Scene: In the backwoods of British America. Kenneth, Archie, and Harvey
are seen sitting around the camp fire. It is a whole hour after sunset,
and yet there is plenty of light in the sky. There are rocks and pine
trees around, a brawling stream not far off. There is a tall rugged
mountain in the distance; its highest peaks are snow-clad. Southwards
away, grey clouds are heaped up on the horizon, a slight scimitar-shaped
moon is shining in the north-west, and ominous little dark clouds are
drifting over it. It is not from this moon that the light comes, but
from a strange yellowish after-glow, which tinges all the western
horizon, and, mingling with the blue above, evolves a peculiar shade of
green.
"Heap more wood on the fire, Archie," said Kenneth. "I'm growing quite
an old man, I think. It is only a year since we left Africa and rounded
the Horn, hardly nine months since we bade adieu to civilisation, and
became wanderers and vagabonds in this wild dreary land, gold-hunting as
usual, and yet it seems to me an age."
Kenneth pulled his blanket closer round his shoulders as he spoke, and
Archie rose to replenish the fire, laughing as he did so.
"When _you_ die of old age," he said, "I shall make my will, Kennie
boy."
"Oh! but we are sure to find gold," put in Harvey.
"Well, I don't know, but it seems to me that this searching for gold is
like chasing a wild goose or a will-o'-the-wisp. Don't you think,
Archie, we had better settle down to something more certain if more
slow?"
"_I do_ think so," replied Archie; "and after what Harvey here has told
us, that he is the son of poor old Laird McGregor, and rightful heir to
the McGregor estates, _he_ ought to go straight away home, turn that old
Yankee tyrant out, and regain possession of his own. You cannot break
an entail, you know."
"Heigho!" sighed Harvey, "I have repented my quarrel with my dear old
father all my life. It was my proud Highland blood that caused it in
the first instance. I rushed away to sea, I changed my name, I made
myself out as dead. I thought not of the kind heart I was breaking, of
the grey hairs I was bringing down in sorrow to the grave. And how has
fate rewarded me? I have been a rover ever since, a wanderer and a
vagabond; thrice have riches been within my grasp, thrice has Fortune
dashed the cup aside. And am I to go now that my father is in his long
home and claim my patrimony? My pride forbids; I'd rather be a ghillie
on the old estate, or a keeper, than proud laird of it all."
"Stay," said Kenneth, laying his hand kindly on Harvey's shoulder. "Not
for your own sake should you do this thing, but remember you have a
mother and sister, still alive it is to be hoped. Do you never think of
them?"
Harvey's hands now covered his face, his form was bent forward, but the
heaving of his chest told of the grief that was rending him.
"Think, too, of the Clachan restored, of the old church bell once more
calling the people of the glen to worship on the Sabbath mornings.
Steve the Yankee, from all accounts, is a tyrant, an oppressor, and a
villain. Harvey McGregor, think of seeing your old mother once more in
the dear old-fashioned pew."
"Kenneth McAlpine!" cried Harvey, starting up, "no more of this now, you
irritate, you madden me!
"But," he added, in a more softened tone of voice, "I may promise you
just one thing. If we fail this time, if _I_ fail to find fortune, I
will return to my mother like the prodigal son I have been. Though
fain, oh! how fain I would be to return full-handed, _rich_!"
"Thank you, Harvey, thank you for this promise. And now for your sake
and for all our sakes I trust that fortune will at length favour us."
The conversation then wandered back to the old, old theme; home at Glen
Alva. A strange life these three adventurers had led for the last nine
months and over. Wandering from place to place, sleeping by night in
the open air when the weather was fine, in caves or huts of pine-wood
branches when wet, and sojourning with trappers or even in the wigwams
of the Indian when snow covered the ground and the storm winds were
howling.
Wandering from place to place prospecting, wandering on and on in search
of gold. A strange wild life was theirs, but it suited their tastes;
then there was an ever-present hope that had not yet deserted them, a
hope and an ambition to become suddenly wealthy as many a man had done
before them. Yes, it is true, many a one had found gold and silver, but
tens of thousands had found an early grave in searching for it.
Harvey, or let us call him now Harvey McGregor, was in a manner of
speaking a genius. He possessed originality of thought, and he never
hesitated to put his ideas to the test. He felt sure of one thing,
namely, that gold and silver mines were not entirely confined to the
southern states of North America. He had found treasure among the
mountains of British Columbia, and he meant, so he said, to find it
again in such quantities that both he and his friends would be
"millionaires in a month." But luck seemed long of coming. They had
wandered all the way from California, and encountered every imaginable
danger, in moor and mountain, forest, flood, and fall; and here they
were to-night, with no other worldly wealth than the blankets they would
presently roll themselves up in, and their guns with a modicum of
ammunition.
Only they had youth and health on their side, though even these seemed
passing away from poor McGregor. Grief had done its turn; it had
hollowed his cheek, and though barely twenty-five, silver threads were
already appearing in his brown beard.
