If you want to know what mad adventure Bud found himself launched upon,
just read a few extracts from the diary which Cash Markham, being a
methodical sort of person, kept faithfully from day to day, until he cut
his thumb on a can of tomatoes which he had been cutting open with his
knife. After that Bud kept the diary for him, jotting down the main
happenings of the day. When Cash's thumb healed so that he could hold a
pencil with some comfort, Bud thankfully relinquished the task. He hated
to write, anyway, and it seemed to him that Cash ought to trust his
memory a little more than he did.
I shall skip a good many days, of course--though the diary did not, I
assure you.
First, there was the outfit. When they had outfitted at Needles for the
real trip, Cash set down the names of all living things in this wise:
Outfit, Cassius B. Markham, Bud Moore, Daddy a bull terrier, bay horse,
Mars, Pete a sorrel, Ed a burro, Swayback a jinny, Maude a jack, Cora
another jinny, Billy a riding burro & Sways colt & Maude colt a white
mean looking little devil.
Sat. Apr. 1.
Up at 7:30. Snowing and blowing 3 ft. of snow on ground. Managed to get
breakfast & returned to bed. Fed Monte & Peter our cornmeal, poor things
half frozen. Made a fire in tent at 1:30 & cooked a meal. Much smoke,
ripped hole in back of tent. Three burros in sight weathering fairly
well. No sign of let up everything under snow & wind a gale. Making out
fairly well under adverse conditions. Worst weather we have experienced.
Apr. 2.
Up at 7 A.M. Fine & sunny snow going fast. Fixed up tent & cleaned up
generally. Alkali flat a lake, can't cross till it dries. Stock some
scattered, brought them all together.
Apr. 3.
Up 7 A.M. Clear & bright. Snow going fast. All creeks flowing. Fine
sunny day.
Apr. 4.
Up 6 A.M. Clear & bright. Went up on divide, met 3 punchers who said
road impassable. Saw 2 trains stalled away across alkali flat. Very
boggy and moist.
Apr.5.
Up 5 A.M. Clear & bright. Start out, on Monte & Pete at 6. Animals
traveled well, did not appear tired. Feed fine all over. Plenty water
everywhere.
Not much like Bud's auto stage, was it? But the very novelty of it, the
harking back to old plains days, appealed to him and sent him forward
from dull hardship to duller discomfort, and kept the quirk at the
corners of his lips and the twinkle in his eyes. Bud liked to travel
this way, though it took them all day long to cover as much distance as
he had been wont to slide behind him in an hour. He liked it--this slow,
monotonous journeying across the lean land which Cash had traversed
years ago, where the stark, black pinnacles and rough knobs of rock
might be hiding Indians with good eyesight and a vindictive temperament.
Cash told him many things out of his past, while they poked along,
driving the packed burros before them. Things which he never had set
down in his diary--things which he did not tell to any one save his few
friends.
But it was not always mud and rain and snow, as Cash's meager chronicle
betrays.
May 6.
Up at sunrise. Monte & Pete gone leaving no tracks. Bud found them
3 miles South near Indian village. Bud cut his hair, did a good job.
Prospector dropped into camp with fist full of good looking quartz.
Stock very thirsty all day. Very hot Tied Monte & Pete up for night.
May 8.
Up 5:30. Fine, but hot. Left 7:30. Pete walked over a sidewinder & Bud
shot him ten ft. in air. Also prior killed another beside road. Feed as
usual, desert weeds. Pulled grain growing side of track and fed plugs.
Water from cistern & R.R. ties for fuel. Put up tent for shade. Flies
horrible.
May 9.
Up 4. Left 6. Feed as usual. Killed a sidewinder in a bush with 3 shots
of Krag. Made 21 m. today. R.R. ties for fuel Cool breeze all day.
May 11.
Up at sunrise. Bud washed clothes. Tested rock. Fine looking mineral
country here. Dressed Monte's withers with liniment greatly reducing
swelling from saddle-gall. He likes to have it dressed & came of his own
accord. Day quite comfortable.
May 15.
Up 4. Left 6:30 over desert plain & up dry wash. Daddy suffered from
heat & ran into cactus while looking for shade. Got it in his mouth,
tongue, feet & all over body. Fixed him up poor creature groaned all
evening & would not eat his supper. Poor feed & wood here. Water found
by digging 2 ft. in sand in sandstone basins in bed of dry wash. Monte
lay down en route. Very hot & all suffered from heat.
May 16.
Bud has sick headache. Very hot so laid around camp all day. Put two
blankets up on tent pols for sun break. Daddy under weather from cactus
experience. Papago Indian boy about 18 on fine bay mare driving 4 ponies
watered at our well. Moon almost full, lots of mocking birds. Pretty
songs.
