Produced by Al Haines
[Frontispiece: "You stole those papers"]
GOLD SEEKERS OF '49
HOW IN THE YEAR 1849 CHARLEY ADAMS AND HIS FATHER
SET OUT FOR FAR CALIFORNIA, THERE TO FIND A GOLD MINE;
HOW THEY CROSSED THE TROPICAL ISTHMUS OF PANAMA, BY
CANOE AND BY MULE TO THE PACIFIC SIDE; HOW THEY LANDED
AT LAST IN WONDERFUL SAN FRANCISCO, AND WHAT BEFELL
THEM THERE AND IN THE HIGH SIERRAS; RELATING HOW
THEY ENCOUNTERED FORTUNE AND MISFORTUNE IN THAT
NEW LAND PEOPLED FROM EVERY QUARTER OF THE GLOBE
BY
EDWIN L. SABIN
AUTHOR OF "WITH CARSON AND FRÉMONT," "ON THE PLAINS WITH
CUSTER," "BUFFALO BILL AND THE OVERLAND TRAIL," ETC.
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY_
CHARLES H. STEPHENS
_AND MAPS_
PHILADELPHIA & LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1915,
BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
TO
THE AMERICAN BOY
AND
THIS WONDERFUL LAND WHICH IS HIS
IN WHICH TO GROW AND PROSPER
Part of God's providence it was to found
A Nation's bulwark on this chosen ground;
Not Jesuit's zeal nor pioneer's unrest
Planted these pickets in the distant West,
But He who first the Nation's fate forecast
Placed here His fountains sealed for ages past,
Rock-ribbed and guarded till the coming time
Should fit the people for their work sublime;
When a new Moses with his rod of steel
Smote the tall cliffs with one wide-ringing peal,
And the old miracle in record told
To the new Nation was revealed in gold.
--BRET HARTE
FOREWORD
It has taken Americans to build the Panama Canal, and it took the
Americans to build California. These are two great feats of which we
Americans of the United States may well be proud: the building of that
canal, in the strange tropics 2000 miles away across the water, and the
up-rearing of a mighty State, under equally strange conditions, 2000
miles away across plains and mountains.
On the Isthmus men of many nationalities combined like a vast family;
each man, from laborer to engineer, doing his stint, without favoritism
and without graft, toward the big result. So in California likewise a
people collected from practically all the world became Americans
together under the Flag, and working shoulder to shoulder--rich and
poor, old and young, educated and uneducated, no matter what their
manner of life previously--they joined forces to make California worthy
of being a State in the Union.
So hurrah for the Panama Canal, built by American methods which
encourage every man to do his share; and hurrah for California, raised
to Statehood upon the foundation of American equality!
The discovery of gold in California was hailed as an occasion for
getting rich quick; but its purpose proved to be the development of
character. It seems a long, long way back to Forty-nine, when across
the Isthmus and across the plains thousands of men--yes, and not a few
women and children--pluckily forged ahead, bound for the Land of Gold.
Some made their fortunes, but the best that any of them achieved lay in
the towns that they founded, the laws that they enacted, the homes that
they established, and the realization that these things were of more
importance than the mere frenzy for quick wealth.
In not many years the completion of the Canal will also seem a long,
long way back. We Americans will have turned to some other marvelous
accomplishment, but the Canal will continue to exist as a monument to
American energy and democracy.
So we who share in that California which our elders made, by railroad
and canal hurried so comfortably over the trails that they toilsomely
opened in years agone, have a great deal to think about and a great
deal of which to be proud.
EDWIN L. SABIN
CALIFORNIA,
June 1, 1915.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
THE STORY OF CALIFORNIA
THE PANAMA CANAL
I. THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER
II. HURRAH FOR THE GOLDEN WEST
III. AN UNWELCOME COMPANION
IV. A FRIEND IN NEED
V. AN ATTACK BY THE ENEMY
VI. THE LANDING AT THE ISTHMUS
VII. A RACE UP THE RIVER
VIII. A TRICK--AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
IX. TIT FOR TAT
X. ALMOST LEFT BEHIND
XI. CHARLEY LOSES OUT
XII. CALIFORNIA HO!
XIII. INTO THE GOLDEN GATE
XIV. ALL ASHORE
XV. THE SIGHTS OF SAN FRANCISCO
XVI. CHARLEY HEARS A CONVERSATION
XVII. ON TO THE DIGGIN'S
XVIII. THE TRAIL OF THE ENEMY
XIX. A GREAT DISCOVERY
XX. ANOTHER GREAT DISCOVERY
XXI. MINERS' JUSTICE
XXII. THE BEST OF ALL
ILLUSTRATIONS
"YOU STOLE THOSE PAPERS" . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
"OVER THEY GO!"
DOWN SLIPPED CHARLEY'S HORSE FROM THE TRAIL
"I'VE LOST THE PAPERS"
BILLY STEPPED ON HIS LEAD ROPE AND LEVELED HIS GUN LIKE LIGHTNING
MAPS
THE MAP FROM THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER
FROM NEW ORLEANS TO SAN FRANCISCO, 1849
THE ROUTE ACROSS THE ISTHMUS IN 1849
THE VOYAGE OF THE SCHOONER "MARY ANN" FROM SAN FRANCISCO
TO THE GOLD FIELDS, 1849
FROM SACRAMENTO TO "THE DIGGIN'S," 1849
THE STORY OF CALIFORNIA
1542--On September 28, 1542, Captain Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a
Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain, on a voyage of
exploration along the coast northward from Mexico casts anchor of his
two small ships, the _San Salvador_ and the _Victoria_, in San Diego
Bay. He christens it the Puerta de San Miguel (Port of Saint Michael).
