OFF FOR THE GOLD-MINES
The next morning when the sun rose, in all the golden glory of dawning
day in beautiful California, above the tops of the eastern mountains and
shone down into the Valley of the Sacramento, its rays fell on an
interesting scene in front of the Conroyal house, where nearly all the
men, women and children of the place had gathered about two heavily
laden pack-horses, four saddled horses, and two boys, and two girls. The
two boys were Thure and Bud, ready to start for the mines, the two girls
were Iola and Ruth, who were to ride with the boys for an hour or so on
their way, the four saddled horses were their riding horses, and the two
pack-horses bore the outfits of the young miners, as well as sundry
tokens of love and affection sent to the dear ones at the mines. The
boys stood at their horses' heads, ready to mount. The very moment of
departure had come.
"Well, I reckon we must be going now. Good-by, mother," and Thure turned
for a last embrace in those dear arms, and then swung himself up into
his saddle.
"God bless you, and protect you, and bring you safe home, my son," and
Mrs. Conroyal, trying in vain to keep back the tears from her eyes and
the sobs from her voice, embraced and kissed Thure farewell and bravely
saw him mount.
Bud tried very hard to control his feelings, but his voice choked a
little and there were tears in his eyes, as he kissed his mother good-by
and jumped into his saddle; and then, just to break the gloom that
seemed to be gathering too thickly about the parting, he jerked off his
hat, and, swinging it around his head, shouted: "Hurrah, for the
gold-mines! Hurrah, we're off for the mines!"
And everybody shouted with him; and, in the midst of the shouting, the
two boys, leading their pack-horses and with Iola and Ruth on their
horses by their sides, rode out of the house-court and started across
the valley toward the distant eastern mountains.
The search for the dead miner's Cave of Gold had begun.
Iola Conroyal and Ruth Randolph were two very lively and high-spirited
girls, just old enough to see all the romance and little of the rough
reality and danger of such a quest as their two brothers had begun. The
wonderful tale of the dying miner, with its Cave of Gold, its
rough-drawn map and its big gold nugget, had appealed very strongly to
their vivid and romantic imaginations; and the starting of Thure and Bud
in search of this marvelous cave had surrounded them, in their eyes,
with something of the glamour that gilds the heroes of romance. They
envied them their quest; they would have gone joyfully with them, if
they could; and now, as they rode along by their sides in the cool
morning air, they could think or talk of little else than this wonderful
quest and of what would happen, if the boys should really and truly find
that marvelous Cave of Gold.
"Will you--will you promise to give me the first gold nugget you pick up
in this wonderful cave?" Ruth said, after they had been riding and
talking for some little while, glancing up a bit shyly into Thure's
face. "I will have a breastpin made out of it and always wear it in
remembrance of that great event--and--and of you," she added in a lower
voice, her face flushing a little.
"Sure I will! I--that is exactly what I had planned to do anyhow," Thure
declared. "And I'll see that it is a big one, Ruth, the biggest that I
can find. And the next nugget I pick up you shall have for a ring; and
then I'll pick up a lot of little nuggets and make you a gold necklace
out of them."
"That will be glorious," and Ruth's eyes shone. "And--and I shall prize
them all very much. Oh, dear, I don't see why we girls were just born
girls and not boys! I never wanted to do anything as much as I want to
go with you and Bud, and help hunt for this Cave of Gold. I'd go anyway,
if mother would let me."
"So would I," Iola declared, her dark eyes and cheeks glowing at the
thought. "It is terrible to be just a girl, when there is anything like
this to be done. We, at least Ruth and I, do not want to be put in a
cage and fed, like canary birds. We want to do things, too; and we could
do things, too, if folks would only let us."
"Hoity-toity!" laughed Thure. "I reckon God knew what He was about when
He made you 'just girls'--just sisters, sweethearts, wives, mothers, the
dearest words spoken in every language the world over; and, for one, I
am powerful glad that He did make you 'just girls.'"
"So am I," Bud agreed, so emphatically that all laughed.
