CHAPTER VII
CAUGHT IN THE FLOOD
In July, 1849, the tide of gold-seekers had not yet set in at itsgreatest flow. It was too early in the year for the thousands ofemigrants coming across the plains and the mountains to the east or forthose journeying by ship from the more distant parts of the world tohave reached the Eldorado of their golden hopes; but from everyinhabited part of California and the region to the north, from Mexicoand the Pacific coast southward and from the nearer islands of thePacific a constant stream of gold-seekers had been flowing into the goldregions for nearly a year. Those coming by ship landed at San Francisco;and from there reembarked in smaller boats and were carried up theSacramento River to Sacramento City, the nearest point to the minesreached by boat, or made the journey overland on horseback, or withmule- or horse- or oxen-drawn wagons, or even on foot. Many of theMexicans and a few of the South Americans came overland, while nearlyall of those coming from Oregon territory, whither many emigrants hadgone from the States during the past few years, made the journeysouthward to Sacramento City the same way they had crossed the greatplains and the mountains, when they had sought new homes in the GreatNorthwest a few years before--that is, by way of the prairie-schooner,afoot and on horseback, traveling in small companies for mutualprotection.
All of these different streams of inflowing gold-seekers were too farsouth for Thure and Bud to strike until they were nearly to SacramentoCity, except that from Oregon, flowing from the north; and they hardlyexpected to find this stream still flowing, since those regions weresupposed to have been already drained of all their gold-seekinginhabitants. But, hardly had they ridden an hour on their way thatmorning, when, on coming to the top of a low ridge of hills and lookingdown into the valley beyond, they saw half a dozen white-topped wagons,accompanied by a number of men, some on horseback and some afoot, acouple of miles ahead of them and about to pass over another ridge ofhills.
"Hurrah!" yelled Thure, at sight of the wagons and the men. "I'll bet acoon skin that they are bound for Sacramento City and the gold-diggings,too. Come, let's hurry up our horses and see if we can't overtake them.I'll feel a lot safer when we're in with that crowd," and his keen eyesglanced swiftly over the valley in front of them. "There are too manyplaces along this trail, where them skunks could hide and shoot uswithout our getting a shot back at them, to suit me. But they willhardly venture to take a shot at us, while we are with a crowd of armedmen like that. Hurrah! Come on!" and, striking his pack-horse with hiswhip, Thure hurried on down the hill.
A couple of hours later the two boys overtook the slower-moving train ofwagons; and were given a hearty welcome by the gaunt, roughly dressedand rougher-looking men, who, as they had surmised, were bound for thegold-mines.
Thure, as they joined the little company of prospective miners, turnedand looked backward, just in time to see two horsemen appear on the browof a distant hill, halt their horses and sit staring in their directionfor a couple of minutes; and then, wheeling their horses about disappeardown the other side of the hill.
"Queer!" thought Thure. "I should think they'd be only too glad to joinus, unless," and his heart gave a jump at the thought, "unless they wereBrokennose and Pockface following on our trail! I wonder--"
But here the men of the wagon-train, gathering excitedly about him andall eagerly asking questions, drove all further thoughts of the twosolitary horsemen out of his head.
There were fifteen men, two women, and three children--a girl offourteen and two boys thirteen years old--in the company; and all hadcome from the great wilderness to the north, whither they had gone fromthe States some three years before. They had been traveling for manydays southward, through a wilderness inhabited only by wild beasts andIndians, without seeing a human being, except a few Indians, althoughthey had passed a number of deserted ranchos on their way down theSacramento Valley, until Thure and Bud rode into their midst. All themen were armed with long-barreled rifles, huge knives, and some of them,in addition, carried a pistol or a revolver. They were dressed for themost part in deerskins and their hair and beards had grown so long, thatonly their bright eyes and bronzed noses and gleaming white teeth, whenthey smiled or opened their mouths, were visible. All the other featuresof their faces were hidden behind matted locks of hair. The faces of thewomen and the children had been browned by the sun, until they werenearly of the color of Indians, and their clothing was soiled and worn;but all were clear-eyed and looked as if they did not know what a bodilyache or pain was.
Thure and Bud were too familiar with this type of wilderness manhood tobe worried in the least over their rough looks and dress. They knewsomething of the real men that usually dwelt within these roughexteriors--the men who hewed the way for civilization through thewilderness, the men of the rifle, the trap, and the ax, strong andsturdy and as gnarled and knotted as the oaks of their own forests, yetas true to a friend or to the right as they saw it, as the balls intheir rifles were to their sights--and neither boy hesitated an instantto accept their invitation to "jog along" with them to Sacramento City.
For a few minutes the whole company halted and crowded excitedly aroundThure and Bud. They had heard no news of the world outside of theirlittle company for many days; and they were especially anxious to hearthe latest news from the diggings.
"Sure th' gold ain't petered out yit?" queried one of the men anxiously.
"No," answered Thure, smiling. "According to dad's last letter they werediscovering new diggings almost every day and all the old diggings werestill panning out well. Why, he wrote that the fellow who had the claimright next to his claim had found a pocket the day before, out of whichhe had taken in one day one thousand dollars' worth of gold nuggets!"