Thence his ships explore north clear to the line of present Oregon.
Mid-voyage he dies from an accident, and is buried on San Miguel
Island, opposite present Santa Barbara. The exploration is continued
by his lieutenant, Bartolome Ferrelo.
1579--In June, 1579, Sir Francis Drake, English adventurer, lands near
the Bay of San Francisco, to overhaul his ship, the _Golden Hind_. He
takes possession of the shore for Queen Elizabeth, christens it New
Albion, and erects a monument. His bay is called Francis Drake's Bay.
1587--The Bay of Monterey visited, according to description, in 1587,
by the Spanish navigator Pedro de Unamunu, in his ship _Nuestra Señora
de la Esperança_ (Our Lady of Hope). He lands and erects a cross, and
christens the place Puerta de San Lucas (Port of Saint Luke), taking
possession for the King of Spain.
1595--In 1595 the Spanish navigator Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno is
wrecked in Francis Drake's Bay, to which he gives the name Bay of San
Francisco. This was a small bay behind Point Reyes, north of the
entrance to the Golden Gate.
1602--Cabrillo's Port of San Miguel entered in 1602 by the Spanish
navigator Sebastian Vizcaino, with four vessels: the _San Diego_ (Saint
James), the _Santo Tomas_ (Saint Thomas), the _Tres Reyes_ (Three
Kings), and a launch. He christens the bay San Diego. Voyaging
further, he rediscovers the Port of San Lucas, and christens it
Monterey, in honor of the Count of Monterey, the ruler for Spain in
Mexico.
1769--Sent out by Comandante José de Galvez, inspector general for
Spain in Mexico, in 1769 the first expedition by land ascends from
Lower California of Mexico into Alta (Upper) California. It is in two
parties, one commanded by Captain Rivera y Moncada and accompanied by
the Franciscan priest Padre Juan Crespi, the other commanded by Gaspar
de Portola, governor of the Californias for Spain, and accompanied by
the Franciscan priest Padre Junipero Serra. The object was to
establish three Franciscan missions--one at San Diego, one at Monterey,
one at San Francisco; and at Monterey a town and a fort. By sea set
forth, with another expedition, and with supplies, the ships _San
Carlos_ (Saint Charles), _San Antonio_ (Saint Anthony), and _San José_
(Saint Joseph). The _San José_ was disabled at the start. The meeting
place was to be San Diego. Here, July 16, 1769, the mission of San
Diego de Arcala is founded.
1769--November 2, 1769, the present Bay of San Francisco is discovered,
from a hill, by some soldiers in the party of Gaspar de Portola, who
had led an expedition northward from San Diego, to search for Monterey.
1770--June 3, 1770, the mission of San Carlos Borromeo de Monterey is
founded. Three other missions follow, to September, 1772.
1776--September 17, 1776, the presidio or military station of San
Francisco is founded.
1776--October 9, 1776, the mission of San Francisco de Asis is
dedicated, on the shore of the real San Francisco Bay. By August 23,
1823, twenty-one missions have been placed.
1781--September 4, 1781, the town of Los Angeles is established.
1794--In 1794, as old records say, the first American arrived, landing
from a ship and settling in Santa Barbara. He is called by the
Californians, "Boston Boy."
1804--Upper California is made a separate Spanish province, by royal
decree of August 29, 1804.
1821--By revolt of Mexico against Spain, in 1821 California becomes a
Mexican province.
1826--In 1826 arrive the first Americans by land, being a party of
trappers led from Salt Lake by Jedediah S. Smith.
1832--Captain Benjamin Morrell, Jr., of the American vessel _Tartar_,
after having stopped at California publishes, in 1832, a book upon his
travels, in which he urges the acquisition of California by the United
States.
1835--President Andrew Jackson authorizes Colonel Anthony Butler,
American official in Mexico, to purchase, if possible, for the United
States, "the whole bay of San Francisco." The plan fails.
1839--July 3, 1839, arrives at Monterey Captain John August Sutter, a
Swiss-American. In August he takes up a tract of land on the south
bank of the American River, east from present Sacramento, and there
establishes a trading post which he names New Helvetia, but which
became better known as Sutter's Fort. The post grows to be a rallying
place for American trappers and settlers.
1841--In November, 1841, arrive the first company of American
immigrants, led by J. Bartleson and John Bidwell, from the Missouri
River, along the Oregon Trail to the Salt Lake cut-off, thence down the
Humboldt River and across the Sierra Nevada mountains and down the
Stanislaus River. Numbering thirty-nine, they reach the ranch of Dr.
John Marsh, early American settler, back of the present city of
Oakland, opposite San Francisco.
1841--In October and November, 1841, the Bay of San Francisco, and the
Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers are surveyed by the Government
exploring expedition under command of Captain Charles W. Wilkes, United
States Navy.
1842--The Honorable Waddy Thompson, United States minister to Mexico,
informs President John Tyler, April 29, 1842, that Mexico is willing to
sell Texas and Upper California. He emphasizes the importance of
California.
1842--October 20, 1842, Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones of the United
States Navy raises the American flag over Monterey, thinking that war
with Mexico had been declared. The next day he apologizes; but the
sale of California is interrupted.
1842-43-44--The American immigration overland gradually increases in
1842, 1843, 1844, and alarms the Mexican authorities, who fear the
spread of American influence. The majority of the settlers locate in
Northern California.
1844--In February, 1844, Captain John C. Frémont and party, on
exploring expedition for the War Department at Washington, cross the
Sierra Nevada, to Sutter's Fort, and traverse California from north to
south.
