GREEN GOLD AT LAST
The story of the aged recluse, Timmie, was soon told. After his companion
Gordon Duncan had left him, more than twenty years before, the caribou
had come and a fresh supply of provisions was at hand. That spring too,
other prospectors had come up the river. In return for his services as a
guide, they had supplied him with white man’s food.
As the years passed, he had given up hope that Gordon Duncan would
return; but even so, he guarded their secret well.
Ever a lover of nature and her solitary haunts, he was content to dwell
alone at the foot of the smoking mountains. Every year, as the winter’s
snow melted away, as the honking geese passed above the rivers and a
million flowers bloomed, he had shouldered pick and pan to begin one more
search for the mine of green gold.
“I never found it,” he whispered as, buried deep in warm deer skins, he
told his story. “But yonder on the raft, just as I was carrying it, you
will find the green gold, every piece. Every piece. Just as we found it
so many years ago.
“Take it, Gordon Duncan.” His whisper came from deep in his throat. “For
many years I have prized and guarded it. Now it must be entrusted to your
hands. I am soon to pass to that happy land where there are no spring
torrents, no snow, no cold, no smoking mountains and no night.”
“No! No!” said Faye Duncan, pressing his hand. “You are going to find
health in the spring sunshine. We will carry you from this dreary land to
the place where yellow roses bloom and the air is heavy with the
fragrance of daffodils.”
Timmie read the distress in her tone. He smiled and said no more. Yet he
knew what he knew, and was content.
“But why did you run from us?” Gordon Duncan asked.
A pained, puzzled look came over the face of the aged recluse. “I do not
know. I am growing old. When one is old he becomes afraid of many
things.”
The hoard of green gold on Timmie’s raft was indeed a great treasure.
Johnny, who had traveled much and knew the value of such things coming
from a very remote past, reckoned their value in many thousands of
dollars.
One day, two weeks later, having buried Timmie among the hills he had
loved so long, bidding an affectionate farewell to their Indian guides
and the strange hunchback, the party of three, Gordon Duncan, Faye and
Johnny, put off from shore in a new dugout which their friends had made
for them.
Three days later, as they drifted down the silent river which was now
quite free from ice, to their great surprise they caught the distant drum
of an airplane.
Straining their eyes, they saw it at last just clearing the mountains to
the north. Imagine their surprise when it went out of sight behind the
timber not five miles from where they were.
When, two hours later, on rounding a bend in the river, they sighted the
camp of more than a hundred white men, their joy knew no bounds.
Soon enough they were told of a fresh gold strike on these upper reaches
of the river. The passenger airplane which was bringing men into the
country was to start on the return journey in two hours. It was nearing
the lunch hour now. They might have dinner at the outskirts of the white
man’s land if they liked.
Their decision was quickly reached. After a royal feast of white man’s
food, they bundled their precious relics of green gold aboard the plane
and, climbing in, sailed away.
A week later Johnny stood in the doorway of a cabin. Before the cabin
yellow roses bloomed and the air was laden with the scent of spring
blossoms.
Beside him stood Faye Duncan. No longer garbed in the dull brown and gray
of the trail, but in a gay red dress, she was the picture of health and
beauty.
Much had been done in these days. A mystery had been cleared up and a
fortune assured.
From Faye’s own lips Johnny had learned the secret of their hiding away
in the north woods so many weeks before. Her grandfather was to have been
a witness in a murder trial. He believed the man being tried was
innocent, yet he realized that his own testimony would go far toward
convicting him. In order to avoid being called as a witness and in order
to give time for hot anger to cool and the real culprit to be found, he
had hidden away in the forest.
“But now it is all more than right,” Faye had said with tears of joy in
her eyes. “The real murderer has confessed; the other man is free.”
Gordon Duncan had sold half the green gold for a sum large enough to make
him comfortable for life. Timmie’s half he had given to a museum, there
to remain as a monument to his lost comrade.
Faye and Johnny stood in the doorway watching the sunset fade. Never
before had Johnny been so tempted to give up the life of a wanderer and
settle down. And yet—
“Letter for you,” said Gordon Duncan. Coming up the path, he handed it to
Johnny.
The boy read the letter with interest. It was from Curlie Carson. Perhaps
you have read about him. Johnny had heard of him. In this letter Curlie
proposed that the two of them join in a daring enterprise. Would Johnny
go?
Would he? When one frank, daring, straight shooting adventurer says to
another of his kind, “Come, let’s go,” the answer is sure to be, “Lead
on.”
“But I’ll be back,” Johnny said to the ruddy-cheeked Scotch girl as he
bade her goodbye next morning. And who can say he will not?
If you wish to read of the adventures entered into by Johnny Thompson and
Curlie Carson, you’ll find them all written down in a book called, “The
Rope of Gold.”
The Roy J. Snell Books
Mr. Snell is a versatile writer who knows how to write stories that will
please boys and girls. He has traveled widely, visited many
out-of-the-way corners of the earth, and being a keen observer has found
material for many thrilling stories. His stories are full of adventure
and mystery, yet in the weaving of the story there are little threads
upon which are hung lessons in loyalty, honesty, patriotism and right
living.
Mr. Snell has created a wide audience among the younger readers of
America. Boy or girl, you are sure to find a Snell book to your liking.
His works cover a wide and interesting scope.
Here are the titles of the Snell Books:
_Mystery Stories for Boys_
1. Triple Spies
2. Lost in the Air
3. Panther Eye
4. The Crimson Flash
5. White Fire
6. The Black Schooner
7. The Hidden Trail
8. The Firebug
9. The Red Lure
10. Forbidden Cargoes
11. Johnny Longbow
12. The Rope of Gold
13. The Arrow of Fire
14. The Gray Shadow
15. Riddle of the Storm
16. The Galloping Ghost
17. Whispers at Dawn; or, The Eye
18. Mystery Wings
19. Red Dynamite
20. The Seal of Secrecy
21. The Shadow Passes
22. Sign of the Green Arrow
_The Radio-Phone Boys’ Series_
1. Curlie Carson Listens In
2. On the Yukon Trail
3. The Desert Patrol
4. The Seagoing Tank
5. The Flying Sub
6. Dark Treasure
7. Whispering Isles
8. Invisible Wall
_Adventure Stories for Girls_
1. The Blue Envelope
2. The Cruise of the O’Moo
3. The Secret Mark
4. The Purple Flame
5. The Crimson Thread
6. The Silent Alarm
7. The Thirteenth Ring
8. Witches Cove
9. The Gypsy Shawl
10. Green Eyes
11. The Golden Circle
12. The Magic Curtain
13. Hour of Enchantment
14. The Phantom Violin
15. Gypsy Flight
16. The Crystal Ball
17. A Ticket to Adventure
18. The Third Warning
Transcriber’s Notes
--Copyright notice provided as in the original printed text—this e-text
is public domain in the country of publication.
--Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and
dialect unchanged.
--Relocated promotional material to the end of the book, and completed
the list of books in the three series (using other sources).