The Cave of Gold

by Everett McNeil

  CHAPTER II

  DEATH OF THE MINER

  California and 1849! Magical combination of Place and Date! The Land ofGold and the Time of Gold! The Date and the Place of the opening ofNature's richest treasure-house! Gold--free for all who would stoop andpick or dig it out of the rocks and the dirt! The beginning of the mostwonderful exodus of gold-mad men in the history of the world! "Gold!Gold!! GOLD!!! CALIFORNIA GOLD!" The nations of the world heard the cry;and the most enterprising and daring and venturesome--the wicked as wellas the good--of the nations of the world started straightway forCalifornia. Towns and cities sprang up, like mushrooms, in a night,where the day before the grizzly bear had hunted. In a year a wildernessbecame a populous state. A marvelous work to accomplish, even for anAnglo-Saxon-American nation; but, get down your histories of California,boys, and you will learn that we did accomplish that very thing--built agreat state out of a wilderness in some twelve months of time!

  Of course, Thure and Bud (Bud with the grizzly's hide had soon overtakenThure), as they rode along over the soft grass of the Sacramento Valley,on this clear July afternoon of the eventful year of 1849, did notrealize that all these wonderful things were happening or were about tohappen in their loved California. They knew that a great gold discoveryhad been made in the region of the American River some forty milesnortheast of Sutter's Fort. Indeed, for the last year, all Californiahad gone gold-mad over this same discovery; and now every able-bodiedman in the country, who could possibly get there, was at the mines.Stores, ranches, ships, pulpits, all businesses and all professions hadbeen deserted for the alluring smiles of the yellow god, gold, until itmight be truthfully said, that in all California there was but onebusiness and that one business was gold-digging.

  The devastating gold-fever had swept over the Conroyal and the Randolphranchos; and had left, of all the grown-up males, only Thure and Bud,who, not yet being of age, had been compelled to stay, much againsttheir wills, to care for the women folks and the ranchos, while theirfathers and brothers and all the able-bodied help had rushed off, likemadmen, to the mines; and only their loyalty to their loved mothers andfathers had kept them from following. Now, the one great hope of theirlives was to win permission to go to the mines, where men were winningfortunes in a day, and try their luck at gold-digging.

  The Conroyal rancho, the Randolph and the Conroyal families had united,when the men went to the mines, and both families were now living at theConroyal rancho, was some five miles from the scene of the robbery andattempted murder of the miner; and, for the first two miles of thehomeward ride, the wounded man lay unconscious and motionless in Thure'sarms. Then he began to move restlessly and to mutter unintelligiblethings.

  "He sure isn't dead," Thure declared, as the struggles of the man nearlypitched both of them out of the saddle. "Just give me a hand, Bud; for,I reckon, we'll have to lower him to the ground until he gets his rightsenses back or quits this twitching and jerking. I am afraid he willstart the wound to bleeding again."

  Bud quickly sprang off the back of his horse; and together and as gentlyas possible the two boys lowered the wounded miner from the saddle andlaid him down on a little mound of grass. A few rods away a small streamof water wound its way, half-hidden by tall grass and bushes and lowtrees, through the little valley where they had stopped.

  "Get your hat full of water," Thure said, as he bent down to see if thebandage over the wound was still in its place. "Seems to me he ought tobe getting his senses back by this time."

  Bud at once started off on the run for the water and soon was back withhis broad-brimmed felt hat full of the cooling fluid; and, kneeling downby the side of the wounded man, who now lay quiet, with eyes closed,although he was still muttering incoherently, he bathed the hot foreheadand the swollen lumps on the back of his head.

  Suddenly the miner's eyes opened and stared wonderingly around him andup into the faces of the two boys. For a minute he did not seem to beable to comprehend what had happened. Then the blank wondering looksuddenly left his eyes.

  "Did they get the gold?" and his hand went quickly to his waist. Therewas no belt there. "Gone! A good twenty pounds of as fine gold as wasever dug from the earth, gone!--Gods, if they had but given me any kindof a show, they would not have got it so easily!" and his eyes flamedand he attempted to sit up, but fell back with a groan and a whiteningface.

  For a minute or two he lay with eyes closed, breathing heavily.Evidently he was trying to collect his thoughts, to realize hissituation. When he opened his eyes again there was a solemn, an awedlook in them that had not been there before, and the anger had gone.