1845--Negotiations for the purchase of California are resumed in 1845
by President James K. Polk. The American consul at Monterey, Thomas O.
Larkin, is appointed "confidential agent" for the United States, and is
instructed to keep watch against any scheming by France or Great
Britain, and to influence the California people to unite themselves
with the Republic.
1845--In the winter of 1845-1846 Frémont again leads a party to
Sutter's Fort, and on toward the coast. He is ordered out; proceeds up
for Oregon, and is recalled, May 8, 1846, into California by a naval
officer with dispatches for him.
1846--June, 1846, American settlers and adventurers, in the
neighborhood of Sutter's Fort, revolt against the Mexican government of
California; June 14 they capture Sonoma, north of San Francisco, where
they raise the Bear Flag and proclaim California to be an independent
republic. Frémont aids the revolution.
1846--Following news of war between the United States and Mexico, on
July 7, 1846, Commodore John D. Sloat raises the American flag over
Monterey; on July 9 it is raised over San Francisco and Sonoma; on July
11, over Sutter's Fort; on August 13, Los Angeles is invested, and the
flag raised there.
1847--After several engagements between the American forces and the
Californians, on January 13, 1847, by the treaty of Cahuenga the
Californians agree to lay down their arms.
1848--By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between the United States and
Mexico, at the close of the Mexican War, and ratified at Washington,
March 16, 1848, California is ceded to the United States.
1848--James Marshall, in the employ of Captain Sutter, while washing
out a mill-race at Coloma, on the American River, about thirty miles
west of Sutter's Fort, on January 24, 1848, discovers flakes of gold.
The news spreads; it reaches Monterey, the capital, May 29, and creates
intense excitement. In December the news officially reaches
Washington, by communication from General Richard B. Mason and former
consul James O. Larkin, and is included in President Polk's message to
Congress. During 1848 $10,000,000 in gold is gathered by miners in
California.
1849--In the spring of 1849 20,000 people are collected at the Missouri
River, prepared to start overland 2000 miles to the California gold
fields. More than 30,000 people make the land pilgrimage this year.
Others sail around Cape Horn. Many others choose to cross the Isthmus
of Panama, and reach the Pacific that way. The first shipload of gold
seekers arrive in San Francisco February 28, 1849. San Francisco,
formerly the hamlet of Yerba Buena (Good Herb), leaps from a population
of 500 to one of 15,000, and the harbor has 500 vessels at anchor,
flying all flags. In 1849 $40,000,000 of gold is taken from the soil
by the miners.
1849--September 1, 1849, a convention to frame a State Constitution
assembles at Monterey, the capital. On October 10 the constitution is
adopted.
1850--September 9, 1850, California is admitted as a State, into the
Union, without having been a Territory. Since then she has forged to
the front as one of the richest members of the Republic. Her soil has
been found to yield greater treasures than gold, and her people pride
themselves upon being among the most progressive of all between the two
oceans.
THE PANAMA CANAL
1513--September 25, the young Spanish navigator Vasco Nunez de Balboa
and party, from the Atlantic, exploring afoot the Isthmus of Panama
(first called the Isthmus of Darien), on the mountain divide sight the
Pacific Ocean. This they reach and claim for the King of Spain. They
were the first white men to cross the Isthmus, and they discovered the
Pacific Ocean.
1516--Balboa again crosses the Isthmus, transporting the material for
four ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Two thousand native
Indians die by the hard labor of jungle travel.
1520-1529--Various other explorations are made by Spain, in hopes of
finding a water-way clear through the Isthmus.
1521--Charles the Fifth of Spain orders a Royal Road constructed across
the Isthmus between Nombre de Dios on the Atlantic side and Panama on
the Pacific side. It crossed the Chagres River at Las Cruces.
1530--Vessels begin to navigate the Chagres up to Gorgona and Cruces,
and there connect with the Royal Road from Panama.
1534--The Spanish authorities of this New Spain undertake a survey of
the Isthmus, in order to construct a water-way from ocean to ocean.
The project fails.
1535-1814--Nothing more has been accomplished toward bettering
communication across the Isthmus, although a water route by way of Lake
Nicaragua has been much discussed.
1814--Spain authorizes the construction of a canal through the Isthmus,
but by a revolution loses her Central America provinces.
1825--The Republic of Central America requests the assistance of the
United States in the construction of a canal through Nicaragua.
1826--Aaron H. Palmer, of New York, contracts with the Republic of
Central America for the construction of a canal across Nicaragua. This
project also fails, and so does an English plan.
1827--President Bolivar of the Republic of Colombia (formed by the
States of New Granada, Ecuador and Venezuela, and thus embracing the
Isthmus) commissions J. A. Lloyd to survey the Isthmus with a view to a
rail-and-water route across. Lloyd recommends a canal from Limon Bay
to the Chagres River (as now), the river route as far on as possible,
and a railroad thence to the Pacific coast.
1835-1841--The United States further debates the subject of a ship
canal across the Isthmus or up through Nicaragua. Commissioners report
in favor of the Nicaragua route.
1838--A French company obtains from New Granada a concession to open a
route by land or water across the Isthmus. Although many surveys are
made, and a canal from Limon Bay to the vicinity of Panama is mapped
out, no actual construction work is done.
1847--The Republic of New Granada grants the right to a French
syndicate to build a railroad across the Isthmus. The right expired in
1848.
1848--Spurred on by the acquisition of California, the United States
secures from New Granada the right of passage across the Isthmus.
1849--The United States secures from Nicaragua the right to construct
communication of any sort between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific
Ocean.