May 17.
Up 7:30 Bud some better. Day promises hot, but slight breeze. White
gauzy clouds in sky. Daddy better. Monte & Pete gone all day. Hunted
twice but impossible to track them in this stony soil Bud followed
trail, found them 2 mi. east of here in flat sound asleep about 3 P.M.
At 6 went to flat 1/4 mi. N. of camp to tie Pete, leading Monte by
bell strap almost stepped on rattler 3 ft. long. 10 rattles & a button.
Killed him. To date, 1 Prairie rattler, 3 Diamond back & 8 sidewinders,
12 in all. Bud feels better.
May 18.
At 4 A. M. Bud woke up by stock passing camp. Spoke to me who half awake
hollered, “sic Daddy!” Daddy sicced 'em & they went up bank of wash to
right. Bud swore it was Monte & Pete. I went to flat & found M. & P.
safe. Water in sink all gone. Bud got stomach trouble. I threw up my
breakfast. Very hot weather. Lanced Monte's back & dressed it with
creoline. Turned them loose & away they put again.
Soon after this they arrived at the place where Thompson had located his
claim. It was desert, of course, sloping away on one side to a dreary
waste of sand and weeds with now and then a giant cactus standing
gloomily alone with malformed lingers stretched stiffly to the staring
blue sky. Behind where they pitched their final camp--Camp 48, Cash
Markham recorded it in his diary--the hills rose. But they were as stark
and barren almost as the desert below. Black rock humps here and there,
with ledges of mineral bearing rock. Bushes and weeds and dry washes for
the rest, with enough struggling grass to feed the horses and burros if
they rustled hard enough for it.
They settled down quietly to a life of grinding monotony that would have
driven some men crazy. But Bud, because it was a man's kind of monotony,
bore it cheerfully. He was out of doors, and he was hedged about by no
rules or petty restrictions. He liked Cash Markham and he liked Pete,
his saddle horse, and he was fond of Daddy who was still paying the
penalty of seeking too carelessly for shade and, according to Cash's
record, “getting it in his mouth, tongue, feet & all over body.” Bud
liked it--all except the blistering heat and the “side-winders”
and other rattlers. He did not bother with trying to formulate any
explanation of why he liked it. It may have been picturesque, though
picturesqueness of that sort is better appreciated when it is seen
through the dim radiance of memory that blurs sordid details. Certainly
it was not adventurous, as men have come to judge adventure.
Life droned along very dully. Day after day was filled with petty
details. A hill looks like a mountain if it rises abruptly out of a
level plain, with no real mountains in sight to measure it by. Here's
the diary to prove how little things came to look important because the
days held no contrasts. If it bores you to read it, think what it must
have been to live it.
June 10.
Up at 6:30 Baked till 11. Then unrigged well and rigged up an incline
for the stock to water. Bud dressed Daddy's back. Stock did not come in
all morning, but Monte & Pete came in before supper. Incline water shaft
does not work. Prospected & found 8 ledges. Bud found none.
June 11.
After breakfast fixed up shack--shelves, benches, tools, etc. Cleaned
guns. Bud dressed Daddy's back which is much better. Strong gold in test
of ledge, I found below creek. Took more specimens to sample. Cora comes
in with a little black colt newly born. Proud as a bull pup with two
tails. Monte & Pete did not come in so we went by lantern light a mile
or so down the wash & found them headed this way & snake them in to
drink about 80 gallons of water apiece. Daddy tied up and howling like a
demon all the while. Bud took a bath.
June 12.
Bud got out and got breakfast again. Then started off on Pete to hunt
trail that makes short cut 18 miles to Bend. Roofed the kitchen. Bud got
back about 1:30, being gone 6 hours. Found trail & two good ledges. Cora
& colt came for water. Other burros did not. Brought in specimens from
ledge up creek that showed very rich gold in tests. Burros came in at
9:30. Bud got up and tied them up.
June 13.
Bud gets breakfast. I took Sway & brought in load of wood. Bud went out
and found a wash lined with good looking ledges. Hung up white rags on
bushes to identify same. Found large ledge of good quartz showing fine
in tests about one mile down wash. Bud dressed Daddy's back. Located
a claim west of Thompson's. Burros did not come in except Cora & colt.
Pete & Monte came separated.
June 14.
Bud got breakfast & dressed Daddy's back. Very hot day. Stock came in
about 2. Tied up Billy Maud & Cora. Bud has had headache. Monte & Pete
did not come in. Bud went after them & found them 4 miles away where
we killed the Gila monster. Sent 2 samples from big ledge to Tucson for
assay. Daddy better.
June 15.