"Now pile more wood on the fire, Archie dear lad, and we will go to
sleep like good boys, and dream we are back in our dear old glen."
Archie did as told, and before long all three were sound asleep. They
did not care even to do sentry duty. They trusted all to fate.
Silence now, except for the wind soughing through the tall
mysterious-looking pine trees, or the occasional bark of fox or scream
of night bird. A great cinnamon bear about midnight came snuffing
around; he could have rent our sleeping heroes in pieces, but there was
nothing cooking to lure him towards the fire. A stray wolf came next,
and actually leapt over Kenneth's legs. He was picking up some scraps
of food when McGregor moaned and tossed, and away went the wolf.
"I had such a dream," cried McGregor next morning. "I say, boys, I told
you there was a bank of gold up here, and I for one start digging
to-day."
So he did, and so did all.
The only possible place to commence operations lay close to the banks of
a turbulent river that came winding down through a pine-clad mountain
land.
Silently, almost solemnly the trio worked, speaking but little, hanging
on to their pipes (if I may use so strange a phrase), and hanging on to
spade, and pick, and shovel.
All that day, and next, and next. About the coming of the fourth day,
there was a shout from McGregor's claim.
"Hurrah, boys! Hurrah, boys! Run here, lads, run here!"
They did run.
McGregor held up before their astonished gaze a nugget of almost pure
gold as big as a baby's shoe.
More gold was found every day for a week, and in gradually increasing
quantities. They were already in possession of about three hundred
pounds' worth. No wonder they rejoiced. No wonder they were merry.
Now, around the camp fire, what stories are told, what songs are sung,
what castles in the air are built!
They will all be millionaires. Archie says he is going to have a nice
mansion down in the Clachan, and close by the riverside, and will fish
there and in the sea just as when he was a boy. Nothing will satisfy
Kenneth but a house near the fairy knoll. He pulls out the old Bible,
Nannie's gift, and opens it. There lie the withered flowers, and
looking at them sets him a-thinking and a-wondering and a-dreaming.
"Little Jessie," he says to himself, "can she still be alive? Is it
possible she might one day be mine?"
He restores the flowers, restores the Book of books, and lies back to
gaze at the starry sky and think.
But he is not allowed to.
"Out with the flute, Kennie," cries Archie. "Oh, play me some dear auld
Scottish lilt, that will make tears of joy well up in our eyes?"
Kenneth plays tune after tune, air after air; and then the trio join
voices and sing "My native Highland home" till the woods ring and pine
trees nod, and distant rocks send back the chorus.
There is hardly any need of a blanket to-night, for the day has been
hot, and look, even now clouds are rolling slowly up and hiding the
half-moon. Great round clouds they are, and little dark water-dog
clouds lie nearer the earth, and seem to perch and leap from top to top
of the pine trees, like birds of evil omen.
A storm is brewing.
By-and-bye, from far over the hills comes the muttering growl of distant
thunder. Presently clouds go scurrying overhead, and a bright flash is
followed by a rattling peal.
Rain, and terrible rain, followed, and the wind began to rise. The camp
fire is drowned out, and our trio are fain to seek the shelter of a cave
on the wooded hillside. None too soon; with a crashing roar, louder and
more continued than any thunder ever heard, the storm bursts upon them
with hurricane force. And all that night it continues. The pine trees
have fallen in all directions. The river has risen in spate. Through
the darkness they can see the ghostly glimmer of its foam, and they can
hear the hurtling sound of the mighty boulders as they roll along.
Morning came at last, grim and grey.
"Saint Mary! what a scene is here!"
The whole face of the country is altered in appearance. Where is their
claim, their gold mine, their hope of fortune, their joy of the previous
evening? All swept away or buried in chaos.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just three weeks after this fearful storm Kenneth and Archie bade
good-bye to their friend and comrade Harvey McGregor. He had given up
all hopes of finding fortune, and was returning to Scotland to claim his
property.
They bade him good-bye at New Westminster. Then, hand in hand as if
they were boys once more, they turned their backs to the coast, and went
away towards the mountains.
"Archie," said Kenneth, "there is gold to be got among these hills, but
_not_ by digging."
"You are right."
"Let us work for our fortune like steady, brave men. It may come, or it
may not. At all events, we will be better working. And we will try to
forget the past and build no more castles in the air."
"Agreed," said Archie; "let us work."
At Victoria these two brave young men changed the few nuggets they had
found for coin. Then they pushed their way many miles inland in
Columbia, and, having hired servants and bought a little land with
plenty more to purchase lying right behind it, they set to work with a
will. They built their house, a solid log-mansion. They planned and
laid out their gardens. They hewed timber, and sawed it, and sent it
down stream. They tore the roots from the ground and cleared it for
grain, and, in a word, settled down in every way as farmers, determined
to make the best of every chance.
And here, in their far-away western home, let us leave them for a while,
and journey over the broad Atlantic with Harvey McGregor. There are
those in Scotland whose lives and actions may not be quite devoid of
interest to many who have read this history from the commencement.