1840--The American, Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Company, headed by
Cornelius Vanderbilt, is formed, to build across Nicaragua. The
company makes fresh surveys of value, but does no construction work,
and in 1856 its concession is recalled by Nicaragua.
1849--The Panama Railroad Company is formed by John Lloyd Stevens,
William Henry Aspinwall and Henry Chauncy of New York, to build across
the Isthmus. Work is started.
1855--After tremendous labor in the jungles and swamps, and the loss of
thousands of lives, the railroad is finished. On January 27, 1855, the
first locomotive crosses from ocean to ocean. Reconstructed to conform
to the canal, the railroad is in operation to-day.
1866--The United States Senate requests the Secretary of the Navy to
supply it with all available information upon the feasibility of a
canal across the Isthmus.
1867--Nineteen canal and seven railroad projects for the Isthmus region
are submitted in the report to the Senate. The report recommends that
a route be found through Panama.
1869--President Grant recommends to Congress the building of an
American canal across the Isthmus. Resolutions are adopted.
1872--An Interoceanic Canal Commission authorized by Congress begins
various surveys throughout the Isthmus country. Its final report
(1876) unanimously recommends the route through Nicaragua, instead of
through Panama.
1875--France forms a company to secure from the Republic of Colombia,
which again controls the Isthmus, the rights to build a canal across,
and to operate it for ninety-nine years. Lieutenant Lucien B. Wyse of
the French Navy makes a survey and a report.
1879--An International Congress of 135 delegates, eleven being from the
United States, is held at Paris, to discuss the route for a canal.
Ferdinand de Lesseps, French engineer who had built the Suez Canal,
presides. The route selected is that through Panama, between Colon and
Panama. The Universal Company of the Panama Interoceanic Canal is
incorporated. De Lesseps is made chief engineer. He calculates that
the canal can be built in eight years, at a cost of $127,000,000.
Shares in the company are widely sold.
1881--Work on the French canal is started.
1892--The French company has already spent eight years and
$260,000,000, and has accomplished little actual headway. An enormous
amount of money has been wasted. The company is declared insolvent and
a receiver is appointed by the French court.
1894--The company is reorganized as the New Panama Canal Company. In
five years it expends $8,000,000, in work on about two-fifths of the
canal.
1899--By authority of Congress President McKinley appoints an Isthmian
Canal Commission to investigate the property of the French company and
see by what methods it can be purchased. The commission in its report
recommends a route up through Nicaragua. Estimates are made that
$102,000,000 and ten years' work will be required.
1901--The question of a Panama canal or a Nicaragua canal is debated in
Congress. Expert opinion from engineers and shipping interests favors
the Panama route.
1902--By authorizing the purchase of the French company's property and
franchises for $40,000,000 the United States declares its purpose to
build a Panama canal itself. The Secretary of War is instructed to
make plans upon an expense basis not to exceed $130,000,000.
1903-1904--The United States formally takes over the French rights and
concludes a canal treaty with Panama, the canal to be completed in
fourteen years.
1904--The Canal Commission appointed by the President and under
supervision of the Secretary of War, William H. Taft, arrives on the
Isthmus to pursue the building of the canal. John F. Wallace is
engineer-in-chief. The commission decides on a lock canal, instead of
a sea-level canal as originally planned.
1905--John F. Stevens succeeds Mr. Wallace as chief engineer.
1906--The foreign members of an International Board of Consulting
Engineers which visits the canal at the invitation of the United States
report in favor of a sea-level canal; American members, in the
minority, report in favor of the lock canal.
1906--In his message to Congress President Roosevelt supports the
minority report favoring the lock canal. Congress adopts the minority
report.
1907--Engineer Stevens resigns. The canal work is placed under the
direction of the War Department. Lieutenant-Colonel George W.
Goethals, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., is made engineer-in-chief. He
estimates the cost of a lock canal at $375,000,000; of a sea-level
canal, $563,000,000.
1913--October 10 (the anniversary of the day upon which Balboa took
possession of the Pacific Ocean) the Gamboa dike, marking the division
between the canal waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific, is blown open
when President Wilson presses an electric button at the White House.
This year a mud scow passes through the canal from the Atlantic to the
Pacific.
1914--January 7, the steam crane boat Alexander la Valley, 1200 tons,
makes the passage--the first vessel by steam. February 1 the ocean tug
Reliance, Captain R. C. Thompson, having steamed around the Horn
returns to the Atlantic through the canal--the first commercial vessel
to pass.
1914--The annual report of Colonel Goethals states that the cost of
constructing the canal to date, has been $353,559,049, including
fortifications.
1915--The great canal is formally opened. Including the $40,000,000
paid to France, and the $10,000,000 paid to the Republic of Panama, the
outlay represented by the canal as built by the United States totals
about $400,000,000, of which not a cent was misused.
GOLD SEEKERS OF '49
I
THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER
Charley Adams was trudging up to his knees in snow, on his way home
from down town. It was Washington's Birthday, 1849, and winter had
sent St. Louis a late valentine in shape of a big snowstorm. As this
occurred seventy-five years ago, there were no street-cars in St. Louis
(or in any other American city, for that matter); and even had there
been street-cars they doubtless would have been tied up. At all
events, Charley had walked down, and now he was trudging back with the
mail.
His father was very anxious to see that mail. It contained the Eastern
papers, and these probably would add to the tidings printed in the St.
Louis papers, from the marvelous gold fields of California.
