Part 8 (2/2)
The lads pushed on while the three miners opened fire. There was but another fifty yards to climb. They could hear the sharp ping of the bullets round them. One of the ponies gave a sudden start, stumbled forward, and then rolled over the edge. In another minute the rest gained the plateau.
”Oh, d.i.c.k, it is one of the treasure ponies,” Tom exclaimed.
”That is a bad job, Tom; which is it?”
”The gray.”
”Better him than the others. It was one of his bags that we took the gold out of to make us up twenty pounds each, so there aint above seventy pounds lost. Come on, let us get beyond range. We don't want to lose any more.” When they got two or three hundred yards further the three men ran up.
”One pony has gone, I see,” Dave said.
”Yes; it is the gray. He had only seventy pounds, you know, so if one was to go it were best it should be him.”
”Well, let us mount and be off, lads; like enough those Indians will have to ride forty or fifty miles to get round this canyon, and come here, but, anyhow, we may as well push on. It is lucky the horses have done well the last day or two, and that we have got our water-skins full.”
Chapter XVII.--Conclusion.
Another ten days of arduous toil, and, in turning a sharp corner in a defile, they saw a number of men at work. As these heard the sound of the horses' feet they threw down their picks and shovels, and seized their guns.
”Don't say anything about the gold,” Dave exclaimed to the others. ”It is lucky it is all covered up.”
As soon as the miners saw that the new-comers were whites they lowered their guns.
”Why, where on earth have you come from?” one of them asked, as they rode up.
”We have been making a prospecting tour among the hills.”
”Have you found anything?”
”Yes; we have found a first-rate place, but the Apaches drove us off from it when we had been at work only four days, and we have had hard work to save our scalps. I have no objection to give you the indications, for I will not go back again among them ramping Apaches not to find solid gold. There is the map as I steered by. Them three points are the Three Sisters, and that tree bears on the mouth of a narrow canyon. There is gold there, you bet, and likewise the skeletons of about thirty Mexicans who got killed there three or four years ago. Now, let us have some grub; we finished our last ounce of flour yesterday, and have been short for the last fortnight.”
”You have had to leave everything behind, I see,” the miner said, looking at the eight horses.
”Yes; we had to make a clean bolt for it. However, in the four days we were there we got about seventy pounds of gold, and we have stuck to that. Now you know as much about it as we do. There is gold enough to make you all rich, but you will have to fight, and fight hard, to get there and come away again.”
The horses were unsaddled and picketed, Dave and Joe taking care themselves to unload the three packed ponies, and that the flat bags, over which blankets had been stuffed, should not be noticed. They stopped there for two days to rest the horses, and then proceeded on their way, arriving at Pueblo a fortnight later. Thence they traveled together to Santa Fe, and then hired a wagon and joined a large caravan going across the plains east. When they reached St. Louis they separated. A division was made of the gold, and the lads started by train for New York, and the next day took their pa.s.sages for England.
When d.i.c.k reached home he was received by his family as one from the dead. The _Northampton_ had arrived three weeks before, and, from the report Mr. Allen had given, they had slight hopes indeed that d.i.c.k would recover from his wounds, although the letter that Tom had written three days after he landed had given them some slight grounds for hope. The letter had been shown to the owners of the _Northampton_, and as the statements respecting the captain and the first mate were confirmed by Mr. Allen and the third officer, the captain and first mate had been summarily discharged from the service.
The astonishment of the lads' fathers when they found that each lad had brought home a hundred pounds of gold, worth about five thousand pounds, was great indeed. With it shares were bought in the s.h.i.+ps of the company, and when in time both attained the rank of master they had the satisfaction of sailing in s.h.i.+ps in which they held shares. Neither had any inclination ever to embark again upon the operation of gold-mining.
The Stone Chest;
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