Up 2.30. Bud left for Bend at 4. Walked down to flat but could not see
stock. About 3 Cora & Colt came in for water & Sway & Ed from the south
about 5. No Monte. Monte got in about midnight & went past kitchen to
creek on run. Got up, found him very nervous & frightened & tied him up.
June 17.
Bud got back 4 P.M. in gale of wind & sand. Burros did not come in for
water. Very hot. Bud brought canned stuff. Rigged gallows for No.
2 shaft also block & tackle & pail for drinking water, also washed
clothes. While drying went around in cap undershirt & shoes.
June 18.
Burros came in during night for water. Hot as nether depths of infernal
regions. Went up on hill a mile away. Seamed with veins similar to shaft
No. 2 ore. Blew in two faces & got good looking ore seamed with a black
incrustation, oxide of something, but what could not determine. Could
find neither silver nor copper in it. Monte & Pete came in about 1 &
tied them up. Very hot. Hottest day yet, even the breeze scorching. Test
of ore showed best yet. One half of solution in tube turning to chloride
of gold, 3 tests showing same. Burros except Ed & Cora do not come in
days any more. Bud made a gate for kitchen to keep burros out.
The next morning it was that Cash cut the ball of his right thumb open
on the sharp edge of a tomato can. He wanted the diary to go on as
usual. He had promised, he said, to keep one for the widow who wanted
a record of the way the work was carried on, and the progress made. Bud
could not see that there had been much progress, except as a matter of
miles. Put a speedometer on one of his legs, he told Cash, and he'd bet
it would register more mileage chasing after them fool burros than his
auto stage could show after a full season. As for working the widow's
claim, it was not worth working, from all he could judge of it. And if
it were full of gold as the United States treasury, the burros took up
all their time so they couldn't do much. Between doggone stock drinking
or not drinking and the darn fool diary that had to be kept, Bud opined
that they needed an extra hand or two. Bud was peevish, these days. Gila
Bend had exasperated him because it was not the town it called itself,
but a huddle of adobe huts. He had come away in the sour mood of a
thirsty man who finds an alkali spring sparkling deceptively under a
rock. Furthermore, the nights had been hot and the mosquitoes a humming
torment. And as a last affliction he was called upon to keep the diary
going. He did it, faithfully enough but in a fashion of his own.
First he read back a few pages to get the hang of the thing. Then he
shook down Cash's fountain pen, that dried quickly in that heat. Then he
read another page as a model, and wrote:
June 19.
Mosquitoes last night was worse than the heat and that was worse than
Gila Bend's great white way. Hunted up the burros. Pete and Monte came
in and drank. Monte had colic. We fed them and turned them loose but the
blamed fools hung around all day and eat up some sour beans I throwed
out. Cash was peeved and swore they couldn't have another grain of feed.
But Monte come to the shack and watched Cash through a knothole the size
of one eye till Cash opened up his heart and the bag. Cash cut his thumb
opening tomatoes. The tomatoes wasn't hurt any.
June 20.
Got breakfast. Bill and harem did not come to water. Cash done the
regular hike after them. His thumb don't hurt him for hazing donkeys.
Bill and harem come in after Cash left. They must of saw him go. Cash
was out four hours and come in mad. Shot a hidrophobia skunk out by the
creek. Nothing doing. Too hot.
June 21.
The sun would blister a mud turtle so he'd holler. Cash put in most of
day holding a parasol over his garden patch. Burros did not miss their
daily drink. Night brings mosquitoes with their wings singed but their
stingers O.K. They must hole up daytimes or they would fry.
June 22.
Thought I know what heat was. I never did before. Cash took a bath. It
was his first. Burros did not come to water. Cash and I tried to sleep
on kitchen roof but the darned mosquitoes fed up on us and then played
heavenly choir all night.
June 25.
Cash got back from Bend. Thumb is better and he can have this job any
time now. He hustled up a widow that made a couple of mosquito bags to
go over our heads. No shape (bags, not widow) but help keep flies and
mosquitoes from chewing on us all day and all night. Training for hades.
I can stand the heat as well as the old boy with the pitch-fork. Ain't
got used to brimstone yet, but I'd trade mosquitoes for sulphur smoke
and give some boot. Worried about Cash. He took a bath today again,
using water I had packed for mine. Heat must be getting him.
June 26.
Cash opened up thumb again, trying to brain Pete with rock. Pete got
halfway into kitchen and eat biggest part of a pie I made. Cash threw
jagged rock, hit Pete in side of jaw. Cut big gash. Swelled now like
a punkin. Cash and I tangled over same. I'm going to quit. I have had
enough of this darn country. Creek's drying up, and mosquitoes have
found way to crawl under bags. Cash wants me to stay till we find good
claim, but Cash can go to thunder.