Since January, when President Polk's annual message to Congress had
been read in St. Louis, in the papers, St. Louis people, like the whole
population of the United States, had been crazy over the California
gold. It was claimed that as far back as January, 1848, a man named
Marshall, while digging a mill-race somewhere in interior Upper
California, for a Captain Sutter of Sutter's Fort ranch, on the
emigrant trail over the Sierra Nevada mountain-range down to
Sacramento, had washed into plain sight an unlimited supply of gold
flakes.
However, when the news first had reached Washington and New York and
had filtered back to St. Louis, it was several months old and seemed
scarcely worth attention, California being such a long way off. But
now the President himself was authority for the fact that gold actually
was lying around loose, for anybody to pick up, in this fair new land
of California, and that thousands of people already were gathering it!
The President offered as proof letters from Colonel Richard B. Mason,
the military governor of California, and from the Honorable Thomas O.
Larkin, who had been the United States consul in California. The
letters said not only that gold had been found, as before stated, but
that 10,000 people (nearly all the able-bodied population of
California) were out looking for more, and finding it, too! Sailors
were deserting the ships and soldiers the ranks; servants were leaving
the houses and merchants the stores, and the whole territory was wild.
Congressmen at Washington asserted so much gold would be put on the
market that gold money would lose its value, it would be so common.
These reports sounded like fairy-tales come true. Think of it! Gold,
lying around on the surface of the ground, to be pocketed by the first
finders! In spite of the fact that California had been a part of the
United States only two years, or since the war with Mexico, and was
distant 2000 miles across uninhabited desert and mountains, as soon as
the word about gold was guaranteed to be really the truth a tremendous
number of people here in the "States" set about dropping everything
else and starting right away, to seek their fortunes.
Hundreds of St. Louis people had left, in parties large and small, a
few to travel clear around Cape Horn of South America, or to cross the
Isthmus of Panama and to sail up the Pacific Coast, but the majority to
ride and walk, with wagon and team, across the deserts and mountains
from the Missouri River 2000 miles to California. A number of
neighbors and other friends of the Adamses had gone. Even Mr. Walker,
Billy Walker's father, was going as soon as he could provide so that
his family would not suffer in his absence; and he was talking of
taking Billy. As Billy was Charley's best chum, this seemed pretty
mean--for Charley, not for Billy, of course. To Charley there seemed
no chance of _his_ going, traveling across those wild plains and
ranges, sleeping out of doors, and fighting Indians, perhaps, and then
gathering gold in far California itself. His father was laid up, still
recovering from wounds received in the war with Mexico. Charley was
proud of his soldier father, who had served under General Scott all
through the war, until disabled in the capture of Mexico City; but he
did wish that there was some way for them to go to those gold fields.
The snow-storm had about ceased. The snow was two feet deep, in the
streets, and the air was nipping chill. The streets were deserted, as
evening settled down and Charley neared home. Now when he passed an
open stairway, leading up into a building, he saw a huddled figure just
inside the entrance.
He hurried on, but suddenly he stopped short. The figure had not
stirred, as he passed--it looked odd--maybe it was only crouching there
for shelter from the wind and snow--or maybe it was asleep--or maybe
frozen. Jiminy! He ought not to go and leave it. Boy Scouts of
America had not been organized, in 1849; but Charley was a Boy Scout at
heart, so he turned back, anxious to do a good turn if possible.
When he peered into the entrance to the stairway, the huddled figure
was there, just as first seen. It was that of a man, in ragged
clothing, with worn boots, slouch hat, and unkempt beard visible where
the face was bent forward upon the chest and folded arms. The figure
did not move, and Charley spoke to it.
"Hello."
There was no response.
"Hello, there! What are you doing?"
Still no answer of any kind.
"Hey! Wake up!" bade Charley, more boldly. "You'll freeze."
Into Charley's throat welled a little tinge of fear; the figure
remained so quiet and motionless. He reached in and shook the man by
the shoulder. It was cold and stiff.
"Wake up! Wake up!"
Hurrah! The man was alive, anyway, for now he did stir drowsily, and
mumbled as if objecting. Charley noticed that his hands were clenched
tightly over the side-pockets of his old jacket, where the corners were
drawn into his lap.
"Wake up! You'd better get out of here. You'll freeze. Want me to
help you?"
Charley tried to lift the man, and to force him to move; but the man
sat as a dead weight, and only mumbled crossly, and held back.
"Oh, crickity!" despaired Charley. "I'll have to get somebody to help.
He's half frozen already. That's what's the matter with him."
Charley bolted out, to peer up and down the dusky white street. He had
a notion to run to a little store about a block away, when he saw a man
walking hastily along on the opposite side of the street. Out into the
middle of the street floundered Charley, and hailed him.
"Hello! Can you please come over here a minute?"
"Sure, sonny." And he turned off, curiously approaching. "What is it
you want, now?"
"There's a man freezing to death in the doorway, yonder," said Charley,
excited. "He ought to be taken out."
"Who is he?"
"I don't know."
"What doorway, sonny?"
"That one. I'll show you." And Charley led off, the other man
following him. He was a dark complexioned, sharp-faced man, with a
little black moustache and a long drooping nose. He had bright black,
narrow eyes, piercing but rather shifty. He wore a round fur cap and
an overcoat with a cape.
The figure in the stairway entrance sat exactly as Charley had left
him, except that he appeared to have gathered his coat pockets tighter.
"See?" directed Charley.
"Humph!" The long-nosed man peered in keenly. "Drunk, isn't he?" And
he ordered roughly: "Come! get out o' here! Stir your stumps. This is
no place to sleep."
The figure mumbled and swayed.
"I don't think he's drunk," ventured Charley. "He doesn't act like it,
does he?"