"Say, young man," and a great, huge-boned, lank man crowded eagerly upto Thure's side, "jest say them words over ag'in; an' say 'em loud, sothat Sal can hear. She's bin callin' me a fool regular 'bout every hoursince we started for th' diggings. Says she'll eat all th' gold I findan' won't have no stumick-ake neither. Now, listen, Sal," and he turnedexcitedly to one of the two women, who stood together on the outskirtsof the little crowd of men around Thure and Bud. "Jest listen tew whatthis boy's own dad rit home," and again he turned his eager eyes onThure's face.
Thure laughed and repeated, in a louder voice, the story of the miner'sgood luck.
"Did you hear that, Sal?" and again the big man turned excitedly to thewoman. "One Thousand Dollars' wurth of gold nuggets picked right up outof a hole in th' ground in one day! Gosh, that's more gold than we everseed in our lives! An' he found it all in one day! Good lord! in tendays he'd have Ten Thousand Dollars! An' in one hundred days he'd haveOne Hundred Thousand Dollars!" he almost shouted.
"Well, what if he did have one hundred thousand dollars! What good wouldthat do you? That's what I'd like tew know, Tim Perkins? He'd have th'gold, not you, wouldn't he?" and the woman turned a thin care-worn faceto her big husband.
"But," and the big fellow's eyes fairly shone with enthusiasm, "can'tyou see, Sal, that that proves that th' gold is thar; an', th' goldbein' thar, I stand as good a chance as anybody else of runnin' ontew apocket like that. Good lord, a Thousand Dollars in One Day! Think ofwhat that would mean tew us, Sal! Edication for th' boy an' gal, acomfortable home for us as long as we live! If we could only have sechluck! An' I've bin dreamin' of findin' gold almost every night since wehooked up an' started for th' diggin's!"
"An' your dreamin' always comes true!" replied Mrs. Perkins scornfully."Well, I've only got this tew say, an', if I've sed it onct, I've sed ita hundred times, this is our last wild-goose chasin' trip. You'll settledown for keeps, th' next time you settle down, Tim Perkins, gold or nogold; or you'll do your chasin' alone," and she turned and climbed backinto one of the wagons, not at all moved by her big husband'senthusiasm.
"Sal's some downhearted," the big fellow explained to Thure, "'causethings ain't turned out for us like we expected since comin' tew Oregon.But," and his face lighted up again, "jest wait till I make my strik
e inth' diggings an' nuthin' 'll be tew good for her an' th' yunks."
"Do you reckon we can make Sacramento City tew-night?" here broke in oneof the men anxiously. "We was a calculatin' that we might."
"Yes," answered Thure, "if you are willing to travel late; but you'llhave to hustle to do it."
"Then we'll hustle," declared the man, who appeared to be the captain ofthe little company. "Everybody who wants tew git to Sacramento Citytew-night git a-goin'," he shouted. "Th' gold stories'll keep till wegit thar," and he hurried away to his own wagon, which was in the van;and soon, with much loud shouting and the cracking of the long lashes ofwhips, the little train of wagons was again in motion.
Thure and Bud fell in at once by the side of the leader, who, learningthat they were familiar with the trail to Sacramento City, had askedthem to act as guides.
All the wagons were drawn by big raw-boned and long-legged mules; andthe two boys soon found that they had to use their whips freely on theirsturdy little pack-horses in order to hold their places in the train.
All day long they pressed steadily forward, as fast as mule legs coulddrag the heavy wagons; and, a little before night, they struck thenorthern trail from San Francisco to Sacramento City, now awell-traveled road. Here, for the first time, Thure and Bud began to getsomething of an idea of what the rush to the gold-mines was like. Therewere some twenty-five wagons, a hundred or more horsemen, and many menon foot in sight of their eyes, when their wagons swung around a smallhill and on to the trail, now hardened into a road by the thousands ofwheels and hoofs that had recently passed over it; and all were hurryingforward, as if they were fearful they would be too late to reap any ofthe golden harvest.
"Great buffaloes!" and Tim Perkins turned anxiously to Thure, by whoseside he was riding, "dew you reckon all them folks are bound for thediggin's?"
"Yes," answered Thure. "Can't you see that everyone is armed with a pickand shovel and gold-pan? Why, even the men on foot are lugging picks andshovels and gold-pans on their backs!"
"An'," continued Tim, the anxious look on his face deepening, "dew youreckon they've bin a-tearin' over th' trail tew th' diggin's like thisfor long; or is this jest a stampede we have struck?"
"A ship has probably landed at San Francisco lately," Thure replied;"and these are some of the gold-seekers who came in it. But I don'tthink from what I have heard that what we are seeing is an unusual sightalong this trail. They've been rushing to the mines like a herd ofstampeding cattle for months."
"Gosh! I'm afeard they'll find all th' gold afore we git thar! If'twon't for Sal an' th yunks I'd hurry on ahead. Dang it, if I was onlythar right now I might be discoverin' a pocket full of gold, like thatminer aside your dad did, at this identical moment! Hi, thar, Jud," andhe turned his eyes glowing with excitement to the face of thetrain-captain, "let's see if we can't git ahead of some of this tarnelcrowd; or they'll be a-landin' on all the good spots afore we git thar."
