“Now you keep still, or I’ll come de gold tuch ober you!” admonished
Jim, as he hurried the captured Mohave to the rear portion of the
cave, and delivered him in charge of George Inwood and his brother.
“What do you mean by the gold trick?” inquired the latter, as he
caught up his gun, and placed himself in an attitude to command the
movements of the captured Indian.
“Why I mean dat--hullo!”
Jim turned and darted up the passage, in which he had detected a
suspicious noise. He was not a moment too soon. The red men, furious
at the abduction of one of their number before their eyes, had united
to force away the stone, and, at the instant the negro returned, one
of them had shoved his body half through the opening.
“Out ob dar!” shouted Jim, as, with uplifted pick, he made straight
at the intruder. The latter, fully panic-stricken, turned about
and whisked out of the cave much more rapidly than he entered,
his moccasins twinkling in the air, as if the same means had been
employed to extract him, that had been used to draw his venturesome
companion in.
The ludicrous appearance of the Mohave, as he scrambled out among
his friends, exceedingly pleased the ponderous African, who laughed
loudly and heartily.
“Didn’t fancy de way I swung dat pick round! I was kinder loose wid
it, an’ if I’d let it drap on him, it would’ve made him dance.”
It looked very much as if our friends, in capturing the Mohave, had,
to use a common expression, secured an “elephant.” What to do with
him, was the all-important question, now that he was in their power.
Being without any warlike implements, he was comparatively harmless,
and, as there was no escape for him, except through the passage by
which he had entered, it was hardly to be supposed that, so long as
he was unmolested, he would indulge in any performances likely to
bring down the wrath of his captors upon him.
Withdrawing to the opposite side of the cave, (which was not more
than a dozen feet in diameter) he stood silent and sullen, while
Edwin Inwood, with his loaded and cocked rifle, watched him with
the vigilance of a cat. George Inwood, feeling that nothing was
to be apprehended from the present shape of affairs within their
subterranean home, passed up the narrow entrance to where Jim was,
in order to learn how matters stood there.
At the moment of reaching his sable friend, the discharge of a gun
was heard, and Jim hastily retreated on his hands and knees a few
feet.
“Are you hit?” inquired Inwood in some alarm.
“Yes, but dey didn’t hurt me; _dey hit me on de head_!”
“Can they not force back the stone?”
“Not if we can git close up behind it.”
The negro spoke the truth; for, when immediately in the rear of the
immense boulder, they could hold it against the combined efforts
of any number of men on the outside, and, at the same time, keep
themselves invisible, while, by remaining in their present position,
they ran every risk of being struck. Consequently, no time was lost
in creeping into the proper place, where, for the time being, they
felt themselves masters of the situation.
Having successfully staved off all danger for the present, the
question naturally arose, how was this matter to end? The gold
hunters were walled up in a cave, with plenty of arms and ammunition,
little food and no water. The Mohaves, if they chose so to do, could
keep them there until they perished from thirst or starvation.
Edwin Inwood soon grew tired of standing in his constrained position,
and he cautiously set down his gun, within immediate reach, and
then sinking down upon one knee, resumed the work which had been so
peremptorily checked by the entrance of the captured Mohave. A large
stone, weighing over a dozen pounds, was held firmly in position,
while he employed both hands in drilling a hole into the center.
This, as all know, is quite a tedious operation, and, although he
had the usual tools of the blaster of rocks, he made slow progress.
Still, he was animated by that great spur to exertion, necessity, and
he applied himself to his task without intermission.
While his brother and the gigantic African were parleying and
debating upon their situation, he succeeded in reaching the depth
desired, and then carefully removing the debris, he thoroughly
cleaned the cavity, as does the skillful dentist when preparing our
molar for the golden filling. Into this hollow, the lower portion
of which he had managed to give a globular shape, he poured several
handfuls of Dupont’s best, a piece of fuse all the while standing
upright, while the jetty particles arranged themselves around it.
Dust and sand were then carefully dropped in, until they reached the
surface of the stone, when it assumed the appearance of a solid,
honest fragment of rock, with the odd-looking fuse sprouting from its
side.
“There!” exclaimed the boy, with a sigh, “it is done, and I think it
will answer very well.”
