The Cave of Gold

by Everett McNeil

  CHAPTER XIV

  THE LUCK OF DICKSON

  The next morning, a good hour before sunrise, Thure and Bud foundthemselves suddenly tumbled out of their blankets and the grinning faceof Ham bending over them.

  "Sleepyheads!" and, reaching down, he gripped each boy by his coatcollar, the night had been chilly and both had slept in their coats,jerked him to his feet and shook him violently, "Wake up!" and, suddenlyletting go, he sent both boys staggering from him. "Thar, them's mypatented double-j'inted yunk-wakers," and he shook both of his big fistsin the faces of the two boys, "warranted tew wake th' soundest sleepin'yunk that ever rolled himself up in a blanket, in seven an'three-quarters seconds by th' watch, or money refunded. Fortestimonials, see Bud Randolph and Thure Conroyal," and the grinbroadened on his face, until it threatened to engulf all his features.

  "It sure does the waking all right," laughed Thure; "and you can have mytestimony to that effect any time you wish it."

  For an hour all hands were busy, getting the breakfast, eating, packingand saddling and bridling the horses; and then, just as the sun, like agreat globe of gold, rose above the gold-filled mountains of their hopesto the east and shone down on the waters of the Sacramento, Ham gave theword to start, and, leading one of his well-loaded pack-horses on eitherside of him, he strode off, headed for the rough trail to Hangtown,followed by Thure and Bud, driving their pack-horses before them.

  As they passed along by the various camps in the outskirts of the town,a man, holding a long-handled frying-pan over the coals of hiscamp-fire, looked up and then remarked casually:

  "Queer shootin' scrap that down on the levee last night!"

  "Heer'd th' shootin', but that's all I heer'd," answered Ham, haltingfor a moment. "What might thar be queer 'bout it?"

  "Both on 'em bosum friends 'til they gits a lot of French Ike's whiskeydown 'em. Then one calls t'other a liar, an' both on 'em pulls theirguns an' shoots; an' both on 'em falls dead, th' bullets goin' throughth' heart of each one on 'em," answered the man.

  "Hump! Nuthin' queer 'bout that!" grunted Ham. "That's a common thingfor whiskey tew dew. Git up!" and he continued on his way.

  The trail to Hangtown, after leaving the Sacramento Valley, entered therough and picturesque regions of the western slopes of the Sierra NevadaMountains, where the traveling was slow and difficult, especially withheavily loaded pack-horses; and, although the distance from SacramentoCity, as the crow flies, was scarcely more than forty miles, yet it wasnot until near the middle of the afternoon of the third day that ourfriends came in sight of the rude log cabins and tents of Hangtown. Theyhad climbed to the summit of a particularly rough hill and had justrounded a huge pile of rocks, when Ham brought his pack-horses to asudden halt.

  "Thar's Hangtown," he said, and pointed down the steep side of the hillinto what was little more than a wide ravine, where a number of rudelybuilt log houses and dirty-looking tents lay scattered along the sidesand the bottom of the declivity and men could be seen at work with picksand shovels, digging up the hard stony ground, or, with gold-pans intheir hands, washing the dirt thus dug in the waters of the little creekthat flowed through the bottom of the ravine.

  "Hurrah!" yelled both boys, taking off their hats and swinging themaround their heads the moment their eyes caught sight of the houses andthe tents.

  "At last we are where gold is being actually dug up out of the ground!"exclaimed Thure enthusiastically, a moment later, as he sat on the backof his horse, watching, with glowing face and eyes, the men of the pickand the shovel toiling below.

  "It shore does have tew be dug up out of th' ground, at least th' moston it," agreed Ham, grinning. "More diggin' than gold, th' most on usfind."

  "Oh, come! Let's hurry. I want to get to dad," and Bud started off downthe hill excitedly, with Thure and Ham hurrying along behind him.

  The side of the hill was seamed with small water worn gulches and strewnwith rocks and the logs of fallen trees; and the trail down to thebottom wound and twisted and turned to avoid these obstructions, untilit seemed to the impatient boys, that, for every step downward, they hadto go a dozen steps to get around some gulch or huge rock or fallentree; but, at last, they reached the bottom, and were actually on thevery ground where men were digging gold out of the dirt.

  "Now, where are our dads and the rest?" and Thure looked curiously andexcitedly around him at the various groups of miners hard at work withtheir picks or shovels or pans or other washing machines. "I can't seeanybody in sight that looks like them--Oh, there is Dick Dickson!" andhe jumped excitedly off his horse and ran up to a miner at work near by,who was about to wash a pan of dirt, followed by Bud.

  "Hello, Dick! Didn't know you in them clothes," and Thure held out hishand to the miner, whose only dress was a broad-brimmed hat, a redwoollen shirt, and a pair of trousers.

  "Glad to see you," and the miner set down the pan of dirt and grippedthe hands of both the boys. "Had to come to the diggings with the rest,did you? Well, it's hard work; but the gold is here!" and his eyessparkled.

  "Are you going to wash that pan of dirt, Dick?" and the eyes of Thureturned excitedly to the pan full of dirt that the miner had placed onthe ground at the sudden appearance of the boys.

  "Yes," answered Dickson, grinning; "and it's the first pan that lookslike pay-dirt that I've taken out of my new mine over yonder alongsideof that big rock," and he pointed to a huge rock that jutted up abovethe ground a couple of rods away, where the boys could see a pile ofdirt that had been thrown out of a hole dug down close to the upper sideof the rock; "and so I am just a little anxious to see how it pans out."

  "Don't--don't let us keep you from washing it," and Bud's face flushedwith excitement. "We, too, would like to see how it pans out, wouldn'twe Thure?"

  "You bet!" was Thure's emphatic rejoinder. "I hope we bring you goodluck, Dick. Now, let's see how you do it."

  "All right. I sure need some good luck. Well, here goes," and with handsthat trembled a little with excitement, for the washing of that pan fullof dirt might mean a small fortune, he bent and picked up the gold-pan.

  The creek was only a few feet away and Dickson hurried thither, followedby the two eager boys, while Ham, a good-natured grin on his face, stoodguard over the horses.

  Dickson first submerged the pan in the water and held it there until thedirt was thoroughly soaked, while with one hand he crushed and broke thelarger lumps and stirred the mass with his fingers, until all the dirtwas dissolved, and a great deal of it had been borne away, in a thickmuddy cloud, by the current of the stream. He then tipped the pan alittle, at the same time giving it a slight whirling motion, holding itwith both his hands, which soon caused all the remaining dirt to floataway in the water, except a little coarse black gravel that covered thebottom of the pan in a thin layer.

  "Now," and Dickson straightened up, the pan in his hands, his faceflushed with excitement, for already his eyes had caught the yellowglitter of gold, shining amongst the coarse grains of gravel, "we'll seehow hard I've struck it," and he thrust his fingers down into the wetblack gravel that covered the bottom of the pan, and moved them slowlyabout in it, bending his head down close to the pan, so that his eyescould catch every gleam of gold.

  "Is there any? Is there any?" and Thure, in his anxiety to see, almostbunted his head into the head of Dickson.

  "Is there any! Whoop!" and Dickson let out a yell that nearly startledboth boys off their feet. "Is there any! Just look there! And there! Andthere!" and with a trembling finger he pointed, as he spoke, to littlerough bits of gold, a little larger than pin-heads, that fairly fleckedwith yellow the bottommost layer of black gravel.

  "IS THERE ANY! JUST LOOK THERE! AND THERE! AND THERE!"]

  Thure and Bud shouted with delight; and Ham and half a dozen of theminers at work near by came up on the run, the faces of all showing theliveliest interest.

  "Whoop! I've struck it! Struck it rich, boys!" and the miner, almostbeside himself with excitement, swiftly gathered the g
olden bits out ofthe pan and spread them out on the palm of his hand where all could see."A good ten ounces!" he almost shouted, as he tossed them up and down totest their weight. "One hundred and sixty dollars! And out of the firstpan full of pay-dirt! Gee-wilikins, but won't this be good news forMollie!"

  "You shore have struck it, Dickson," declared Ham, who, with glowingeyes, had been examining the bits of gold on the palm of the miner'shand. "I reckon thar's a pocketful of it where that comed from," and heglanced toward the big rock. "That thar rock acted like a big riffle an'stopped th' gold a-comin' down th' stream that hit ag'in it. I'm mightyglad you've hit y'ur luck at last," and the big hand of Ham went out ina hearty grip of the miner's calloused palm. "You shore deserve it,Dickson."

  The congratulations of all were equally hearty and apparently free fromenvy; but Dickson was too eager to further test his discovery to waitlong to listen to congratulation; and, hurriedly pocketing the gold, hegrabbed up the pan and rushed back to his "mine" by the side of the bigrock.

  "Supposing we wait and see him wash out another pan of dirt," and Thureturned his flushed face and glowing eyes eagerly to Ham. "I never was somuch interested in anything in my life."

  "You shore have got the gold-fever an' got it bad," laughed Ham. "An', Ireckon, you're not th' only boy hereabouts that is a-sufferin' with it,"and he glanced at Bud's flushed face. "Wal, I'm some interested myselfin seein' how Dickson's luck holds out; so we'll wait tew see thewashin' of another pan."

  In less than ten minutes the excited miner was back with another panfull of the precious dirt, which he at once began to wash, his nervousexcitement being so great that the pan shook and trembled in his hands.Suddenly, in the midst of his washing, he jumped to his feet with a wildyell.

  "A nugget! A nugget!" and he held aloft in one hand a little chunk ofsolid gold, about as large as an egg and nearly of the same shape, onlyrougher in outline.

  By this time quite a little crowd of miners had gathered around thelucky man; and handshakes and claps on the shoulders and verbalcongratulations were showered on him from all sides, while the nuggetwas passed from hand to hand, with many wise and otherwise comments asto its weight and probable value and the likelihood of there beingothers like it where it came from. In the excitement caused by thefinding of the nugget, the remaining dirt in the pan was forgotten,until Ham, suddenly remembering, turned to the excited Dickson.

  "Better finish cleanin' out th' pan, Dick," he said. "Thar's probablymore gold in it."

  "Gosh, if I didn't forget it!" and Dickson grabbed up the pan and beganwashing its contents with feverish haste.

  In a few minutes he arose and held out the pan, his hands trembling.

  "There! Just look there!" he cried, pointing to the glitter of gold inthe black sand that covered the bottom of the pan. "If there isn't agood fifteen ounces of gold there, then I miss my guess!" and he brokeinto a happy laugh. "Well, boys, my luck has turned at last! And thereis a little woman up there in that little log cabin that has got to knowabout it at once," and Dickson dropped the pan and started on the run upthe side of the hill toward a little log house that stood in a clusterof pines halfway up its side, followed by cheers from the miners, whoappeared to be almost as rejoiced over his good fortune, as if it hadbeen their own.

  All this had been very interesting and very exciting to Thure and Bud;but now that the climax had been passed their thoughts turned at once totheir fathers.

  "Now," and Thure caught hold of Ham's coat sleeve, "now that we haveseen how they get the gold from the ground, take us to our dads. We aremore anxious than ever to get to them as quickly as possible."

  "I'm pow'ful glad Dickson made that strike," Ham commented, when theywere again on their way. "He's been workin' like a hoss for months,without hardly gittin' a sight of color; but he's had th' pluck tew keepa-diggin'. I reckon it's th' Leetle Woman up in th' cabin that's kepthim a-goin'. She's pluck clean through an' has stood right by th' sideof Dick, no matter what sort of luck fate dished out tew him. I shore amglad Dick has hit it for th' Leetle Woman's sake, as well as his own.Now, 'bout y'ur dads. That's their house up thar, 'bout a dozen rodsbeyond Dickson's. But, I reckon, we won't find none of 'em at home thistime of th' day," and he turned his horses into a rude trail that woundup the side of the hill toward the little grove of pine trees, in whichthe boys could see the little cabin where Dickson lived and beyond thata larger log house.

  During this time Dickson had been speeding up the hill, shouting andyelling the good news at the top of his voice as he ran. Suddenly theboys saw the door of the cabin thrown open, and a woman rush out and runmadly down the rough trail toward the miner, her long unconfined hairstreaming out behind her.

  "Whoop! I've struck it! Struck it rich, Mollie!" they heard Dicksonyell, while from down the hill rang out cheer after cheer from thelittle group of miners now gathered about Dickson's find and watchingthe meeting between the lucky man and the "Little Woman," as nearly allthe miners in Hangtown called Mrs. Dickson.

  A few minutes later Dickson and the "Little Woman," hand in hand, liketwo happy children, ran past them on their way down to the wonderfulfind.

  Thure and Bud, and even Ham, cheered and yelled as they ran by; and thewoman turned her shining eyes in their direction and waved her free handand shouted a welcome to the two boys.

  "I shore am glad that Dickson made that strike," Ham again remarked,with something that looked suspiciously like moisture in his eyes. "He'sa deservin' cuss; an' th' Leetle Woman's ben like a mother tew us all."