"Now, jest keep a tight rein on your hosses, Perkins," grinned JudSmith, the leader of the little company of Oregon gold-seekers; "an'rekerleck th' old sayin' 'th' more haste th' less speed,' But," and anuneasy look came into his own eyes, "it sure does look like all creationhad started for th' diggin's. See, they're still a-comin' as far back asth' eyes can reach! I reckon we had better try an' hit up a leetlelivelier gait. G'lang, thar, you long-eared repteels!" and the long lashof his whip hissed through the air and cracked, like the report of apistol, over the heads of his leading mules.
Indeed, it seemed to be impossible for even the sanest of men to minglelong with a crowd of hurrying gold-seekers and think of what they werehurrying for, and not catch the fever of unreasoning haste. The thoughtthat they might be too late, that each moment they might be missing agolden opportunity by not being on the spot, seemed to obsess all minds;and the nearer they got to the gold-fields the greater became thisexcitement and hurry, until it degenerated into little more than a wildstampede of gold-mad men.
And no wonder! for the nearer they got to the mines the bigger thestories seemed to grow of the wonderful gold finds that were being made.Nay, more than this! They now sometimes actually saw the gold andactually met the men who had found it, as they were returning to thecomforts and pleasures of civilization, actually burdened down with theweight of the precious metal they were carrying! And, what if all thisgold should all be dug up before they got to the mines! The thought wasenough to put the fever of haste into the blood of any man.
The knowledge of having the skin map and the thought of the Cave of Goldto which it pointed the way, did not keep Thure and Bud from feelingthis excitement, this wild desire to hurry, as their little companyswung into line on the trail and rushed madly on with the rest. True theskin map and the gold nugget, still in the miner's buckskin bag, hung,safely hidden, under the armpit of Thure's left shoulder; but the oldminer himself had found the Cave of Gold, and, if he had found it, whymight not some other man find it? That was the disturbing thought thathad troubled the two boys all along; and now, when they began to realizehow great was the flood of gold-seekers constantly pouring into themining regions and how their keen eyes would be searching everywhere,their anxiety to get to their fathers as quickly as possible grew apace,until they were almost as eager to reach the mines as was Tim Perkinshimself; and, by a constant urging of their pack-horses, managed to keeptheir places with Jud Smith and his company.
However, in spite of all their hurrying, it was after nine o'clock atnight and dark before they reached the west bank of the Sacramento Riveropposite Sacramento City. Here they found a hundred wagons and manyanimals and men ahead of them, waiting to be ferried across the river;and, to their very great disappointment, they were obliged to wait untilthe next morning before crossing over to Sacramento City.
"Well, we are within sight of Sacramento City anyhow," declared Thure,when Jud Smith returned from the ferry with the news that they would beobliged to camp on that side of the river for the night; "and, I reckon,it is just as well that we don't cross over to-night. I'll feel just alittle better entering a town like that in the clear light of day," andhis eyes looked in astonishment and wonder across the dark waters of theriver to where the myriad lights of Sacramento City shone along theopposite bank.
The last time Thure had stood where he was now standing, only a littleover a year ago, and looked across the Sacramento River, not a sign of ahuman habitation was in sight where now shone the thousands of lights ofa busy city!
"Isn't it a wonderful sight!" exclaimed Bud, as the two boys stood alittle later on the river bank, staring, with fascinated eyes, acrossthe water. "Looks more like a dream-city, or a scene in fairyland, thanit does like a real town inhabited by real people."
And Bud was right. It was a marvelous sight that the two boys werelooking at, a sight the like of which, probably, no human eye will everlook upon again.
Along the river bank for a mile or more and stretching back from thewater's edge up the slope of the low-lying hills, glowed and sparkled acity of tents, pitched in the midst of a virgin forest of huge oak andsycamore trees. It is impossible for words to convey to the mind themystic charm of this wonderful city of light, when seen by night acrossthe dark waters of the river. Nearly all the houses were but rude frameswalled with canvas, or merely tents; and, in the darkness, the lightswithin transformed these into dwellings of solid light, that glowed inrows along the river front, their lights reflected in the water, andstraggled in glowing rows of light up the hillsides and underneath thedark overhanging branches of great trees, while here and there throughthe general glow shone out brilliant points of light, the decoy-lamps ofthe gambling-houses and the saloons. And, for a background to all this,the shadowy darkness of the surrounding night!
Thure and Bud were very tired; but they stood for many minutes lookingon this wondrous and fairylike scene, half expecting to see it allvanish instantly at the wave of some magician's wand, before they turnedto prepare for the night. On their way back to camp and just as theywere passing a l
arge camp-fire, they met two horsemen riding down towardthe ferry.
"No crossing to-night!" called out Thure.
The two horsemen turned their faces in their direction; and both boysstarted, for, by the light of the camp-fire, they saw that one of themen was large and the other was small and that the nose of the large manhad been broken, and then the darkness hid their faces from their sight,as the two horsemen hurried on without uttering a word in reply.
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