As he looked up, he saw the Mohave still standing silent and sullen,
but with his dark eyes fixed upon the young artisan with a curious
expression, as though a dim idea of the meaning of all this was
gradually filtrating through his brain.
“What do you think of it?” asked the youngster, holding up the block
of stone, with a smile at his own success, and at the whim which
prompted the query. If the questioned had any idea of the meaning of
the question, he did not choose to manifest it, but maintained the
same stolid silence as before.
“I don’t suppose it will suit you very well; at any rate your friends
will be more astonished than pleased with it.”
The boy called his brother, who immediately made his appearance. It
took but a few moments to explain his scheme, which pleased the young
man.
“It can do no harm to us to try it,” he said, as he picked it up and
carried it to Jim. The latter listened to the explanation a moment,
and his great eyes rolled with delight at the scheme.
“Fus’ rate, fus’ rate, almost as good as de gold trick.”
“It is as good a time as any to try it, isn’t it?”
“I s’pose so--you kin see dey’re purty thick out dere.”
Inwood produced a match and set fire to the fuse. It burned quite
rapidly, like the string of a Chinese cracker.
“Throw it out as quick as it reaches the sand!” called Edwin from the
cave.
“Golly, it’s dar now!” exclaimed Jim, springing up, and preparing
to toss it out among the Mohaves gathered outside. Unfortunately,
his elbow struck the side of the entrance, and the bombshell dropped
at his feet. Believing it about to explode, the negro ran back in
dismay, when Inwood, with remarkable coolness, drew the huge boulder
a little to one side, and, catching up the stone, swung it through
the opening. Before the Mohaves could understand the intent of this,
the terrible object burst into a thousand fragments, and with wild
whoops of terror, the red men scattered in every direction, as though
they themselves were a portion of an immense bombshell which had
exploded.
The success of Edwin’s scheme, and delight of our friends were
complete.
“Anybody killed?” asked Jim, and his companion peered cautiously
around the edge of the boulder.
“I suppose not; but they have been hit and frightened almost out of
their senses, and that will do as much good as though it had slain
half a dozen of them. I don’t believe they will come back again.”
“Dunno ’bout dat; dey’re a queer set ob darkeys, am de Injins.”
“I don’t think, from what I have heard, that these Mohaves are the
bravest tribe of Indians in California, and they are too much afraid
of us to make much trouble so long as we remain in the cave. And that
reminds me of our prisoner--what are we to do with him?”
“Kill him,” was the decided response.
“No; that will never do; we cannot murder him.”
“Let me come de gold trick ober him.”
“I haven’t learned what that is.”
“Jes’ come back where he am, an’ I’ll soon larn you.”
Inwood was apprehensive that the “gold trick,” so often referred to
by his sable friend, meant something cruel, and he concluded it safer
to restrain him.
“Never mind about it now, Jim; I have a plan of my own.”
“What’s dat?”
“Let him go.”
“You don’t mean dat?”
“Yes, I do; although he is our enemy, and although his own people
are barbarians, who are none too good to put us to the worst kind of
torture, if they had us in their power; yet, we are Christians, and
cannot do such a thing.”
“Dunno but what you are right; fetch out de feller.”
“Besides,” added Inwood, as he moved away, “it may change their
feelings toward us. They know we have one of their number in our
power, and, if we let him go unharmed, they will have less reason to
look upon us as their enemies--this one at least will regard us as a
friend.”
The decision made, it was carried out without delay. The Mohave was
led from the cave, carefully along the passage toward the opening.
He evidently believed he was being conducted to his doom; he was
as sullen and stoical as his race generally are at such times. Jim
had rolled the boulder back, so as to afford him free egress, and
Inwood, first taking him by the arm, motioned for him to retire. The
aborigine did not comprehend his meaning, when his captor turned his
face toward the opening, and gave him a gentle shove. This was a hint
which could not be misunderstood, and he darted out in a twinkling,
and disappeared.
“Now, I will take a look and see whether there are any of them left,”
said Inwood, as he stealthily followed the liberated Mohave.
By this time it was growing dark, but objects for a considerable
distance were quite distinct, and George Inwood made a thorough
reconnoisance of the bed of the brook for several hundred yards up
and down. At the end of a half hour, he returned with the pleasing
word that the Mohaves had taken their departure.