Then Cash's record goes on:
June 27.
Bud very sick & out of head. Think it is heat, which is terrible.
Talked all night about burros, gasoline, & camphor balls which he seemed
wanting to buy in gunny sack. No sleep for either. Burros came in for
water about daylight. Picketed Monte & Pete as may need doctor if Bud
grows worse. Thumb nearly well.
June 27. Bud same, slept most of day. Gave liver pills & made gruel of
cornmeal, best could do with present stores. Burros came at about 3 but
could not drink owing to bees around water hold. Monte got stung and
kicked over water cans & buckets I had salted for burros. Burros put for
hills again. No way of driving off bees.
June 28.
Burros came & drank in night. Cooler breeze, Bud some better & slept.
Sway has badly swollen neck. May be rattler bite or perhaps bee. Bud
wanted cigarettes but smoked last the day before he took sick. Gave him
more liver pills & sponge off with water every hour. Best can do under
circumstances. Have not prospected account Bud's sickness.
June 29.
Very hot all day, breeze like blast from furnace. Burros refuse to leave
flat. Bees better, as can't fly well in this wind. Bud worse. High fever
& very restless & flighty. Imagines much trouble with automobile, talk
very technical & can't make head or tail of it. Monte & Pete did not
come in, left soon as turned loose. No feed for them here & figured Bud
too sick to travel or stay alone so horses useless at present. Sponged
frequently with coolest water can get, seems to give some relief as he
is quieter afterwards.
July 4th.
Monte & Pete came in the night & hung around all day. Drove them away
from vicinity of shack several times but they returned & moped in shade
of house. Terrible hot, strong gusty wind. Bud sat up part of day, slept
rest of time. Looks very thin and great hollows under eyes, but chief
trouble seems to be, no cigarettes. Shade over radishes & lettice works
all right. Watered copiously at daylight & again at dusk. Doing fine.
Fixed fence which M & P. broke down while tramping around. Prospected
west of ranche. Found enormous ledge of black quartz, looks like
sulphur stem during volcanic era but may be iron. Strong gold & heavy
precipitate in test, silver test poor but on filtering showed like white
of egg in tube (unusual). Clearing iron out showed for gold the highest
yet made, being more pronounced with Fenosulphate than $1500 rock have
seen. Immense ledge of it & slightest estimate from test at least $10.
Did not tell Bud as keeping for surprise when he is able to visit ledge.
Very monotonous since Bud has been sick. Bud woke up & said Hell of a
Fourth & turned over & went to sleep again with mosquito net over head
to keep off flies. Burros came in after dark, all but Cora & Colt, which
arrived about midnight. Daddy gone since yesterday morning leaving no
trace.
July 5.
Miserable hot night. Burros trickled in sometime during night. Bud
better, managed to walk to big ledge after sundown. Suggests we call it
the Burro Lode. His idea of wit, claims we have occupied camp all summer
for sake of timing burros when they come to waterhole. Wish to call
it Columbia mine for patriotic reasons having found it on Fourth. Will
settle it soon so as to put up location. Put in 2 shots & pulpel samples
for assay. Rigged windows on shack to keep out bees, nats & flies &
mosquitoes. Bud objects because it keeps out air as well. Took them
off. Sick folks must be humored. Hot, miserable and sleepless. Bud very
restless.
July 6.
Cool wind makes weather endurable, but bees terrible in kitchen & around
water-hole. Flipped a dollar to settle name of big ledge. Bud won tails,
Burro lode. Must cultivate my sense of humor so as to see the joke. Bud
agrees to stay & help develop claim. Still very weak, puttered around
house all day cleaning & baking bread & stewing fruit which brought bees
by millions so we could not eat same till after dark when they subsided.
Bud got stung twice in kitchen. Very peevish & full of cuss. Says
positively must make trip to Bend & get cigarettes tomorrow or will blow
up whole outfit. Has already blowed up same several times today with no
damage. Burros came in about 5. Monte & Pete later, tied them up with
grain. Pete has very bad eye. Bud will ride Monte if not too hot for
trip. Still no sign of daddy, think must be dead or stolen though nobody
to steal same in country.
July 7.
Put in 2 shots on Burro Lode & got her down to required depth. Hot. Bud
finds old location on widow's claim, upturns all previous calculation
& information given me by her. Wrote letter explaining same, which Bud
will mail. Bud left 4 P.M. should make Bend by midnight. Much better but
still weak Burros came in late & hung around water hole. Put up monument
at Burro Lode. Sent off samples to assay at Tucson. Killed rattler near
shack, making 16 so far killed.