Two Boy Gold Miners: or, Lost in the Mountains
"I must kindle a fire so as to have light," he said.
He gathered some dry wood, and soon had a little blaze. By the glare of it he went as close as he dared and peered down into the place where Jed was imprisoned. All he could see was bare earth and piles of rocks.
"Jed! Jed!" he shouted in a frenzy of fear. "Where are you? Are you alive? Speak to me!"
Was it an echo, or was that a voice replying to him? At first he could not be sure what it was, then, as he listened, he made sure that it was some one answering.
"Where are you?" he cried.
"Farther down," came the faint reply. "I'm all the way in under now, and can't see any way out. Your voice sounds right over my head."
"Can you hear me now?" asked Will eagerly.
"Yes. You're right over my head. Knock on the ground so I can hear it."
Will stamped his feet, and at once his brother cried:
"Hold on! That's enough. You nearly brought the whole ceiling down on me. You're right above me, that's sure enough."
"How can I get you out?"
"You'll have to dig a hole – sink a shaft, I suppose, so you can lower a rope through. But be careful how you do it. You'd better wait until morning."
"And leave you there all night – buried in a cave!"
Back came the faint answer:
"I don't mind. This is a big place, and there's plenty of fresh air. Stand by until morning, and then see what you can do."
This seemed the only advice possible under the circumstances. The light of the fire was too uncertain to permit of the rescue work going on. It was a dreary night. Occasionally Will called to Jed, who answered, and the younger lad sat by the campfire, which he kept up, anxiously waiting for the dawn. He dozed off toward morning, and awoke with a start to see a streak of light in the east. Then, calling to his imprisoned brother that he was going to begin soon, he brought up his pick and shovel from the packs.
"Stand back as far as you can toward the sides of the cave," advised Will. "I may shake down a lot of dirt. But first, are you sure there's no other way out?"
"I can't see any," was the faint reply, and with that Will set to work.
He located the place where he could hear Jed's voice the plainest, rightly judging that to be the thinnest part of the top of the cave – the earth-crust that held his brother a prisoner. Cautiously he began to dig, using the pick lightly, and slowly shoveling out the dirt he loosened.
As he got down with his shaft he found that the soil was a sort of clay, which was firmer than the loose earth on top, and not so likely to break through with a rush when he had nearly finished his work.
"How are you now, Jed?" he asked when he was down about three feet.
"Pretty fair," was the reply, and the answer was plainly heard, showing that there was not much more earth to be taken out.
"Better go slow now," advised Jed, who could distinguish his brother's tones more audibly now. "Don't you come tumbling down here, or neither of us'll get up. Better get out of the hole now, and punch the rest of the dirt with a long tree branch."
Will concluded that this was good advice, and got out to cut a sort of crowbar, which he fashioned from a sapling, the end of which he chopped quite sharp with a small hatchet. Then, standing on the edge of the hole, he began to jab the pole into the bottom.
"Hold on! You're through!" yelled Jed suddenly. "I can see the end of the pole now."
Will thereupon began to punch it through more cautiously. In a little while he had an opening over a foot in diameter, and he could hear Jed almost as plainly as if he stood beside him.
"Now for your ropes, Will!" cried Jed. "I'm all ready to climb out. Better fasten one end to a tree, and I'll come up hand-over-hand."
Will did as directed, and soon saw the rope beginning to become taut as Jed put a strain on it.
"Is it going to hold?" asked Jed.
"Yes. Come on."
A little later Jed was out of the cave. Will clasped him in his arms.
"Poor old Jed!" he exclaimed. "You did have a time of it!"
Jed plainly showed the effects of his terrible night. He was pale, and his clothes were covered with dirt. There was also a long cut on his forehead, where a rock had grazed him, and his arms and legs were bruised.
"Come on, I'll get you something to eat, and you can tell me about it after that," said Will, and soon he was handing Jed a cup of hot coffee.
"That cave extended back quite a way under the earth, from the face of rock where we were going to camp. I fell into it, and must have rested on a sort of shelf, until the second landslide came. Then I was rolled right back into the main part of the cavern, and the outlet was closed up. I tell you I was scared there, one spell."
"I should think you would be," commented Will. "But I'm glad it was no worse. Can you travel?"