  "I have been stabbed," he said slowly, "and I am dying."

  "No, no. The knife did not go near your heart. It struck too low. Youwill soon be all right again. Wait until we get you home and mother willsoon make a whole man of you. Mother is about the best nurse in allCalifornia," and Thure gripped one of the hard toil-worn hands andsmiled encouragingly.

  "No." As the man spoke his eyes never once left Thure's face. "No, I amdying. I know. I was once a surgeon, an army surgeon." For a moment hiseyes darkened, as if with bitter recollections. "But, what matters thepast now? Let it bury its dead," and he smiled grimly. "This is death.I know. I have seen many die just this way. Internal hemorrhage, wedoctors called it. The blood from the wound is flowing into my body.I can feel it. I have half an hour, possibly an hour to live; andthen--" The awed look in the eyes deepened, and, for a couple of minutes,he did not speak, but lay staring straight up into the blue skies.Suddenly his white lips tightened and he turned to Thure.

  "How far is it to your home and to your mother?" he asked abruptly.

  "About three miles; but I can carry you so easily that I am sure--"

  "Too far," the wounded man broke in impatiently. "I might die before Igot there. No, this shall be my deathbed--the soft green grass, canopiedby the blue skies--a fitting end, a fitting end," he added gloomily.

  "Come, come," and Thure tried to make his voice sound cheery and full ofhope. "Never say die, until you are dead. Just wait until we get homeand mother will put new life into you. Now, I'll get on my horse, andBud will lift you up into my arms, and we'll be home before you knowit," and Thure jumped to his feet and started toward his horse.

  "No, come back," and the miner impatiently lifted himself up on oneelbow. "Come back. I have no time to waste riding three miles for adeathbed. I--" Again the keen eyes searched the faces of the two boys."I have much to say and little time in which to say it. Get thatbearskin off your horse and make me as comfortable as possible on it.And be quick about it; for I am going fast, and, before I go, I want tomake you two boys my heirs for saving me from those two villains. Thecowardly curs! They hit me from behind!" and again the eyes flamed withanger. "They got the gold I had with me and they got me; but they didnot get the secret of Crooked Arm Gulch, nor learn how to find itsGolden Elbow. Curse them! If I could but live, I'd--But, what's theuse?" and he sank back white-lipped on the grass. "That knife stab inthe breast has done for me. And just when the golden key that unlocksall the doors of pleasure and power was tight-gripped in my veryfingers! Just my luck! But," and the look of somber resignation cameback into the pain-racked eyes, "I'll not die like a snarling, whiningcoyote. I'll meet death, as I have met life--face to face, with botheyes wide open. Now," and he turned to Bud, who had hurried to his horseand, unloosening the bear-skin, had hastened back with it and spread itout on the grass, soft hair up, by the side of the wounded man, "lay meon the skin and stuff something under my head and shoulders, so as tokeep the blood from flooding my lungs and heart as long as possible; forI have that to tell that must not wait, even for death," and the whitelips tightened firmly.

  Thure and Bud, anxious to do everything possible to ease the lastmoments of the dying man, now carefully lifted him and laid him down onthe skin of the grizzly bear as gently as possible. Then, taking off oneof the saddles and their own coats, they placed the saddle, softened bythe folded coats and the bearskin, und
er the head and the shoulders ofthe miner; and only the white tight-drawn lips and the burning eyes toldof the intense pain that he must have suffered while the change wasbeing made.

  For a couple of minutes the wounded man lay silent on the bearskin, withclosed eyes, breathing heavily. Then he suddenly opened his eyes andturned them resolutely on the two boys, who stood, one on each side,bending anxiously over him.

  "There, that is better," he said. "That is all you can do for me. Now,sit down close to my head, so that you can hear every word that I say;for never did dying lips have a more important message to utter, neverdid mortal leave a richer inheritance to mortal than I am about to leaveto you. Gold--a cave paved with gold! Gold--a cave walled with seams ofgold! Gold--bushels, barrels of gold nuggets, to be picked up, as youpick up pebbles from the stony bed of a river! Gods, if I could butlive!" Again the blood flushed back into the white cheeks and the eyesglowed with feverish excitement.

