POWERFUL EFFECTS OF GOLD ON THE ASPECT OF THINGS IN GENERAL--THE DOINGS
AT LITTLE CREEK DIGGINGS--LARRY BECOMES SPECULATIVE, AND DIGS A HOLE
WHICH NEARLY PROVES THE GRAVE OF MANY MINERS--CAPTAIN BUNTING TAKES A
FEARFUL DIVE--AH-WOW IS SMITTEN TO THE EARTH--A MYSTERIOUS LETTER, AND A
SPLENDID DISH.
We must now beg our reader to turn with us to another scene.
The appearance of Little Creek diggings altered considerably, and for
the worse, after Ned Sinton and Tom Collins left. A rush of miners had
taken place in consequence of the reports of the successful adventurers
who returned to Sacramento for supplies, and, in the course of a few
weeks, the whole valley was swarming with eager gold-hunters. The
consequence of this was that laws of a somewhat stringent nature had to
be made. The ground was measured off into lots of about ten feet
square, and apportioned to the miners. Of course, in so large and rough
a community, there was a good deal of crime, so that Judge Lynch's
services were frequently called in; but upon the whole, considering the
circumstances of the colony, there was much less than might have been
expected.
At the time of which we write, namely, several weeks after the events
narrated in our last chapter, the whole colony was thrown into a state
of excitement, in consequence of large quantities of gold having been
discovered on the banks of the stream, in the ground on which the
log-huts and tents were erected. The result of this discovery was, that
the whole place was speedily riddled with pits and their concomitant
mud-heaps, and, to walk about after night-fall, was a difficult as well
as a dangerous amusement. Many of the miners pulled down their tents,
and began to work upon the spots on which they previously stood. Others
began to dig all round their wooden huts, until these rude domiciles
threatened to become insular, and a few pulled their dwellings down in
order to get at the gold beneath them.
One man, as he sat on his door-step smoking his pipe after dinner,
amused himself by poking the handle of an axe into the ground, and,
unexpectedly, turned up a small nugget of gold worth several dollars.
In ten minutes there was a pit before his door big enough to hold a
sheep, and, before night, he realised about fifty dollars. Another, in
the course of two days, dug out one hundred dollars behind his tent, and
all were more or less fortunate.
At this particular time, it happened that Captain Bunting had been
seized with one of his irresistible and romantic wandering fits, and had
gone off with the blunderbuss, to hunt in the mountains. Maxton, having
heard of better diggings elsewhere, and not caring for the society of
our adventurers when Ned and Tom were absent, had bid them good-bye, and
gone off with his pick and shovel on his shoulder, and his
prospecting-pan in his hand, no one knew whither. Bill Jones was down
at Sacramento purchasing provisions, as the prices at the diggings were
ruinous; and Ko-sing had removed with one of the other Chinamen to
another part of the Creek.
Thus it came to pass that Larry O'Neil and Ah-wow, the Chinaman, were
left alone to work out the claims of the party.
One fine day, Larry and his comrade were seated in the sunshine,
concluding their mid-day meal, when a Yankee passed, and told them of
the discoveries that had been made further down the settlement.
"Good luck to ye!" said Larry, nodding facetiously to the man, as he put
a tin mug to his lips, and drained its contents to the bottom. "Ha!
it's the potheen I'm fond of; not but that I've seen better; faix I've
seldom tasted worse, but there's a vartue in goold-diggin' that would
make akifortis go down like milk--it would. Will ye try a drop?"
Larry filled the pannikin as he spoke, and handed it to the Yankee, who,
nothing loth, drained it, and returned it empty, with thanks.
"They're diggin' goold out o' the cabin floors, are they?" said Larry,
wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt.
"They air," answered the man. "One feller dug up three hundred dollars
yesterday, from the very spot where he's bin snorin' on the last six
months."
"Ah! thin that's a purty little sum," said Larry, with a leer that
shewed he didn't believe a word of it. "Does he expect more to-morrow,
think ye?"
"Don't know," said the man, half offended at the doubt thus cast on his
veracity; "ye better go an' ax him. Good day, stranger;" and the Yankee
strode away rapidly.
Larry scratched his head; then he rubbed his nose, and then his chin,
without, apparently, deriving any particular benefit from these actions.
After that, he looked up at Ah-wow, who was seated cross-legged on the
ground opposite to him, smoking, and asked him what was _his_ opinion.
"Dun no," said the Chinaman, without moving a muscle of his stolid
countenance.
"Oh! ye're an entertainin' cratur, ye are; I'll just make a hole here
where I sit, an' see what comes of it. Sure it's better nor doin'
nothin'."
Saying this, Larry refilled his empty pipe, stretched himself at full
length on his side, rested his head on his left hand, and smoked
complacently for three minutes; after which he took up the long
sheath-knife, with which he had just cut up his supper, and began
carelessly to turn over the sod.
"Sure, there _is_ goold," he said, on observing several specks of the
shining metal. As he dug deeper down, he struck upon a hard substance,
which, on being turned up, proved to be a piece of quartz, the size of a
hen's egg, in which rich lumps and veins of gold were embedded.
"May I niver!" shouted the Irishman, starting up, and throwing away his
pipe in his excitement, "av it isn't a nugget. Hooray! where's the
pick!"