"I'm afraid not. I think we'll have to rest a bit to-day. I may be able to start late in the afternoon. I'd like to get some sleep. I didn't have any down in that hole."
They spent the best part of the day, after Jed had slept some, in talking over what had happened, and wondering what had become of their pursuers.
"Oh, they'll keep after us," said Jed. "We can't shake 'em off so easily. I think we'd better move our camp away. I don't like this place. Let's move on a few miles and spend the night there. I think it will be safer."
"Do you think you can travel?"
"Sure. I'm much better now. Let's pack up, get some supper and move our camp."
They did not waste much time over "grub," merely making coffee and eating some bread and cold meat. They were just strapping the packs together again preparatory to fastening them on the backs of the animals, when, from down below them, sounded the footfalls of several horses.
"Some one's coming!" exclaimed Will.
"Maybe it's Gabe," spoke Jed hopefully. "Shall I give a yell?"
"Wait a minute. Perhaps it isn't him. If it is, he has some one with him."
"Probably he's brought some of his friends to help look for us. I suppose we are to blame for all this. Never mind, when he hears what we have to tell him, he'll not scold us. I guess we'd better – "
But the sentence was never finished. At that moment there appeared, coming around the trail, three horsemen. And it needed but a glance to show that they were the same bad men who, early the day before, had retreated after Jed had given his warning whistle.
"Here they are!" cried Con Morton. "We've got 'em now!"
"Not yet!" cried Jed. "Come on, Will! Jump on your horse! The animals are rested and can carry us and the packs!"
With a quick motion he was in the saddle. Will followed his brother's example.
"Now, Pete!" cried Jed to the horse. "Let's see what sort of stuff you're made of!"
"Hold on there!" cried Con Morton, as he saw the two lads were about to escape him.
"Haven't time!" shouted back Jed.
"I want to speak to you!" went on the gambler.
"No, you don't!" said Will to himself. "I know what that means!"
He kicked his heels on his horse's sides, and the good old plow horse increased its pace. Owing to the fact that the steeds of the boys were fresh, and to the circumstance that the animals of the gamblers had quite a slope to climb, the boys secured a good lead. They did not ride back up the valley, but down it, though they turned into another trail, as it divided just where they had halted for their meal. To get on this trail Morton and his cronies would have to breast a slope, and then swing over to the left. The boys lost sight of them for a moment.
"I wonder why he came back after us?" asked Will.
"Probably they were hanging around. They saw that no one came to join us, and they imagined it was safe to tackle us. But I'm not going to give up."
"Me either. I'll fight first!"
With set faces the brothers urged their horses on. But now their pursuers had gained the turn, and were thundering down the second valley after them.
"Stop! stop!" yelled Morton.
Jed and Will returned no answer.
"If you don't halt we'll shoot!" added Haverhill.
"Do you suppose they will?" asked Jed's brother anxiously. "One of them has a revolver out," he added, as he gave a hasty backward glance.
"I don't believe so. They can't shoot very straight anyhow, with the way their horses and ours are going."
"Are you going to stop?" yelled Morton again.
"No!" cried Jed, as he urged his horse on down the mountain slope, while the pursuers came galloping on behind them.
CHAPTER XXI
WHAT HAPPENED TO GABE
When Gabe Harrison started up the mountain, with the intention of prospecting around a bit, seeking for indications of gold, he fully expected to be back within two hours. It was his idea that he might see signs of a lead which would be better than the one he and the boys were on.
Now if Gabe had had a horse that was used to mountain climbing several things in this story would not have happened. For a steed accustomed to scrambling over loose rocks, up steep slopes and down others still steeper, would have kept its footing, and not stumbled, as did Gabe's animal.
The old miner had ridden a few miles, and was convinced that no gold could be found in that direction. He was on the point of returning when something happened.
The horse stepped on a loose rock, on the edge of a gully, tried to recover its balance, in obedience to the frantic calls of Gabe, and his yankings on the bridle, and then pitched forward, throwing the old man off its back.
When Gabe recovered his senses, after many hours of unconsciousness, he found himself lying on the cold ground. He was quite wet with the dew, and lame and stiff. It was dark, and when he tried to move such a pain shot through his left leg that he had to lie quietly.