"But, it really does seem too bad that Iola and I have got to stay at
home with our mothers, where nothing exciting ever happens," persisted
Ruth, "while you two, just because you are boys, can go hunting caves of
gold and have all sorts of wonderful adventures--not that I really and
truly would like to be a boy," she added hastily and a little
contradictorily. "Boys are so awkward and have such big feet and hands,
and--and--"
"And are such good fellows to wait on girls," grinned Bud provokingly.
"Which shows girls' real superiority," smiled back Ruth.
"Well, if you are satisfied, what are you kicking for? You haven't heard
Thure and me wishing that we were girls, have you?" queried Bud
triumphantly.
"Well, I should say not, not when you are off on a hunt like this
anyhow!" Ruth rejoined. "Oh, but I do hope you will find that Cave of
Gold! And come back covered with gold nuggets and glory!"
By this time our young friends had reached the foot of the ridge, on
whose top it had been agreed they were to say farewell to one another;
and the thought of the nearness of the parting was suddenly pressed home
to each heart, and they rode to the top of the ridge without speaking a
word. Here they pulled up their horses; and, for a moment, their eyes
looked wistfully into one another's faces, while they sat silent in
their saddles.
"Oh, come, let's have the agony over!" and Bud tried to make his voice
sound cheery and unconcerned. "Good-by, Ruth," and, urging his horse up
close to the side of his sister's horse, he leaned over, threw his arms
around her neck and kissed her. Then he turned and quickly served Iola
in the same way; and, striking spurs into his horse, started off, his
pack-horse tugging at the rope behind him.
Thure hesitated a moment; and then, following Bud's example, quickly
kissed Iola and Ruth good-by, and started after Bud.
"Don't forget that you have promised me the first gold nugget that you
pick up in the cave!" called Ruth.
"Nor the gold necklace!" warned Iola.
Thure and Bud waved their hands and shouted in reply; but rode steadily
on.
The two girls sat on their horses and watched them, until, with final
shouts and the waving of their hats, they passed over the top of a
distant ridge and vanished from sight. Then Iola and Ruth turned their
horses homeward and rode silently down the other side of the ridge. They
did not care to talk, even about the wonderful Cave of Gold, just then.
They had ridden something like a couple of miles on their way homeward
and their tongues were just beginning to wag, girl-like, again, when
both were considerably startled by a loud hallo, coming from behind.
They turned quickly and saw two horsemen, who had just ridden out from
behind a small grove of trees, some twenty rods back and to the right,
and who were now riding toward them.
"I wonder who they can be!" exclaimed Ruth. "I am sure that I never saw
them before; but I suppose we had better wait and find out what they
want. They might be lost. They look like strangers to this part of the
country," and she pulled up her horse.
"Yes," agreed Iola, halting her horse by the side of Ruth. "They are
probably foreigners on their way to the mines; and we had better wait to
see if we can be of any help to them."
In the holster that hung from the pommel of the saddle of each girl
there was a double-barreled pistol, loaded and ready for instant use;
and it was not there for ornament. Both girls had been trained to use
the rifle and the pistol; and never, since Iola's frightful experience
with the Mexican desperado, Padilla, some three years before,[1] had
either girl been permitted to ride, even a short distance from the
house, without having one or both of these weapons with her.
Consequently, trained and armed as they were, they saw nothing to fear
in meeting the two strange horsemen, although they were alone in a
little valley and out of sight and hearing of every other human being,
so far as they knew.
[Footnote 1: For an account of this adventure, see _Fighting With
Fremont_, the preceding book of this series.]
The two horsemen came up on a slow gallop; and pulled up their horses a
dozen feet from the girls.
"We asks your pardon, ladies," said the larger of the two men--a big
red-headed man with a broken nose--as he awkwardly doffed his hat. "But,
seein' you ridin' by, an' thinkin' you might be able tew give us sum
information, we bein' strangers in this part of Californy, we made bold
tew hallo tew you," and he paused, his bold eyes staring admiringly into
the dark face of Iola.
"We will be very glad to help you, if we can," answered Iola, a bit
shortly, for she did not like the looks of the big man with the broken
nose. "What is it you would like to know?"
