roping him, if we had been doing thepicking," and his eyes glanced over the smooth level of the littlevalley. "We'll let him chase us until we get him away from the trees andbushes along the creek, and then we'll have some fun with the big brutewith our ropes, before sending him to Kingdom Come with our bullets.What do you say, Thure?"

  "Well," grinned Thure reminiscently, "if it don't turn out better thandid our attempt to rope a grizzly when I was with Fremont, I say shootthe grizzly first and rope him afterward. Now, it won't be no jokeroping _El Feroz_, even if everything is in our favor," and his facesobered. "Still, I reckon, our horses can keep us at a safe distancefrom his ugly claws and teeth; and it will be all right to have a trywith the ropes before we use bullets, but we've got to be careful. _ElFeroz_ is the largest and ugliest grizzly ever seen anywhere aroundhere, and could kill one of our horses with one blow of his huge paw.Mexican Juan says that an Indian devil has taken possession of the bigbrute and that only a silver bullet blessed by a priest can kill him;and, in proof of his belief, he told me that he himself had shot fivelead bullets at _El Feroz_ and that he had heard the devil laugh whenthe bullets struck and fell hot and flattened to the ground. Now healways carries a silver bullet with him that he had a priest bless whenhe was down to San Francisco last fall; and the next time he meets _ElFeroz_ he expects to kill him with the holy bullet. He showed me thesilver bullet," and Thure laughed. "But I'm willing to put my trust inlead, if it hits the right spot, Indian devil or no devil. Now, look at_El Feroz_. He doesn't seem to be worrying none over our presence.Appears to think the filling of his greedy belly too important anoperation to be interrupted by us," and Thure's eyes turned to where thehuge grizzly was tearing with teeth and claws the carcass of the horse,his wicked little eyes turned in their direction, but otherwise givingthem not the slightest attention. Evidently _El Feroz_ had only contemptfor the puny prowess of man.

  "Well, we'll soon teach him better manners, the ugly brute! Come on,"and Bud Randolph and Thure Conroyal both started slowly toward thegrizzly, loosening the strong ropes that hung from the pommels of theirsaddles as they rode.

  There was no need of haste. _El Feroz_ would not run away--not from agood dinner like that he was now eating--for all the men in California.For four years he had terrorized this part of California, had never onceturned his back to a man, but had seen the backs of many men turned tohim; and now the killing of the horse had aroused all the ferocity ofhis savage nature, and he was ready to fight anything and everythingthat threatened to rob him of his prey.

  Thure Conroyal and Bud Randolph did not for a moment expect _El Feroz_to run, when they rode toward him. They knew grizzly nature, especiallythe ferocious nature of _El Feroz_, too well to dream of such a thing.They knew he would fight; and, if they had been afoot, they would nothave dared to attack the evil monster, armed though they were withrifles and so skilful in their use that they could cut the head off awild goose at a hundred yards. But, seated on the backs of their fleetand well-trained horses and on a smooth and open field like the onebefore them, they did not fear even _El Feroz_ himself. If their ropesdid not hold or their bullets kill at once, the swift legs of theirhorses could be counted on to keep them out of danger, unless someunforeseen mischance happened.

  The lassoing or roping of grizzly bears was a sport often indulged in bythe native Californians, who were among the most skilful horsemen in theworld and marvelously expert with their lassos or reatas, as they calledthe
long rope, usually made of hide or woven horsehair, which they usedto catch their horses and cattle; and Thure Conroyal and Bud Randolphhad become as expert as any native with their reatas, and, consequently,felt equal to the roping of even as ferocious and as huge a beast as _ElFeroz_ himself, the most dreaded grizzly in the California mountains.

  Thure and Bud rode slowly toward the grizzly, one turning a little tothe left and the other to the right as he advanced, so that when theydrew near to _El Feroz_ there were some five rods of space between them.They had fastened their rifles to the saddles in front of them, to holdthem safe and yet have them where they could be quickly seized in caseof sudden need and to give them free use of both of their hands inthrowing their ropes and in managing their horses; and now, as theyadvanced toward the bear, they uncoiled their reatas and began slowlyswinging the loops around their heads in readiness for the throw, whileevery faculty of their minds quickened and every muscle of their youngbodies tightened in expectation of the coming battle that might meandeath to one or both, if either blundered.

  The grizzly glared furiously, first at one horseman then at the other,and tore more savagely than ever at the flesh of the horse, until bothboys were almost upon him. Then, with a roar so savage and fearful thatboth horses, well-trained as they were, jumped violently, he reared upsuddenly on his hind legs, the blood of the horse dripping from hisreddened teeth, and, growling ferociously and swaying his huge head fromside to side, he stood, for a moment, apparently trying to decide whichone of those two venturesome humans he should tear to pieces first.

