"I examined it while you were asleep, Mayne," he said.
"Then you have a good deal stored up here?"
"Yes--somewhere," he said. "I'll show you one of these days. Now then;
ready?"
We declared our readiness, and once more we began work, out in the
silence of that beautiful valley, digging, washing, and examining, as we
picked out the soft deadened golden scales, beads, grains, and tiny
smooth nuggets.
We all worked our hardest, Quong being indefatigable, and darting back,
after running off to see to the fire, to dig and wash with the best of
us.
We had very fair success, but nothing dazzling, and the gold we found
was added to the bank on the fourth day, this bank proving to be a
leather bag which Mr Gunson dug up carefully in my presence, while I
stared at him, and burst out laughing at his choice of what I thought so
silly and unsafe a place for his findings.
"Why do you laugh?" he said, quietly. "Do you think I might have had a
strong box instead of a leather bag?"
"I should have thought that you would have buried it in some
out-of-the-way, deserted corner," I said. "I could find hundreds
about."
"Yes," he said; "and so could other people, my lad. Those are the very
spots they would have searched. I wanted a place where no one would
look."
"And so you hid it here," I said, wonderingly, for I could not quite see
that he was right, and yet he must have been, for the gold was safe.
His hiding-place was down in the sand, right in the beaten track people
walked over on their way up the valley.
We worked on busily for a month after Mr Gunson's coming back to his
claim; and then one day we struck camp and marched back to the Fort,
with a small quantity of gold, the fifth that we had taken up.
"Why, hallo!" cried Mr Raydon as he came in and found us there, with
Mr and Mrs John, and Gunson looking very serious.
"Yes," he said. "It's all over. My luck again."
"What do you mean?"
"That was a rich little deposit, and we have gleaned the last grain.
The other people are doing badly too, and going back."
"But there must be plenty more," said Mr Raydon.
"No; I believe we have pretty well cleared the valley."
"Then I am delighted," cried Mr Raydon. "Gunson, I congratulate you."
"Indeed!" said Gunson, coldly.
"Yes, for now there will be an end to this grasping, avaricious work,
and our pleasant vales will return to the condition that is best."
"The hope of my life is crushed, man, and I must begin my weary hunt
again," said Gunson, bitterly.
"No; your new and happier, more manly life is now about to commence.
Look here, what gold have you got?"
"You know."
"Not I. I know that I supplied you with a couple of sheep-skins, which
you made into bags, and that those bags are in my strong box. What have
you?"
"After I have fairly apportioned shares to Mayne, to Dean, and to my
little Chinese friend, I shall have a thousand pounds' worth for
myself."
"Ample, and double what you will require, man," said Mr Raydon. "Think
where you are, in a country--a virgin country--as beautiful, more
beautiful than dear old England, a place where for almost nothing you
may select land by one of our lovely streams, which, as the writer said,
is waiting to be tickled with a hoe, that it may laugh with a harvest.
Come: England is too narrow for such a man as you. Take up land, make a
ranch if you like, or farm as they farm at home; sow your grains of gold
in the shape of wheat, and they will come up a hundredfold. Build your
house, and send for the mother and sister of whom you spoke to me when
you were so weak."
"I spoke!" said Gunson, wonderingly. "Yes; you were half delirious, but
you spoke of a dear mother and sister in England; bring them to share
your prosperity, for prosperity must come; and it is a life worth
living, after all."
As he spoke I felt my heart swell with hope; the gloomy feelings of
disappointment passed away, and I found myself gazing with astonishment
at Mr Gunson, whose morose, disfigured face seemed to brighten up and
glow, while his eye flashed again, as when Mr Raydon finished speaking
he leaned forward and grasped his hand.
"God bless you for those words," he said; "you have made light shine
into a darkened heart. I will do this thing. Heaven helping me, I will
never seek for a grain of gold again."
"I shall register your oath, Gunson," said Mr Raydon, smiling.
"Do. It will be kept. Yes: I will fetch them over; and, Mrs John, it
will be one of the delights of my new life, to introduce two ladies most
dear to me to one whom they will venerate and love. Mayne, you have
never told them all I said to you?"
"No," I said; "it would have been a breach of confidence."
I looked up as I spoke, and saw that Mr Raydon's eyes were fixed upon
me searchingly, and his voice sounded harsh again as he said--
"It was a breach of confidence, Mayne Gordon, to tell Mr Gunson here of
the existence of gold in the little valley. Do you remember your
promise to me?"
"Yes, sir," I said, boldly, for I felt that at last the truth must come
out, and I should be cleared; for I would speak now if Mr Gunson did
not. "I remember well."