"I dunno," grunted the long-nosed man, as if irritated. He reached in
and, as Charley had done, but more rudely, grasped the figure by the
shoulder; shook him and attempted to drag him forward; raised him a few
inches and let him drop back again.
"We can't do anything. He looks like a beggar, anyhow. I'll see if I
can find a watchman, on my way down town, and send him up."
That sounded inhuman, and Charley, for one, could not think of letting
the figure huddle there, in the cold and the night, until the watchman
should arrive. He did not like the long-nosed man.
"If you'll help, I'll take him home," volunteered Charley. "'Tisn't
far."
"How far?" demanded the long-nosed man.
"Just a block and a half."
"What'll you do with him there?"
"Get him warm. My mother and father'll tend to him. They won't mind."
"Humph!" grunted the long-nosed man. "Well, let's see. But I don't
intend to break my back for some no-'count trash such as this is.
Come," he ordered, to the figure. "Get out o' here."
He grasped the figure by the arms and pulled him forward. Charley
tried to get behind and boost. The tramp (if that was his kind)
mumbled and actually resisted--hanging back and fighting feebly. His
arms were wrenched from their position across his chest, and his coat
corners fell back, with a thud, against the sides of the stairway.
"This fellow must be carrying a brick in each pocket," grumbled the
long-nosed man. And halting his operations, despite the other man's
resistance he roughly felt of the coat corners. But when he would have
thrust in his hand, to investigate further, the other clutched the
pockets so tightly and moaned "No! No!" so imploringly, that much to
Charley's relief the long-nosed man quit.
Supporting their charge between them, and wading through the snow, they
proceeded up the street. The "tramp" half shambled, half slid;
darkness had gathered, stars were peeping out in the blue-black sky,
the way seemed hard and lonesome, and Charley was glad indeed that they
were bound to a place of warmth and shelter: home.
"It's right in the middle of this next block," panted Charley to the
long-nosed man. "Where that horse-step is, under the big old oak."
The gate was ajar, and they turned through, dragging their awkwardly
shambling burden. As they gained the front porch the front door was
flung wide, and Mrs. Adams stood there, peering out, to find what was
the meaning of this scuffling and grunting. Charley was glad to see
her, framed in the lamp-light.
"Why, Charley!" she exclaimed. "What's the matter?"
"Please, mother, let us in," answered Charley. "We've got a man who
was freezing in a stairway. Where'll we put him?"
"Gracious goodness! Take him right through and put him on the sofa.
Oh, George!" and she called to Mr. Adams. "Is he badly frozen,
Charley?" she asked, as Charley, tugging away, passed her.
"I don't think so, ma'am," replied the long-nosed man, speaking up.
"No, ma'am. Not yet. He's fairly limber." And he scolded, to the
"tramp": "Come on, now! You weigh a ton, with all your ballast."
Carrying and guiding the man, both, they continued on through the hall,
into the pleasant sitting-room lighted by a whale-oil lamp and heated
by a large wood-stove. At the call of his wife, Mr. Adams had hastily
come from the back part of the house.
"Hello," he greeted. "What's here? Who is he, Charley?"
Charley's father was a tall man (he stood six feet one inch in his
stockinged feet), and before the war he had been powerfully muscled.
Now he was worn thin, and was a little stooped; and because of the
wound in his knee, from a copper bullet, he limped. His full beard,
trimmed around, was brown, but his eyes were a bright keen blue.
Charley thought him the handsomest man in the world--and about the
biggest.
"Somebody they've taken out of a stairway," explained Mrs. Adams, to
him. "He was freezing. I told them to put him on the sofa."
"I should say so!" ejaculated Mr. Adams, and limped forward to help.
Mrs. Adams quickly rearranged the knitted spread and the pillow; and
with Mr. Adams attending to the feet end of the rescued stranger and
Charley and the long-nosed man attending to the body and head, on the
sofa the unknown was deposited.
"He's so thinly clothed!" cried Mrs. Adams, hovering over. "I'll get
some hot milk." And away she bustled, for the kitchen.
"Let's take off his coat and boots," directed Mr. Adams, with soldierly
decision. "Hope his feet aren't frozen." And he worked at the boots,
to haul them from the cold, stiff feet.
Charley and the long-nosed man had a harder time with the coat. The
unknown resisted, as before. He had opened his eyes (they were vacant
and frightened) and had roused a little more strength. He even shoved
the long-nosed man back.
"You," he appealed, huskily, to Charley, whom he seemed to accept as
his friend. "You--take it."
"Well, I'll be jiggered!" ejaculated the long-nosed man. "There's
gratitude for you!"
But he stood back, while Charley went ahead removing the coat. The
unknown grasped the pockets, for the last time, and tried to hand them
on to Charley.
"Keep it. You----" and he fell back, exhausted.
"We don't want your coat, my man," assured Mr. Adams, briskly rubbing
the feet.
"He's got something in the pockets, dad," explained Charley.
"Something heavy."
"Look and see, then," bade the long-nosed man. "Now's your chance."
"Shall I?" queried Charley, of his father, doubtfully, holding the coat.
"Why, yes, if you want to. Perhaps we ought to know."
"Here's the milk," announced Mrs. Adams, hurrying in bearing glass and
steaming pitcher.
Charley, with the long-nosed man peering curiously, and Mr. and Mrs.
Adams looking, as well, fished out the weight from the right-hand coat
pocket. It was a little buckskin sack, round and heavy with its
contents.
"By thunder!" exclaimed the long-nosed man. "Hooray! I suspicioned
it. This fellow's from the Californy gold mines, and that sack's
stuffed with gold dust, as they call it. Open her up and see. Where's
the other one? He's got the mate in t'other pocket, I'll bet you."