  "Quick! Rope him around the neck before he charges!" yelled Thure. "I'lltry to get one of his hind legs."

  As Thure spoke Bud's lasso shot through the air; and the loop glidedswiftly over the great head and tightened suddenly around the hairyneck, just at the moment the bear came to the decision to charge Thureand sprang toward him, with the result that the sudden unexpectedness ofthe jerk of Bud's rope yanked him off his feet and hurled him on hisback.

  Thure instantly saw his opportunity and before the huge beast couldright himself, he had swiftly cast the loop of his rope around one ofthe sprawling hind legs and drawn it tight.

  "Hurrah! We've got him!" yelled Bud triumphantly, as Gray Cloud whirledabout and stood facing the grizzly, his strong body braced backward sothat he held the rope taut, as all well-broken California horses weretrained to do the moment the thrown rope caught its victim.

  "Got him! You bet we've got him!" echoed Thure, as his own horse whirledinto position, with both front legs strongly braced, and drew the lassotight about bruin's hind leg, thus stretching him out between the endsof the two reatas.

  But they had not "got him"--not yet; for, just at that moment, all theferocious bulk of raging bone and muscle that had given _El Feroz_ hisname of terror, gave a tremendous heave, whirled over on its feet; and,before either boy knew what was happening, Bud's lasso broke and about aton of angry bear was hurling itself toward Thure.

  The unforeseen mischance had happened with a vengeance!

  Bud uttered a yell of warning and horror and caught at his rifle; but,almost before his hands could touch the gun, _El Feroz_ was upon Thureand only a tremendous jump sideways of his brave little horse saved himfrom the sweep of one of those saber-armed paws.

  The grizzly bear, for an animal of his huge bulk, is astonishingly agileand speedy, when once his fighting blood is aroused; and, if ever agrizzly was fighting mad, that grizzly was now _El Feroz_. The instanthe saw that he had missed the horse and man, he whirled about and wasafter them again; and, so swift was his turn and so sudden his charge,that, once again, only the superior horsemanship of Thure and theagility of the horse saved them from a sweeping blow of one of the greatpaws that came so close that Thure could feel the rush of its windagainst his face.

  "Out run him! Out run him!" yelled Bud excitedly. "Try to throw him withyour rope; and I'll see if I can get a bullet in him," and he suddenlyjerked up Gray Cloud, so that he could make his aim more sure, threw hisrifle to his shoulder, and fired.

  The ball struck the grizzly, but did not disable him. Indeed, the woundseemed rather to increase the terrible energy and rage with which he wasstriving to reach Thure and his horse with one of those powerful paws;and, for a dreadful moment, it appeared to Bud as if the huge beastmight even overtake the speedy horse. Then he saw that Thure was slowlygaining, that the rope, which still clutched the hind leg of thegrizzly, was slowly tightening; and, with breathless haste, he beganreloading his rifle. He had had all the roping of _El Feroz_ he wanted;and now his only desire was to get a bullet into the huge body, where itwould kill quickly, as speedily as possible. Suddenly, just as he wasdriving the bullet down into the barrel of his rifle, he heard a wildyell of exultation from Thure, and looked up just in time to see thehind part of the grizzly shoot upward into the air; and the next momenthis astonished eyes saw the huge body dangling from a strong limb of anold oak tree, that thrust itself out from the sturdy trunk some fifteenfeet above the ground, and held there by the grip of Thure's rope aroundone of the hind legs.

  It needed but a glance for Bud to understand how this seeminglymarvelous feat had been accomplished. The quick eyes of Thure had seenthe tree, with its sturdy limb thrust out some fifteen feet above theground, almost directly in the line of his flight; and, swerving alittle to one side, so as to pass close to it, and slowing up his horsea bit, he had gathered up the slack of the rope in his hand, and, as hepassed the tree, he had thrown it so that the middle of the rope hadfallen over the top of the limb not far from the trunk; and then, ofcourse, the rope had jerked the bear up into the air, and Thure hadwhirled his horse about, and now the well-trained animal stood, his forelegs braced, holding the struggling grizzly up to the limb.

  "Shoot, shoot him quick, before the limb or the rope breaks!" yelledBud, the moment his eyes had taken in the situation, and, ramming thebullet swiftly home, he spurred Gray Cloud toward the dangling bear.