"Well, I wonder what in the world happened to me," said Gabe, speaking aloud. Then it came back to him, how his horse had stumbled with him, and how he had fallen into the gully, the last thing he remembered being when his head hit a stone.
"And I reckon I didn't hurt that rock as much as it hurt me," mused the old man, feeling of a large lump on the back of his head. "This is tough luck. My leg must be broken by the way it feels. Here I am, all alone in these mountains, and nobody knows where I am. Even the boys can't find me in this place."
He managed to get to a sitting position, moving cautiously because of his leg. Then he felt in his pocket and got a match, which he struck. By the glare of it he looked around. He saw nothing but a bowlder-strewn expanse. Then something moving, about a hundred feet away from him, attracted his attention.
"It's my horse!" he exclaimed. "If I can only get the animal over here, maybe I can crawl on his back and he'll take me to camp."
He called to the steed, but the animal gave no sign that it heard him. It continued to crop what scanty herbage there was.
"I've got to crawl over to it," mused poor Gabe, "and how I'm going to do it with a busted leg is more than I know. But it's got to be done. Something may happen to the boys. Here goes."
He started to crawl, but such an intense pain shot through his leg that it made him sick and faint. He leaned back against a big rock with a groan.
"No use!" he murmured. "I'm done for, I guess. Old Gabe Harrison has done his last prospecting. I'll die here – all alone. If I only knew the boys were safe!"
Then the pain and exhaustion brought a merciful insensibility. When Gabe opened his eyes again it was morning, and the sun was shining brightly. The horse he had ridden, and which had been the innocent cause of his misfortune, was now farther off, having gone to a little stream to drink.
"Oh, how I wish I had some of that water," thought poor Gabe. "My throat is parched. I wonder if the horse won't come to me now?"
He called, but the animal only raised its head, looked at him, and went on feeding.
"I'm going to crawl and get a drink of water if it kills me!" exclaimed the miner. "Might as well die in comfort if I've got to go."
He moved his leg cautiously. To his surprise the pain was not so great as it had been. Then he felt of it. Though the limb was sore and tender no bones seemed to be broken.
"Guess it's only a bad strain," he said. "There's some chance for me, after all. I'll try to catch the horse."
It was hard work, crawling along a few feet at a time, stopping to rest every now and then, to ease the pain, but Gabe accomplished it. He reached the little mountain stream, and drank the cold water. That made him feel better, and a little later he managed to catch the horse, and pull himself up into the saddle. Fortunately the animal seemed to know that the man was wounded, and kept still until the miner was mounted.
"Now it isn't so bad," said Gabe, "though my leg does hurt like all possessed. But I guess I can get to camp, and the boys will take care of me for a while. I'll be as good as ever in a few days, as long as nothing's broken."
Cautiously guiding his horse, Gabe made his way down the mountain trail. It took him twice as long to reach the camp as it had to make the journey the night before, but finally he came to where he had left the boys and their horses.
To his surprise neither of the lads were there, nor were their horses. There was only some of the camp stuff, and the pack which Gabe had removed from his steed's back before setting off into the mountains.
"Well, this gets me!" he exclaimed. "Where can they have gone? I told them to stay here until I came back, and I'm sure they would, for they don't know the trail. Their horses are gone too. I wonder – "
A sudden idea coming to him, he slowly dismounted from his horse, and crawled to the stakes to which had been fastened the steeds of the two lads. The short ends of the ropes that remained showed they had been broken.
"Something's happened!" exclaimed Gabe. "Those horses have got loose while the boys were away. But why did Jed and Will go away? Could it have been to look for me? If so, why aren't they here now? It's too much for me. Lucky my pack is left. I'm half starved."
By slowly crawling about he managed to get himself a meal. He felt better after that, and, having made a closer examination of his injured leg, and finding there was only a strain, which was rapidly getting better, he prepared to make himself as comfortable as possible in camp.
But he was sorely puzzled at the absence of the boys, and he made up his mind, as soon as he could travel with more safety, that he would set off after them, if they did not return that night, which he hoped they would do. But night came, and Jed and Will did not come back. Much worried, Gabe prepared to spend the lonely dark hours in the deserted camp.