"Hold on, Charley. Don't open it," ordered Mr. Adams, as Charley
fumbled with the string tied tightly around the puckered mouth of the
little sack. "It isn't yours."
"Pass it to me and I'll open it," invited the long-nosed man. "Let me
feel. Yes, sirs; that's gold dust, all right; several hundred dollars'
worth."
"We'll not open it, just the same," insisted Mr. Adams, firmly. "Put
the sack back in the pocket, Charley, and hang coat and all away.
Wait, though. Look through the other pockets and see if there are any
letters or such things to tell who he is."
Charley sought. In the other side pocket he felt another buckskin
sack, round and heavy (just as the long-nosed man, who was watching
closely, had predicted), but the inside pockets contained nothing at
all.
The unknown murmured weakly.
"I'd better give him a little hot milk, if he can drink it, hadn't I?"
proffered Mrs. Adams; she poured a few inches into the glass and held
it to his bearded lips. He tried to sip--did sip, greedily, and sank
back.
Charley started off with the coat, to hang it over a chair.
"Here, you!" objected the long-nosed man. "What are you going to do?
Half that coat's mine, remember. I helped fetch him in. Half the
plunder comes to me."
"That's no way to talk, sir," reproved Mr. Adams, sternly. "Would you
rob a helpless stranger? Not in this house, sir!"
"He's not dead. He's only fainted," informed Mrs. Adams, indignant.
"But he gave the stuff away, didn't he?" demanded the long-nosed man.
"Sure he did. Supposing he dies on your hands, you count on getting
all he has, I reckon! But you won't."
"He told me to keep it, anyway, didn't he?" retorted Charley.
"He didn't mean you to keep it for yourself, Charley," corrected Mr.
Adams. "That's foolishness. He meant that you should keep it safe
until he could use it."
"Of course," nodded Mrs. Adams. "What had we better do with him,
George?"
"Let him sleep, if he wants to. His feet are getting warm. He'll be
all right."
"Lookee here," blustered the long-nosed man. "I come in for half,
remember. I helped fetch him in. If it hadn't been for my help he'd
have frozen solid where he was, or else the watchman would have picked
him up and taken him off. I'm going, now. I've got business to tend
to--same as before I was interrupted. I left a business errand, to
help fetch him here. Understand? My time's worth money. I know where
this house is, and I know your names; and I'm coming 'round again, to
see what's what. Half that dust is mine, or I'll make you trouble."
"If he doesn't use it, himself, it will go to his kin, sir," returned
Mr. Adams.
"Kin!" snorted the long-nosed man. "He's from the gold fields. Look
at that shirt, and those whiskers and boots; and the dust itself tells
the tale. As like as not he hasn't any kin, within reach; and if he
has, you're a blamed fool to summon 'em. We've got things in our own
hands--understand? Think it over. I'll be 'round. Good-night."
"Good-night," they answered. "Open the door for him, Charley," bade
Mr. Adams.
With a grunty grumble the long-nosed man passed out into the night.
Charley hastened back to look at the unknown again.
From the California gold fields! Think of that! And with two sacks of
gold dust! Who could he be? Where was he going in St. Louis? What
had he seen and done, in California? But here he lay, in a stupor,
with Mr. Adams rubbing his arms and legs, and Mrs. Adams hovering over
with the glass and pitcher.
II
HURRAH FOR THE GOLDEN WEST
As the evening wore on the stranger tossed and murmured more and more,
until it was evident that he was ill with something graver than mere
exposure.
"Charley, I think you'd better go for the doctor," said Mr. Adams,
finally, about eight o'clock, after they all had done what they could.
"This man's getting no better. He looks as though he might have a
fever."
"Yes; that's what I've been thinking, too," nodded Mrs. Adams. "Hurry
on, Charley. And if the doctor isn't there leave word for him to come
as soon as he can."
Out into the cold again, and into the darkness as well, bolted Charley,
donning cap and scarf and mittens as he went. The adventure was
growing more exciting. What a shame if the man should not recover and
they would have to guess all about him!
Old Doctor Paulis, the Adams family doctor, lived but three blocks
away, and through the snow and the night Charley ran the whole
distance. The doctor said that he'd be along immediately, or as soon
as he had finished his supper; and arrive he did, when Charley had been
home only a few minutes.
He examined the stranger very carefully.
"It's a case of fever--a kind probably contracted on the Isthmus or on
shipboard, if he returned that way," at last pronounced the doctor.
"I'm afraid, after his exposure to the cold, that I may not pull him
through; but I'll do what I can. Meantime if you can get in
communication with any of his relatives or friends, you'd better do so."
The doctor left a quantity of medicine, to be given at such frequent
intervals that somebody must be up all night. However, Charley went to
bed and slept, and dreamed that the mysterious stranger was sitting on
the sofa and was telling them that in California gold dust was shaken
from the trees and shoveled into flour-sacks.
But the mysterious stranger was by no means sitting up, when after
breakfast Charley saw him. He was quieter, to be sure, and he seemed
to be partially conscious; he even appeared to recognize Charley;
still, he was terribly weak.
It was Charley's turn to stay with him. Mrs. Adams went out to do some
marketing; Mr. Adams lay down, to rest. Charley sat near the sofa, to
give the medicine, and keep up the fire, and between times to pick out
interesting news about California, in the papers that he had brought
home. Gold, gold, gold! That was it--gold! Everybody out there was
finding gold, and everybody else was making ready to start.
One item told about a railroad across the Isthmus of Panama, too--that
it probably would be begun soon, by Americans; and with that completed
there would be an easy way to California.