  Thure at once seized his rifle; but so furious were the struggles of thegrizzly--he hung just so that his fore paws touched the ground--as hetwisted and turned and frantically pawed up the dirt, insane with rage,that it was impossible to get accurate aim from where he sat on hishorse; and Thure jumped from his saddle and ran quickly close up to theswinging grizzly, now struggling more furiously than ever at the nearapproach of his hated enemy.

  "Don't! Look out! Can't you see how the limb is bending and shaking?"yelled Bud excitedly. "The limb or the rope might break at any moment!"and Bud shuddered at the horror of the thought of what then might happenand urged his horse more desperately than ever toward the scene.

  And, indeed, the huge body of the grizzly, twisting and swinging at theend of the rope, the blood flowing from the wound made by Bud's bullet,his little red eyes glowing like coals of fire, his strong jaws snappingand growling, and his huge paws striking furiously in the direction ofThure, did make a sight to chill the marrow in the bones of any man.

  Thure, now that he was so close to the bear that he could have touchedhim with the muzzle of his rifle, realized that, in his haste, he haddone a fool-hardy thing; but he was not the kind of a lad to back downfrom a position once taken, not until he had to do so, and, quicklybringing his rifle to his shoulder, he waited until the swaying bodypresented a fatal spot to his aim, pulled the trigger, and leapedbackward from the bear.

  It was fortunate for Thure that he made that backward jump; for, at thecrack of his rifle, _El Feroz_ made such a tremendous lunge toward him,that the creaking limb bent nearly double, and, with a sound like thereport of a gun, broke off close to the trunk and crashed to the groundon top of the grizzly.

  For a moment _El Feroz_ lay stunned by his wounds and fall and the crashof the heavy limb; and then, with a roar, he struggled to his feet, justas Bud jerked Gray Cloud to a halt not a rod away, and, instantlythrowing his rifle to his shoulder, fired. Even then the ferocious beastplunged desperately toward his new enemy, staggering blindly, and felldead on the exact spot w
here Thure had stood.

  "Jumping buffaloes, but that was a narrow escape for you, Thure!" and,throwing himself out of his saddle, Bud rushed up to where Thure stood,white and trembling, now that the danger was over, not ten feet fromwhere the bear lay dead.

  "But, we've got him! Got _El Feroz_ himself!" and the blood surged backto Thure's face. "The biggest grizzly in all California! Say, but won'tthe Mexicans and the Indians think we are great hunters now? And won'tRuth and Iola stare, when we throw down the hide of _El Feroz_ in frontof them to-night?"

  No wonder Thure felt a little vainglorious over their achievement; forthere was not a hunter in all that country who would not have consideredthe killing of _El Feroz_ the crowning exploit of his life, so great hadbecome the monster grizzly's reputation for savage ferocity andfearlessness of man.

  "Well, I reckon we won't do any more hunting to-day," Bud declared, ashe began swiftly reloading his rifle. In that country at that time noexperienced hunter ever allowed his rifle to remain unloaded a momentlonger than was necessary. "When we get the hide off that monster, itwill be time to be starting for home," and his eyes turned to the deadgrizzly. "Whew, but isn't he a whopper! I'll bet that he will weighnearly a ton! You are right, the girls will be surprised some, when wethrow down that hide in front of them," and his face flushed a little atthe thought of the glory that would soon be theirs. "But, come, now thatour guns are loaded, let's get busy with our knives and get this bighide off," and, pulling out his hunting-knife from its sheath, he bentover the huge carcass of _El Feroz_.

  "I'll be with you as soon as I free Buck," and Thure, slipping the nooseof his reata off the hind leg of the dead grizzly and coiling it aroundhis arm, hastened to where his gallant little horse still stood; and,after fastening the rope in its place on the pommel of the saddle, hehurried back to where Bud was bending over the grizzly.

  There was no need of tying their horses. All the rope required to holdthem fast was the rope of love they bore their young masters, and so thetwo animals were left free, while the two boys busied themselves gettingthe pelt off the bear.

  The skinning of a grizzly bear, especially when the bear is as huge andas tough as was _El Feroz_, is no light undertaking; but Thure and Budwere no novices at this kind of labor, and, after half an hour's hardwork, the great pelt was off and stretched out on the ground, skin sideup.

  "There, I am glad that job is done!" Thure exclaimed, with satisfaction,as he wiped his bloody knife on the grass. "Say, but he sure was awhopper!" and his eyes glanced exultantly over the great hide, nowlooking larger than ever as it lay spread out on the grass. "GreatMoses, look at all those old bullet marks!--Fifteen of them! No wonderthat Mexican Juan thought _El Feroz_ was protected by the devil!--Hello,what is the matter now?" and Thure jumped up quickly from the hide, overwhich he had been bending counting _El Feroz's_ old bullet wounds, at asudden exclamation of alarm from Bud.