Meanwhile, Jed and Will were flying from the pursuing gamblers. As they went on along the valley, they found that the trail turned and went up the mountain.
"Shall we take it?" asked Will.
"Nothing else to do," replied Jed. "We can't stand and fight those scoundrels. The only thing to do is to keep on."
"But we may get lost in the mountains."
"That's happened already. We can't be much worse off that way. Neither of us know where we are, nor how to get back to camp. The only thing to do is to keep on. We may distance them, and we may strike a mining camp, where we can get help."
Still behind them came the desperate men who half guessed at the truth – that the boys had gold – and this gold the gamblers were determined to obtain.
"I think we're leaving them behind," remarked Will, after a pause, during which they rode hard.
"Seems as if we couldn't hear them quite so plainly," agreed Jed. "But don't stop. It'll soon be dark, and maybe we can give them the slip."
Whether this happened, or whether the pursuers knew the boys could not escape them, the lads did not know. Certainly when it got too dark to travel any more in safety on the uncertain mountain trail, there was no longer the echo of hoofbeats behind them.
"Let's stop and make a sort of camp," proposed Jed. "We can't go on like this all night. We'll eat a bit, rest, and start the first thing in the morning."
But in the morning they had hardly made a hurried breakfast, and started along the trail again, ere from behind came the sounds of pursuit.
"They're after us!" said Jed grimly.
"They want that gold," added Will, "but they're not going to get it!"
CHAPTER XXII
STAKING THEIR CLAIMS
Once more the pursuit was on, but the boys were determined never to give up as long as their horses could go. On their part the bad men were equally relentless. Urged on by the greed of Con Morton, the three kept up the chase.
"What's the good of it?" asked Haverhill, when after the second day the boys were still in the lead. "They'll get away from us."
"No, they'll not," said Morton fiercely. "I'll catch 'em if it takes a week!"
"What makes you think they have gold?"
"I'm sure of it. The way they acted convinces me of that. And I'm going to make 'em tell where they got it."
On they kept. The steeds of the boys were getting weary, for though they kept up a good lead they could only stop at short intervals for feed and water. This could not last, and Jed knew it. But with grim determination he and Will kept on.
It was toward the close of the fourth day of the pursuit amid the mountains. Only the fact that there were a number of trails, which wound in and out, had, up to this, prevented the capture of the boys. They doubled on their track several times, and thus fooled the gamblers, who knew as little of the mountains as did Will and Jed. And, in darkness, it was equally impossible for either party to advance, so uncertain was the travel.
But the bad men had this advantage – their horses were used to the mountains, and those of the boys were not. The pace was too rough and was being kept up too long for the farm steeds. They began to go slower.
"They're getting closer," announced Will, as they trotted along a ledge which skirted a dizzy canyon. "I can hear them more plainly."
"Guess you're right," admitted Jed. "Suppose we hide the gold somewhere, and let them catch us?"
"No, there's no telling what such desperate men would do to us. Let's keep on."
They urged their tired horses to a gallop. As they turned into a broader part of the trail, they could hear the rattle of stones dislodged by the horses of their pursuers.
"They're closing in," spoke Jed, "and I can't get any more speed out of Pete. I guess it's all up with us."
"Better give up!" called a voice behind them. "We've got you, and the longer we have to chase you, the worse it will be. Hold on now, or I'll shoot!"
They had a glimpse of Morton, with a revolver in his hand.
"Think he'll shoot?" asked Will.
Before Jed had a chance to answer there came the sharp crack of the weapon, and a bullet sang through the air over the boys' heads. Morton had purposely fired high, as he only wanted to scare the lads, but the shot had an unexpected effect. It so startled the horses of Jed and Will that they galloped forward as no urging by voice or whip could have made them.
"Shoot again!" cried Jed softly. "That's what we need. We'll leave 'em behind again!"
They were coming out on a shoulder of the mountain now, and could look down into the valley below them. There seemed to be something familiar about it. Both lads noted that at once.
"Isn't that where we were encamped?" asked Jed.
"It certainly looks like it," added Will.
"And there's a horse there, and a man who looks like Gabe!"
"It is Gabe!" cried Jed. "Hurrah! We're back at our old camp! Now let Morton and his gang come after us if they dare!"
