GIDEON PRAWLE AND HIS ASSOCIATES TAKE POSSESSION OF THE MINE.
“Now, boys,” said Gideon Prawle, after the party had reached Trinity
and returned the rig to the stable where it belonged, “I’ve been
considering your proposal that we make arrangements to go by water
to the mine--which is now ours past all doubt--camp there, and with
suitable tools start in to dig out a carload or two of copper, in order
to show what the yield of the mine looks like.”
“I hope you’ve looked at it in a favorable light, Mr. Prawle,” said
Jack Howard, eagerly. “Charlie and I have talked the matter over, and
Meyer has also had his little say, and it is agreed between us that
we’d like nothing better than a four or six weeks’ whack at the copper
deposit, which seems to promise such handsome results.”
“Well, I don’t know as I have any special objections to falling in with
your idea,” replied the big prospector, heartily. “The experiment won’t
cost such a lot of money, and as the copper is right in sight on the
ground level, why, so long as you are aching for a bit of hard work to
limber up your muscles, and are satisfied to rough it and take things
as they come, you can consider the matter settled, as far as I am
concerned.”
“Hurrah!” shouted Charlie, throwing his cap in the air.
“Shimmany cribs! I like me dot,” chipped in Meyer. “I vould sooner
monkey mit dot gobber mines den I vould gone back to Sackville und vork
apoud der drug shops.”
“Then the sooner we get down to business the better, I think,” said
Jack, in his breezy way. “Of course you will make all the preparations,
Mr. Prawle, as you are well acquainted with such matters. We shall want
a flat boat, I should think, to float our cargo of copper to this town,
and afterward reship it east to market. We ought to be able to get a
good bit of ore out of the mine before Charlie has to return home.”
“We shall have to have a couple of good, serviceable tents, a small
cook stove, cooking utensils, blankets, shovels, picks, a couple of
iron barrows, and a lot of other things which I needn’t mention,” said
Mr. Prawle.
“Don’t forget some fish lines. You said there was fish in the north
branch,” said Charlie, who prided himself on being a first-class
disciple of Isaak Walton. “We could go down there about sunrise
mornings and catch our breakfast fresh from the river.”
“Yaw, I ped you,” assented Meyer, who imagined he was a great
fisherman, too, though he had been known to spend many an afternoon
fishing in the stream which flowed by Sackville and yet come home
without a solitary shiner.
“That’s right. It will be some amusement for us,” agreed Jack. “All
work and no play----”
“Makes Yack a dull poy, I ped you!” grinned Meyer, taking the words out
of Howard’s mouth.
“Dutchman, you are right,” laughed Gideon Prawle.
“Sure ding. Vhy not?” retorted Meyer, opening his mouth to its full
extent.
“Don’t do that again,” remonstrated Jack, with a sober face. “One of us
might get in and be lost.”
“So-o-oo!”
“Well, Mr. Prawle,” said Charlie Fox, “you buy what you think we ought
to have. Do you think you will have any trouble finding a suitable
flatboat?”
“Not at all. I know where I can hire one. We can float down the river
and pull it up the creek ourselves. When we’ve loaded it with copper,
however, we’ll have to charter a small steamer to tow it back here.”
“With the first money we make I think it would be good policy to put
a smelter up on the ground. We ought to get things in good running
order before we start out to form a company and take outsiders into the
enterprise. You may perhaps know what capitalists are. They want to get
the cream of everything they are asked to back, and I, for one, don’t
believe in letting too much of a good thing get away from us,” said
Jack, earnestly.
“You’ve a pretty level head, Jack,” replied the prospector, who had
imbibed a considerable amount of respect for the boy’s ideas and good
practical sense.
“Thank you for your good opinion,” answered the bright boy. “One has
got to keep his eyes open and his wits on edge to get along in these
days of close competition.”
“I move we adjourn,” chipped in Charlie, with a laugh. “I’m getting
hungry, and would sooner discuss a good dinner than anything else at
present.”
“Second der motions,” put in Meyer, licking his chops at the suggestion
of something to eat.
“A motion to adjourn is always in order,” laughed Jack. “Those in favor
of making a beeline for the hotel dining-room will say aye.”
“Aye--aye!” from Charlie and Meyer.
“It is carried unanimously, and the meeting stands adjourned pro
tempore.”
“Vot is dot?” asked Meyer.
“What is what?”
“Bro demporay--dot’s a funny words.”
“That’s Latin, and means ‘for the time being’--see?” and Jack fetched
the German boy a dig in the ribs that made him jump.
“So-o!”
Two days later the setting sun saw the prospector and the three boys,
now attired in regular mining outfits, toiling up the bank of Beaver
Creek with a small flatboat in tow.
It was no easy work, the reader may well believe; but the boys were
strong and hearty, and stuck to their labor like good fellows, the
only kick so far coming from Meyer, who was fatter and less able to
hustle than the others.
“By shinger,” he said, after they had accomplished about a mile of the
way, “vhen do ve got py der ends of dis yob? Dere vill be noddings but
a wet spot left off me py der dimes ve shall be done mit id,” and he
dashed the perspiration from his face.
“The trouble with you, Meyer,” said Charlie, who was pulling on a line
right back of him, “is that you’re too fat. It will do you good to get
rid of some of your surplus flesh.”
“Is dot so? It vill done me goot to make a skelingtons off mineseluf
you dink? Vell, I differ mit you.”
“Why, you chump,” exclaimed Charlie, “you’ve been doing nothing else
but getting fat ever since you came to work for us in Sackville.”
“Don’d you fool yourself mit any such idea as dot,” retorted
Dinkelspeil. “I don’d peen half so fat as vhen I landed py Ellis Island
in New York, I ped you.”
“You must have been as round as a billiard ball then,” laughed Charlie.
“Get ouid mit your shokes. Dere’s some more off mine fat gone already
yet,” as he mopped his round countenance again.
It was nearly dark when they reached the head of the creek.
Meyer at once flopped down on the ground and began to fan himself with
his soft hat.
After a short rest all hands got busy carrying the tents ashore and
putting them up.
Then the next thing in order was to rig up their culinary department,
so supper could be got under way.
Meyer volunteered to act as cook.
His services were accepted, as Charlie vouched for his possessing some
ability in that line.
“Yust vait a liddle vhiles,” he said to Prawle. “I vill make you lick
your shops over vot I puts pefore you, I ped you.”
And every one declared he was not such a bad cook after all, when they
saw and tasted the fried fish and potatoes, backed up by a steaming pot
of fragrant coffee, which the German boy prepared in short order.
“I move that Meyer Dinkelspeil be appointed chief cook and bottle
washer of this camp,” said Jack, when the meal was concluded.
And the motion was carried by acclamation.