  "There! There! Look there!" Bud was pointing excitedly up the valley.

  "Mother of men, they are murdering him!" "Come on!" and Thure, grabbingup his rifle, made a jump for his horse, followed by Bud.

  Three-quarters of a mile up the valley from where our young friends hadslain the big grizzly, a spur of rocks projected down into the valley,reaching like a long finger almost to the fringe of trees along thecreek; and around this spur of rocks three men had slowly ridden, and,just as they had come in sight from where the boys stood, Bud, whoseeyes had happened to be turned in that direction, had seen two of themen suddenly and apparently without warning set upon the third man and,after a short struggle, knock him off his horse. It was this sight thathad caused his sudden cry of alarm, followed by Thure's exclamation ofhorror, "They are murdering him!" and the quick jump of both boys fortheir horses.

  It took Thure and Bud less than a minute to reach their horses and tospring up into their saddles; but, in that brief time, the unequalstruggle up the valley was over, and the two men were bending over theprostrate body of their victim, apparently searching for valuables, whenthe two boys, with loud yells, spurred their horses at full speed towardthem.

  At the sound of their voices, the two men looked suddenly up, saw themcoming, hastily grabbed up a few things from the ground, evidently takenfrom the man they were robbing, jumped to their feet, sprang on thebacks of their horses, and, before either boy was near enough to shoot,both had disappeared around the spur of rocks, lashing and spurringtheir horses frantically.

  Thure and Bud jerked up their horses by the side of the fallen man and,jumping from their saddles, bent quickly over him.

  "They've murdered him!" cried Bud, the moment his horrified eyes saw thewhite face and the bloodstained breast of the stricken man. "They havestabbed him! The cowardly curs!"

  "No, he is not dead! I can feel his heart beat. The stab was too low toreach his heart. Quick, we must do something to stop this flow of blood,or he soon will be dead," and Thure tore open the bosom of the roughflannel shirt, exposing the red mouth of a knife wound from which theblood was flowing freely.

  Thure and Bud were both familiar with the rough surgery of the plainsand the mountains; and soon their deft hands had swiftly untied the silkscarfs from around their necks, plugged the wound with one of them andused the other to tightly bind and hold it in place.

  "There, I think that will stop the blood! Now, let's see what otherhurts he has," and Thure passed his hands gently over the man's head."Two bumps--whoppers! Either enough to knock the senses out of an ox;but, I reckon, they've done no mortal damage. It's the stab wound that Iam most afraid of. What do you make out of it all anyway?" and Thureturned to Bud.

  "Plain robbery and attempted murder," Bud answered gravely. "The man isevidently a miner," and his eyes rested on the long unkempt hair andbeard, the weather-bronzed skin, and the rough worn clothing of thewounded man; "and was, probably, on his way from the mines to SanFrancisco with his gold-dust, when those two cowardly curs met him and,finding out that he was from the mines, attempted to murder him for hisgold."

  "Reckon you're right," agreed Thure. "Leastwise there's no use ofspeculating over it longer now. The thing to do is to get him home assoon as we can. Mother is powerful good doctoring hurts. Just see if youcan get him up on the saddle in front of me. I reckon that'll be thesafest way to carry him," and Thure mounted his horse, while Bud thrusthis sturdy young arms under the body of the insensible man and, asgently as possible, lifted him to the saddle, where the strong arms ofThure held him as comfortably as possible.

  "Now, I'll strike out straight for home," Thure said, as he started Buckoff on a walk with his double burden; "and you can ride back and get thehide of _El Feroz_, and soon catch up with me."

  "All right. I'll be with you again as soon as I can," and Bud sprang onthe back of Gray Cloud and started off on a gallop for the scene of thecontest with the grizzly.

  How wonderful it is that the tenor of our whole after lives may be, nay,frequently is, completely changed by some seemingly unimportantcircumstance or unexpected happening. If Thure Conroyal and Bud Randolphhad not heard the death-cry of that horse and had not turned aside tosee what had caused those agonizing sounds, they would not have beendelayed, by their contest with the grizzly, until the coming of thethree men, nor have witnessed the attack on the miner; and, if they hadnot seen this attack on the miner and hurried to his rescue, they neverwould have heard the miner's marvelous tale, nor have secured the skinmap; and, if they had not heard the miner's tale and secured the skinmap--But, I must let the story itself tell you all that resulted fromthese unexpected and seemingly unimportant happenings.