  "There! There!" and Thure laid a cool hand on the hot forehead. "Nevermind the gold now. When you have rested a bit and have recovered some ofyour strength, Bud and I will rig up a stretcher out of the bearskin andcarry you home between us; and then, when you are comfortably fixed in asoft bed, you can tell us all about this wonderful cave of gold."

  No wonder Thure thought all this wild talk about the marvelous cave ofgold but the delirium of a dying man and tried to quiet the sufferer;but the miner would not be quieted, and, roughly brushing the hand fromhis forehead, he turned his glowing eyes full on Thure's face.

  "You think I am raving," he said, "that this cave of gold exists only inthe disordered fancy of a dying man. Well, I will show you. Thrust yourhand under my shirt, beneath my right shoulder, and pull out the smallbag you will find there. Quick!" he cried impatiently, as Thurehesitated. "You forget that I am a dying man and have not a minute oftime to waste."

  Thus admonished, Thure hastily thrust his right hand under the miner'sshirt, as directed, and pulled out a small buckskin bag, fastened by abuckskin thong about the miner's shoulder. The weight of the bag, for itwas only some seven inches long by three inches wide, surprised him.

  "Cut the strings and open the bag," commanded the miner.

  Thure quickly did as bidden.

  "Now, see what is inside of the bag."

  Thure thrust his hand into the bag and drew out a long, tightly rolledpiece of white parchment-like skin.

  "That is the skin map. Never mind that now. Turn the bag bottom side upand shake it."

  Thure caught hold of the bottom of the bag with his fingers, turned itover and gave it a vigorous shake; and then sat staring wildly at theobject that had fallen, with a thud, on the bearskin by his side. He waslooking at a solid nugget of gold nearly as large as, and shaped verymuch like his fist!

  "Pick it up! Lift it!" urged the miner, his eyes shining withexcitement. "It is gold, pure, virgin gold, just as God made it! Ipicked it up off the bottom of the cave, where there are thousands ofother smaller nuggets. In the light of my torch they sparkled and shoneuntil the floor of the cave seemed flooded with golden light. In the twohours I was there I gathered up the Five Thousand Dollars' worth of goldnuggets the robbers stole from me and that nugget, all that I dared takewith me; for the way out of Crooked Arm Gulch is not a road over which aman more heavily burdened would care to venture. I had no food with me,no horses; and I must hurry back, where food, on which to live, andhorses, on which to carry my supplies to the cave and the gold away fromit, could be bought. I--"

  "And you found this hunk of gold on the floor of that cave?" Thure whohad been lifting and examining the nugget with widening eyes, couldcontrol his excitement no longer. "And you say that there are thousandsof other nuggets where this came from?"

  "Yes, yes! I have been telling you God's truth," and the face grew whiteand drawn with pain again. "But, don't interrupt me. I--I have only afew minutes left. The nugget, the gold, all is yours. I--I bequeath itto you with my dying breath. The map--the skin map--will tell you whereto find it--North--northeast from Hangtown--a good five days' tramp--Nominers there yet--Deep--steep canyon--Lot's Canyon--Tall white pillar ofrock standing near Crooked Arm Gulch--Must look--sharp--to find gulchopening--Blocked by great--rocks--Big tree--Climb to third limb.Remember--climb to third limb--third limb--third--My God!--My God!" andboth hands clutched madly at his throat.

  His breath was now coming in quick heaving gasps; and only by a supremeeffort of will was he able longer to command his wavering reason.

  "Quick--quick," he gasped, his voice coming in a hoarse whisper. "Bendyour heads close. Beware of the two men who robbed and murdered me--I--Itold--them of the cave of gold; but I did--did not tell them where itis; and--and they--can--cannot find it without the skin map--They--theymurdered me for--for that map; but they did not get it--It--it was notin--in my money-belt, as they thought. Guard that map--They--they wouldkill--kill you to get it. One is a huge red-haired man with a brokennose--The other is--is small, with pock-marked face--Beware--bewarepock--pock-marked face and--and broken nose--I--God--I--"

  Again he clutched violently at his throat; and then a great wonderinglook of awe came into his eyes, now staring straight up into the blueskies, and his form stiffened suddenly.

  Thure and Bud could endure the dreadful sight no longer and turned theirhorrified eyes away; and, when, a couple of minutes later, they againlooked on the face of the miner, he was dead, with a smile on his grimlips and a look of peace on his face, as if the coming of Death, at thevery last, had been a most pleasant and joyous event.