"Mayne," said Gunson; and my heart seemed to leap--"Mayne tell me about
the gold up yonder? No, no; it was not he."
"What!" cried Mr Raydon, excitedly. "It was not Mayne Gordon who told
you?"
"No; it was that little Chinaman confided to me that he had made a big
find. The little fellow always had confidence in me. He brought me
quite a hundred pounds' worth to take care of for him when I was here
last, and proposed to put himself under my protection and to work for me
if I allowed him a tenth."
"Then it was not Mayne?" cried Mrs John, excitedly.
"No, madam. I knew friend Raydon would be angry, but I was obliged to
accept the offer, for I felt that some time or other the people would
come, and I argued that the sooner it was all cleared out the better for
Raydon's peace of mind. You knew it must be discovered."
"Yes; I always knew that; but I wanted to keep away those who came as
long as possible."
"They are going already, and you will soon have your vales in peace
again."
"Yes, yes, yes," muttered Mr Raydon, beginning to walk up and down the
room, while I felt in such a whirl of excitement, as I saw Mrs John's
beautiful, motherly eyes fixed lovingly on mine, and felt Mr John
snatch my hand and press it, and then give vent to his delight at the
clearing up by slapping me heavily on the shoulder, that I could not see
Mr Raydon's puckered brow. What I did see was the bear's head looking
down at me, showing its grinning teeth as if it were laughing and
pleased, and the moose staring at me with its mournful aspect less
marked. All nonsense this, I know, but there was a feeling of joy
within me that filled me with exultation.
The silence was almost painful at last, and the tension grew to such an
extent that I felt at last that I must run out and tell Esau I had
misjudged him, as I had been misjudged, when Mr Raydon stopped before
me and said softly--
"You remember your Latin, Mayne?"
"A little, sir," I said, wondering at his words.
"_Humanum est curare_. You know that?"
"Yes, sir," I said, huskily; "but please don't say any more."
"I must. I have erred bitterly. I was blind to the truth. Will you
forgive me?"
"Mr Raydon!" I cried.
"My dear boy," he said, as he grasped my hands; and, to my astonishment,
I saw the tears standing in his eyes, while I could not help thinking as
he stood there softened towards me, how like he seemed to his sister;
"you do not know how I have suffered, hard, cold man as I have grown in
my long residence in these wilds."
"But it's all past now, sir," I said; "and you know the truth."
"Yes; all past," said Gunson, warmly.
"Past; but I shall never forget it, Mayne. My dear sister's letter
interested me deeply in you, and when you came I felt that she had not
exaggerated, and you at once made your way with me. Then came this
wretched misunderstanding, blinding me to everything but the fact that I
had received a wound, one which irritated me more than I can say."
"Pray, pray say no more, sir," I cried, excitedly.
"I must, Mayne. I ought to have known better."
"I am glad, Dan," cried Mr John, exultingly. "I have always been such
a weak, easily-led-away man, that my life has been a series of mistakes;
and it is a delightful triumph to me to find that my hard-headed, stern
brother-in-law can blunder too."
"Yes; it will take some of the conceit out of me," said Mr Raydon,
smiling. "There; shake hands, my lad. I read your forgiveness in your
eyes."
"Why, my dear Raydon," cried Mr Gunson, merrily, "what moles we all
are, and how things shape themselves without our help! I find that in
my wild thirst for gold I have been acting as your good genii."
"How?" said Mr Raydon.
"By bringing Mayne and you closer together than you would ever have been
without this mistake. See what I have done for you too, in clearing the
valley of this horrible gold!" he cried, merrily.
"But you've ruined the estate I was to have had," said Mr John. "My
brother and I went down and had a look at it, and it is one horrible
black desert."
"Pish, man!" cried Gunson; "may work for the best."
"What!" cried Mr John; "are you mad?"
"No, sir. Never more sane; for the gold mania has gone. That vale was
grand with its mighty trees, but it was the work of a generation to
clear that forest. Through me, that place was swept clean in a couple
of days."
"Clean?" said Mr John, dolefully.
"Yes; and the ground covered with the rich, fertilising ashes of the
forest. Raydon, what will that place be in a year?"
"Green again; and in two years, when the black stumps are demolished,
far more beautiful and suitable for settlement than it was before. He
is quite right, John; it is a blessing for us in disguise."
"Humph!" ejaculated Mr John; and Mrs John shook her head sadly.
"I do not like disguises," she said; "and I grieve for those lovely
pyramidal trees."
"Trees enough and to spare everywhere," said Mr Raydon. "Don't be
afraid; you shall have a lovely home--eh, Mayne? I think we can manage
that. There, Gunson, the sooner the better. Let's have a happy
settlement there, and no more gold."