The man on the sofa was making a strange sound; and looking over at
him, Charley was astonished to see himself beckoned. Up he jumped, and
crossed.
"Paper," whispered the man, in Charley's ear. "Paper----" and he
feebly signed that he wanted to write.
Charley flew to the desk in the corner and got a writing pad and
pencil. But the man was so weak that he made only a few wavy,
uncertain lines, and fell back exhausted.
"You write; I sign," he whispered, to Charley. Charley obediently took
pad and pencil, and the man dictated. "Date. Say 'For service
rendered I give--bearer--all my rights in--Golden West mining
claim--California.' I sign. Quick." And he motioned for the pencil.
Charley held the pad, and watched him feebly scrawl a "T" and what
might have been an "o"--and a haggling "m"; and then the pencil
dropped. He looked so strange, he scarcely breathed; and frightened,
Charley darted into the other room where his father was lying resting.
"Oh, dad! Dad!"
"Hello? What's the matter?"
"Come, quick!"
Mr. Adams jumped to the floor and at rapid limp hastened for the
living-room.
"He acts worse," explained Charley, pointing. "See? He talked, and
started to write, and fell back."
Mr. Adams bent over the sofa and with ear down listened. He put his
hand upon the stranger's forehead.
"Get the doctor as quick as you can, Charley," he bade.
Out bolted Charley, but he did not have far to go, for he met the
doctor at the gate. A glance at the sofa decided Doctor Paulis. He
soberly shook his head. His examination need be very short.
"I can do no more," he said.
"I feared so," confessed Charley's father. "To bad. Well, now what
can _we_ do, I wonder."
"I'll notify the coroner," proffered the old doctor. "Meanwhile, you'd
better look through the clothes and see if you can find out anything
more."
The doctor left. Mr. Adams gently searched the man's trouser pockets,
finding nothing, not even a knife.
"Now for the coat again," he directed.
Charley brought the coat from the closet. His father handled it. It
was heavy with the two little buckskin sacks; but the pockets contained
nothing else--and yet Mr. Adams's fingers paused in their search, as he
was about to lay the coat aside.
"There's a paper in here somewhere," he said. "I felt it. It's inside
the lining." He fished out his pen-knife; and ripping a seam,
extracted the paper from under the lining.
It seemed to be several pages from an old diary, and was worn so that
the pencilings could scarcely be read. Charley and his father could
make out names of places in California, evidently--"Sutter's,"
"American R.," "Coloma,"--and stray words such as "good camp,"
"prospects bright," "ounces," "pan," "rain," "home"; on an inside page
was sketched a rough map.
But this penciled map was so worn and faint that Charley and his
father, and his mother, too, puzzled over it almost in vain. Starting
from the joining of two rivers, it appeared to represent an exploring
trip up along one of the rivers, and through the country, with crosses
scattered like camps, and the letters "G. H." set down here and there.
The page was thumb-marked so badly, and so scuffed, that some of it was
well-nigh rubbed out. Charley and his father and mother later puzzled
a great deal over that map, which looked like this.
[Illustration: The map from the mysterious stranger. ("G H" means
"Gold Here")]
But now the next thing was the examination of the sacks, round and
heavy.
"I suppose we'd better open them," mused Mr. Adams. He untied the
worn, greasy thong about the neck of one, and loosened the mouth. He
peered in; so did Charley.
"Gold dust, sure as shooting," gasped Mr. Adams. "What in the world
are we to do with it? Nuggets, too. Ever see any, Charley? Here----"
and with thumb and finger he fished out a smoothish lump about the size
of a navy bean.
Charley saw it. He saw the dust, too--a mass of fine particles,
glinting dully yellow amidst the brownish interior. Gee whiz! And the
other sack held the same!
"How much do you suppose it makes?"
Mr. Adams weighed the sacks in his hand, thoughtfully.
"I judge they weigh about three pounds apiece," he mused. "Gold is
selling at fourteen dollars an ounce, I hear. Humph! If each sack
contains three pounds, that makes--er, twelve ounces to the
pound--thirty-six ounces in each sack, at fourteen dollars--say $500
apiece, or $1000 in all. I declare!"
That seemed like a lot of money.
"He gave it to me," declared Charley, eagerly. "Really he did, dad.
And he gave me his mine, too, out in California. He did. I wrote as
he told me to on a piece of paper, and he started to sign, and then he
quit. It's the Golden West mine. See?" and Charley, showed the
writing on the pad.
"Well!" muttered his father. "I declare! 'Tom,' that looks like. Tom
who, I wonder. That's the most importance. Of course we don't want
his mine or his money. Didn't he tell his last name?"
"No, sir. But he gave me the money, and he gave me the mine. He----"
but Charley was interrupted by a resounding knock on the front door.
"See who that is," bade his father. "I'll lay these things away."
When Charley opened the front door, the long-nosed man stood there, on
the threshold.
"Hello," he greeted, brusquely. "I called around to see our friend.
How is he?"
"Why," stammered Charley. "He's--he's dead."
"When?"
"Just a few moments ago."
"He is, is he? I'll have to look into that." And the long-nosed man
pushed by Charley and strode through the hall. Charley could do
nothing but follow. He found the man confronting Mr. Adams. The
figure on the sofa had been covered by a cloth.
"The kid says our friend has passed over," rather roughly spoke the
long-nosed man. "How about it?"
"Yes, sir," answered Mr. Adams. "There he is."
"Huh!" And walking across, the long-nosed man peeped in under the
cloth. "All right," he said. "Now's our chance to divvy, then, isn't
it?"
"Just what do you mean, sir?" demanded Mr. Adams, flushing--and Charley
knew that his father was angry.