"Wal," answered the man, glancing toward his companion, "me an' my
pardner was tew meet a man over yonder by that big rock that sticks
itself out of th' ground, like a nose on a man's face," and he pointed
to a huge rock a mile or more away that shot up out of the level of the
valley, not unlike the nose on a man's face. "He was tew git thar 'bout
noon yisterday; an' we haven't seen hide nor ha'r of him yit; an',
gittin' powerful tired of waitin' an' thinkin' you ladies might have
seen him, we stops you tew ask."
"An' bein' a leetle afeared he might have come tew harm," the other
horseman, a small man with a pock-marked face, here broke in, "seein'
that he was a comin' from th' diggin's an' was supposed tew have
considerable gold-dust with him, we makes bold tew stop you ladies tew
ask about him, jest as my pardner says, thinkin' you might have seen
him."
"What--what did he look like?" Iola asked anxiously, the moment the man
paused; for her thoughts had gone instantly to the dead man they had
buried last night, when he had spoken of the man they were looking for
as being on his way back from the diggings.
"Wal, he won't exactly what you ladies would call a beauty," answered
the big man, grinning, "seein' that he'd let his whiskers an' ha'r grow
long an' scraggly all over his face an' head; but you'd a-knowed him, if
you'd a-seen him, by a peecoolyer scar over his left eye, shaped
sumthin' like a hoss-shoe, with th' ends of th' shoe pointin' t'ord th'
corners of th' eye."
"Why," and Iola's face whitened, "he must have been the man our
brothers, Thure and Bud, brought home with them yesterday afternoon! He
had a scar on his forehead like that. Didn't you notice it?" and she
turned to Ruth.
"Yes," Ruth answered, "and he was from the mines."
"Wal, now, that's good news," declared the big man, glancing out of the
corners of his eyes at his companion. "We was afeared sum harm had come
tew him. An' so he's restin' safe an' easy at your home. Now, whar might
that be, if I may be so bold as tew ask?"
"But, he'd been robbed--murdered!" exclaimed Iola. "And it was his dead
body that had been brought to our house. We buried him last night."
"Robbed! Murdered!" almost yelled the big man. "Do you hear that,
Spike?" and he turned excitedly to his companion. "Sumone got him for
his gold, jest as he was afeared they would. An' you say 'twas your
brothers who found him, an' took th' body home with them, an' gave it
decent burial. Now I call that decent, don't you, Spike?" and he glanced
sharply at his companion.
"White an' decent," agreed Spike. "But," and his small snake-like eyes
shifted swiftly from face to face of the two girls, as he spoke, "did
he--did he leave any message for his friends; or, was he dead when your
brothers found him?"
"He lived only a little while," answered Iola. "He had been stabbed by
one of the cowards, and he died before they could get him to the house.
I don't think he left any message. I don't remember of hearing our
brothers say anything about a message, do you?" and she turned to Ruth.
"No," replied Ruth. "He--he left no word for any friend. He only--" she
stopped abruptly, and just in time; for, unthinkingly, she had been
about to speak of the skin map and the Cave of Gold.
Both men started slightly at her words and abrupt stop and flashed swift
glances into each other's eyes.
"Now, that's tew bad," declared the big man. "We sure thought he would
leave a message for us, seein' that he knowed we was here a-waitin' for
him. But, I reckon, we'd better ride on tew th' house with you ladies
an' see them brothers of your'n personal. You see we wants tew make
sart'in 'twas our friend that was robbed and murdered, besides he might
have left sum word for Spike an' me, an' your brothers not have
mentioned it, bein' naturally excited-like over th' robbery an' murder."
"But, you can't see them now!" exclaimed Iola, impulsively. "They left
for the mines this very morning. Why, we parted from them not more than
an hour ago."
Both men started violently at this news, and again the swift suspicious
glances flashed from eyes to eyes, and an ugly threatening look came
into their faces.
"Gone tew th' mines! An' started sudden, this very mornin'!" exclaimed
Spike excitedly. "Did--Did th' old miner say an'thing 'bout whar he
found his gold afore he died?" and his beady black eyes glowed angrily
into the faces of the two girls. "We're his friends, an' have a right
tew know, an' we want tew know, an' we're goin' tew know," and he urged
his horse nearer to the girls.
Both girls were badly frightened by this sudden and unexpected change in
the two men; for there was no mistaking the ugly and dangerous look on
their faces; but neither girl lost her head.
"You will not come a step closer than you now are," and the white hand
of Iola flashed to the pistol in her holster; and Spike, to his evident
horror, suddenly found himself looking straight down into two little
round holes that seemed to his startled eyes as big as the mouths of
cannons.
"And you, too, stay right where you are," and Ruth's pistol suddenly
turned the big man with a broken nose into a wildly staring equestrian
statue. "We two girls are not going to take any chances with you two
men; and--and now that we have given you all the information that we
have for you, you can turn your horses around and ride back the way you
came."
[Illustration: "YOU CAN TURN YOUR HORSES AROUND AND RIDE BACK THE WAY
YOU CAME."]
The faces of both girls had suddenly grown as white as milk; for, almost
at the same moment, each had remembered that the dying miner had
described his two murderers as a big red-headed man with a broken nose
and a small man with a pock-marked face--and they were now looking
straight into the faces of two such men. But the hands that held the
pistols did not tremble; and there was no mistaking the look in the
shining eyes back of the little round holes. They would shoot; and, if
they shot, they would not miss; and it did not take the two men two
seconds to discover these facts.
"Oh, come, this ain't no hold up game, is it, ladies?" and the big man
tried to look as if he considered the whole affair a huge joke; but he
was very careful not to make a threatening move; and he kept his eyes
fixed on the two little round holes of Ruth's pistol, in a horrible
staring way that Ruth never forgot.
"No," Ruth answered shortly. "It is not a hold up; and there is going to
be no hold up in this case," she added significantly; "so just turn your
horses around and gallop back the way you came; and be very careful not
to let your hands go near your belts or to look back while doing it,"
she warned.
"Oh, say, now," began the small man. "This ain't hospital-like. We ain't
meanin' you ladies no harm. We--"
"Drop the talk and turn your horses around and get," Iola commanded so
imperatively, so threateningly that both men, in a sudden panic of
fear--like nearly all rascals they were cowards and those two pistols in
those two girlish hands might go off at any instant--whirled their
horses around and galloped off, while a bullet from one of the barrels
of Iola's pistol, whistling between their heads, added to their panic
and speed.
"Do you," and Ruth turned her white face to Iola, the moment the two men
were at a safe distance, "do you really think they were the two men who
murdered the miner?"
"Yes," answered Iola, as she began reloading her pistol, with hands that
trembled now so that she could hardly pour the powder into the barrel.
"I am sure they were. Ugh! But what a dreadful fright they gave me! I
felt certain they were going to murder us, when they started toward us."
"And--and do you suppose they were trying to find out about that skin
map and the Cave of Gold?" and Ruth's face again began whitening.
"Yes, that is it!" and Iola started. "That was what made them so angry
and ugly, when we told them that Thure and Bud had already started for
the mines. They at once suspicioned that the boys had the map and that
they had started out to find the Cave of Gold. Oh, Ruth," and a look of
horror came into Iola's face, "do you suppose they will start on the
trail of Thure and Bud and try to get the map from them? Why, they might
murder them!"
"That is exactly what I am afraid they will do," declared Ruth, her own
face reflecting the horror in Iola's face. "But you may be sure that two
cowards like them will never get the best of our brothers, unless they
do it in some sneaking underhanded way; and the boys have been warned to
look out for them. It won't take Thure and Bud as long to discover who
they are, as it did us. The instant they see that broken nose and
pock-marked face, they will be on their guard. But I do wish we had said
nothing about the boys starting for the mines. Anyhow that is about all
the information they did get from us that will do them any good, thank
goodness! And they will have a mighty hard time finding and following
their trail, unless they are old hunters and trappers; and they did not
look as if they were. Anyhow it can't be helped now; and the best thing
that we can do is to get back home as quickly as we can."
"I don't think we had better say anything to our mothers about meeting
the two men," Iola said, as with a final look in the direction of the
two horsemen, who were still galloping up the valley, they turned their
horses homeward. "It wouldn't do any good to tell them and they'd worry
a lot."
"You're right. Mum's the word," agreed Ruth; and then both girls struck
their horses sharply and started on a swift gallop for the Conroyal
rancho, where we must leave them for the present and return to Thure and
Bud.