The trail led downward, and the horses of the lads, finding going easier, or, perhaps, recognizing the place where they had strayed from, and desiring to get back to it, did not drop back into the slow pace that had characterized their gait before the shot was fired.
"Hello, Gabe!" yelled Jed, waving his hat at the old man.
Mr. Harrison looked up. He recognized Jed and Will. He swung his hat in answer and shouted a welcome.
At that moment the pursuers came in sight around the bend in the trail. They, too, saw the camp, and noted Gabe. But they also saw that he walked with a limp. Instead of turning back, as the boys expected the gamblers would, they kept on.
"Are you going up against Gabe?" asked Haverhill of Morton. "He's a good fighter."
"I'm not afraid. He's been hurt. See him limp. I've come too far to back out now. I'm going to get that gold!"
"I'm with you," said the third gambler, whose name was Sim Sanders. "We three are more than a match for them."
On they galloped toward the camp, where Gabe in wonder awaited the arrival of the boys. He saw the men in pursuit, and knew who they were. Hobbling to where he had left his rifle, he secured the weapon.
Into the camp rushed Jed and Will, their tired horses barely able to carry them. After them came the three gamblers.
"What do you want here?" demanded Gabe.
"We want the gold those tenderfeet found, and we're going to have it even if we have to fight!" answered Morton savagely.
"Then you'll have to fight," replied Gabe grimly. "I don't know anything about any gold they have, for we haven't struck any luck yet, but if they have any they're going to keep it, and you know what kind of a man I am, when it comes to a fight."
"Ride 'em down!" exclaimed Haverhill.
Gabe was about to raise his rifle, when an unexpected diversion occurred.
There was heard a sound of galloping. Every one turned to see what it was, and then into the camp rode five horsemen, each one with a pack on the saddle before him, and a rifle in his hand. At the sight of the foremost rider Gabe cried:
"Ted! Ted Jordan! You're just in time! I'm hurt and these scoundrels are trying to rob us!"
"Whoop!" yelled Ted. "If it ain't my old partner, Gabe Harrison! Who's trying to rob you? Those chaps? Go for 'em, boys! Show 'em how the lads from Dizzy Gulch can handle a crowd of gamblers and thieves!"
But Morton and his cronies did not wait for this. Wheeling their horses, they rode back the way they had come, while to hasten their speed the members of Ted Jordan's party fired several shots over the heads of the scoundrels.
"Well! well!" exclaimed Ted, when quietness had been restored. "How in the world did you get here, Gabe?"
"Prospecting with these two lads," indicating Jed and Will. "But what takes you away from Dizzy Gulch?"
"Dizzy Gulch has petered out. It's no good. There was only outcropping gold, and that's all gone. So I made up a party, left the place, and we're prospecting. Have you had any luck?"
"Not much."
"But we have!" exclaimed Jed, as he pulled some of the nuggets from their hiding place, and showed them to the astonished miners.
"What! Where did you get those?" asked Gabe.
Jed and Will quickly explained, telling where their wonderful find was located. They also gave an account of the pursuit, and how they had, by great luck, managed to get on the trail that led back to camp. Gabe explained what had happened to him, and said that his leg was getting better every hour.
"I'm all right to travel now, if you go slow," he said.
"Travel? Travel where?" asked Ted Jordan.
"To where the boys made the lucky strike, of course. We'll all go there and stake out claims. If Dizzy Gulch is no good we've found something better."
They started off, not making especially fast progress on account of Gabe. They calculated to take two days in getting to the place, and they had no fear now that Con Morton's gang would interfere with them.
It was toward the evening of the first day, when as they were looking for a good place to camp, that Gabe Harrison remarked, as he looked up toward the sky:
"I think we're in for a bad storm."
"What makes you think so?" asked Ted Jordan.
"The way my leg hurts. It always hurts when there's a storm coming."
"It doesn't look so," remarked one of the men. "The sky's as pretty as a picture."
"You wait," said old Gabe, slowly shaking his head.
In spite of the fact that no one else took much stock in Gabe's prophecy, it was noticed that the camp was made more snug than usual, and the men looked well to the fastenings of their horses.
After supper, when they were all seated about the campfire, the men smoking and telling stories, to which the two boy gold miners listened eagerly, one of the men remarked:
