The Motor Boys on the Border; Or, Sixty Nuggets of Gold

by Clarence Young

  CHAPTER III

  DISAPPOINTMENT

  Ned’s chums were not long in following him, nor were the two Westernersfar behind. Mrs. Hopkins, who had seen her son and his friends come in,wondered much at their sudden departure, with the excitable Andy Rushleading the procession.

  “Oh, I just know something is going to happen!” exclaimed the widow.“I’m sure those boys are planning another of their wild trips.”

  “Well, never mind,” said a friend who had called. “I’m sure it seems todo them good. But I wonder what it is this time?”

  “So do I,” said Jerry’s mother.

  In fact the motor boys themselves wondered much why Mr. Nestor hadcome East, bringing the friend who spoke so mysteriously of the sixtynuggets of gold. But there was no time now to question them, for thepresent excitement drove all other thoughts from their minds.

  “What do you know about it, Andy?” questioned Jerry, as he raced alongbeside his small acquaintance.

  “Not much--I was coming from the store--I had to get a loaf of breadand some----”

  “Skip all that,” interrupted Bob.

  “Well, I saw a crowd at the railroad--big mob--all yelling--digging atthe tracks--some said gold--they want to take up the rails--pull outthe ties--move the cars off the tracks--Hitter is wild--he wants themilitia----”

  Andy had to stop for breath. The boys could hear the excitement as theycame nearer the depot. It was evident that the excitable little chapwas more than half right.

  “Look at the crowd!” yelled Bob. “I should say they _were_ crazy!”

  “What does it all mean?” asked Ned.

  “I expect we’re to blame,” replied Mr. Nestor. “We started a gold rush,Harvey.”

  “Is there really gold there?” asked Jerry.

  “There sure is,” declared Mr. Brill. “You can’t fool me on the yellowstuff.”

  “We just had a glimpse of it as we got off the train to come and seeyou,” explained Jim. “Nothing would do Harvey but he must prospect abit, and we did--with broom handles we picked up.”

  “And the gold was there,” declared his friend. “But it isn’t much thatI got, though I’m going to look for more.”

  By this time they were close to the crowd. Truly it was a frenziedthrong. Men and boys were eagerly digging at the cinders and stoneballast between the rails and ties. Some had picks and shovels andothers merely sticks, but one and all were tossing out the dirt, andeagerly looking for traces of gold.

  “Here! Here! You’ve got to stop this!” cried the agent. “You’ll havethe rails all loose, and the trains will run off the tracks. Oh, won’tsomebody get the police? Send in a riot call! I want the militia! I’mgoing to wire the Governor for troops! I’ve sent for the directors ofthe railroad! This is awful!” and Mr. Hitter raced up and down thetrack.

  Occasionally he would thrust aside some enthusiastic digger, who seemedto be undermining the rails, but this one’s place was immediately takenby another. Up and down the tracks, for some distance, men and boys,and even some girls, were digging away furiously.

  “Oh, this is awful!” groaned Mr. Hitter. “The road will be ruined!”

  “Not if there’s gold here!” exclaimed one man. “If the tracks areover a mine they can be moved. Better get a shovel, Hitter, and helpyourself.”

  “You’re crazy!” shouted the agent. “There is no gold here!”

  “Yes, there is! Those fellows found some!” declared the man, pointingat Mr. Nestor and his friend.

  “Oh, it’s all your fault!” cried the agent, addressing the motor boysand their friends. “You started this wild panic. Tell them there is nogold here!”

  “But there _is_ some!” insisted Mr. Brill, taking the yellow grainsfrom his pocket. This seemed to make the crowd wilder than ever, andthey pushed and shoved to get to the very place where the miner hadfound the golden particles.

  “Oh, they’ll all be killed!” cried the agent. “Here comes the otherfast express! Get out of the way!” he yelled.

  The crowd did not seem to hear him, and Jerry and his chums werebeginning to get alarmed, when there was a rush from the other side ofthe track, and several officers, led by the chief of police, dashed up.

  “Oh, Chief!” cried Mr. Hitter. “This is terrible! There won’t be anyrailroad left, soon. Make ’em get back!” and he quickly told of thetrouble, and explained about the coming train.

  The chief acted without hesitation.

  “Come, men!” he cried. “Get back or I’ll arrest you. Officers, drawyour clubs!” he cried sternly. “Use ’em if these persons don’t get offthe track. You’re trespassing!” he added. “Get back!”

  He emphasized his words by shoving away those nearest to him.

  “Lend a hand here!” the chief called to the motor boys.

  “Come on!” yelled Jerry. “It’s partly our fault. Get ’em back out ofthe way of the train!”

  The two Westerners lent their aid, and, much against their will, themob got out of the path of the train, which whizzed past a momentlater. The agent breathed a sigh of relief.

  Many of the crowd had pieces of stone in which they detected yellowgleams. Others had hats or bags full of gravel.

  “I’m going to have this tested at a jewelry store!” cried one man, ashe rushed off up the street. His example was followed by others, andsoon nearly half the crowd had started on a rush for the jeweler’s.

  “I wish they’d all go,” said the freight agent. “Can’t you keep ’em offthe track, Chief?”

  “I’ll try, but it’s all foolishness anyhow. There’s no gold here.”

  “There is!” asserted Mr. Brill. “I found some,” and he exhibited theyellow grains.

  “But there isn’t any more,” declared Mr. Hitter. “I know there isn’t.How can there be gold where none was ever found before--and in railroadballast at that? Oh, if you don’t want to see all the tracks torn up,tell these crazy folks that there’s no more gold here!” implored theagent.

  “Well, I’ll take a look and see,” agreed Mr. Brill. “And I’m free toconfess I don’t see how this gold got here anyhow. Certainly it isn’tthe place for it, though some gold quartz might have gotten in therailroad ballast. But I’ll take a look. Come on, Jim. You know pay dirtbetter than I do.”

  “All right,” agreed the mine foreman. The crowd suspended operationswhile the two made a careful investigation, not only in the place wherethe first particles had been found, but for some distance up and downthe track. While they were doing this, loud voices were heard off toone side of the track.

  “Let me past!” demanded someone. “Shove ’em out of the way, Bill. We’vegot as good a right to this gold as any one!”

  “It’s Noddy Nixon!” exclaimed Jerry.

  “Yes, and Bill Berry is with him,” added Bob.

  “They’ve got a wheelbarrow,” said Ned.

  It was true. The town bully and his crony, having heard the wild rumorsof the gold “strike,” had come with shovels and a barrow to carry awayas much as they could of the track ballast.

  “Here! You stop that!” yelled Mr. Hitter, as he saw Noddy and Billshoveling heaps of rock and cinders into the barrow. “You can’t dothat--you’ll ruin the roadbed!”

  “Don’t let him bother us, Bill,” advised Noddy. “My father owns stockin this road, and I have as good a right to this gold as anybody.”

  He went on shoveling. Mr. Hitter raced up and down, calling for help,but no one paid much attention to him. All eyes were centered on thetwo miners. They made a careful examination, and then Jim Nestorannounced:

  “Nothing doing!”

  “That’s right,” added his friend. “It’s streaked out!”

  “What?” cried the throng about them.

  “No more gold,” announced Jim. “It was just in that one spot, and itwasn’t much at that. Not more than a few dollars worth. Your road issafe, stranger,” and he nodded to Mr. Hitter.

  “Thank goodness!” ejaculated the agent.
r />   “But how did any gold get there?” asked Jerry.

  “I don’t know,” replied Mr. Brill. “Some of the ballast might have beenloaded in a car that had been out in the mining region, and some quartzmight have got stuck in a crack, to fall out when they unloaded here.But that’s all the gold there is in these diggings,” and once more helooked at the particles he possessed.

  “What’s that?” cried a fussy old gentleman, who had just come up,having only a few minutes before heard of the odd discovery. “You foundgold, and think it came from quartz?”

  “That’s my theory,” said Mr. Brill.

  “Let me look at what you found,” said the old gentleman, and the minerdid so. The old gentleman chuckled. Then he exclaimed:

  “Well, I never. If this isn’t odd!”

  “What is it?” asked Jerry.

  “Why this is gold all right, but it isn’t from any gold quartz. It’sfrom my gold watch. It fell out of my pocket as I got off the train theother day, and rolled on the track. Before I could rescue it the trainstarted and rolled over it. It was caught on the rails and ground topieces, and some particles fell in the ballast. That’s where your goldis from. I was in a hurry at the time, and as the watch was not a veryvaluable one I did not report it to Mr. Hitter, but went off home. Ijust returned from a trip, and I heard about this excitement. But thatgold is from my watch as sure as anything. I recognize a small piecethat had my initials on it--see,” and he showed a bit of engraving.

  “That’s right,” agreed Jim Nestor, slowly.

  “It sure is,” assented his partner. “The gold strike has fizzled out.”

  There was a groan of disappointment from the crowd.

  “Stung!” cried one discouraged youth.

  “Look!” cried Jerry, as he pointed to Noddy Nixon and Bill Berry,wheeling away a big barrow full of ballast, with Mr. Hitter racingwildly after them.

  “Let him go,” advised the old gentleman. “He won’t come back after hehas that assayed,” and he chuckled.

  “I guess not,” agreed Mr. Nestor.

  “I hope the sixty nuggets don’t turn out that way,” said Ned, in a lowvoice.

  “Indeed they won’t!” exclaimed Mr. Brill. “I’m sorry I caused such arumpus, but I didn’t mean to. I saw the gleam of gold as I got off thetrain, and it always excites me. But those sixty nuggets--they’re asreal as heart could wish. Now if you boys want to hear the yarn, I’mready to tell you, seeing that this excitement has petered out.”

  “Indeed we do,” said Jerry, as he led the way out of the crowd.

  “And we’ll help you recover the gold, too,” added Bob.

  “Indeed we will,” came from Ned. “We were just wishing for someexcitement.”

  “Well, you’ll get it all right,” was Mr. Nestor’s opinion. “You’ll getit if you reach the border with us and have a hunt for those sixtynuggets of gold. Come on, Harvey, and spin your yarn. I reckoned as howthese lads would help us,” and as they once more approached Jerry’shouse, while the disappointed crowd filed away from the railroad, theyhad a glimpse of Noddy Nixon and Bill Berry hurrying with their barrowof track ballast to the nearest jewelry store.