Larry overturned the Chinaman, who sat in his way, darted into the tent
for his pick and shovel, and in five minutes was a foot down into the
earth.
He came upon a solid rock, however, much to his chagrin, a few inches
further down.
"Faix I'll tell ye what I'll do," he said, as a new idea struck him,
"I'll dig inside o' the tint. It 'll kape the sun an' the rain off."
This remark was made half to himself and half to Ah-wow, who, having
gathered himself up, and resumed his pipe, was regarding him with as
much interest as he ever regarded anything. As Ah-wow made no
objection, and did not appear inclined to volunteer an opinion, Larry
entered the tent, cleared all the things away into one corner, and began
to dig in the centre of it.
It was fortunate that he adopted this plan: first, because the rainy
season having now set in, the tent afforded him shelter; and secondly,
because the soil under the tent turned out to be exceedingly rich--so
much so, that in the course of the next few days he and the Chinaman dug
out upwards of a thousand dollars.
But the rains, which for some time past had given indubitable hints that
they meant to pay a long visit to the settlement, at last came down like
a waterspout, and flooded Larry and his comrade out of the hole. They
cut a deep trench round the tent, however, to carry off the water, and
continued their profitable labour unremittingly.
The inside of the once comfortable tent now presented a very remarkable
appearance. All the property of the party was thrust into the smallest
possible corner, and Larry's bed was spread out above it; the remainder
of the space was a yawning hole six feet deep, and a mound of earth
about four feet high. This earth formed a sort of breast-work, over
which Larry had to clamber night and morning in leaving and returning to
his couch. The Chinaman slept in his own little tent hard by.
There was another inconvenience attending this style of mining which
Larry had not foreseen when he adopted it, and which caused the tent of
our adventurers to become a sort of public nuisance. Larry had
frequently to go down the stream for provisions, and Ah-wow being given
to sleep when no one watched him, took advantage of those opportunities
to retire to his own tent; the consequence was, that strangers who
chanced to look in, in passing, frequently fell headlong into the hole
ere they were aware of its existence, and on more than one occasion
Larry returned and found a miner in the bottom of it with his neck
well-nigh broken.
To guard against this he hit upon the plan of putting up a cautionary
ticket. He purchased a flat board and a pot of black paint, with which
he wrote the words:
"MIND YER FEET THARS A BIG HOL," and fixed it up over the entrance. The
device answered very well in as far as those who could read were
concerned, but as there were many who could not read at all, and who
mistook the ticket for the sign of a shop or store, the accidents became
rather more frequent than before.
The Irishman at last grew desperate, and, taking Ah-wow by the pig-tail,
vowed that if he deserted his post again, "he'd blow out all the brains
he had--if he had any at all--an' if that wouldn't do, he'd cut him up
into mince-meat, so he would."
The Chinaman evidently thought him in earnest, for he fell on his knees,
and promised, with tears in his eyes, that he would never do it again--
or words to that effect.
One day Larry and Ah-wow were down in the hole labouring for gold as if
it were life. It was a terribly rainy day--so bad, that it was almost
impossible to keep the water out. Larry had clambered out of the hole,
and was seated on the top of the mud-heap, resting himself and gazing
down upon his companion, who slowly, but with the steady regularity of
machinery, dug out the clay, and threw it on the heap, when a voice
called from without--
"Is this Mr Edward Sinton's tent?"
"It is that same," cried Larry, rising; "don't come in, or it'll be
worse for ye."
"Here's a letter for him, then, and twenty dollars to pay."
"Musha! but it's chape postage," said Larry, lifting the curtain, and
stepping out; "couldn't ye say thirty, now?"
"Come, down with the cash, and none o' yer jaw," said the man, who was a
surly fellow, and did not seem disposed to stand joking.
"Oh! be all manes, yer honour," retorted Larry, with mock servility, as
he counted out the money. "Av it wouldn't displase yer lordship, may I
take the presumption to ax how the seal come to be broken?"
"I know nothin' about it," answered the man, as he pocketed the money;
"I found it on the road between this an' Sacramento, and, as I was
passin' this way anyhow, I brought it on."
"Ah, thin, it was a great kindness, intirely, to go so far out o' yer
way, an' that for a stranger, too, an' for nothin'--or nixt thing to
it!" said Larry, looking after the man as he walked away.
"Well, now," he continued, re-entering the tent, and seating himself
again on the top of the mud-heap, while he held the letter in his hand
at arm's length, "this bates all! An' whot am I to do with it? Sure
it's not right to break the seal o' another man's letter; but then it's
broke a'ready, an' there can be no sin in raidin' it. Maybe," he
continued, with a look of anxiety, "the poor lad's ill, or dead, an'
he's wrote to say so. Sure, I would like to raid it--av I only know'd
how; but me edication's bin forgot, bad luck to the schoolmasters; I can
only make out big print--wan letter at a time."
The poor man looked wistfully at the letter, feeling that it might
possibly contain information of importance to all of them, and that
delay in taking action might cause irreparable misfortune. While he
meditated what had best be done, and scanned the letter in all
directions, a footstep was heard outside, and the hearty voice of
Captain Bunting shouted:
"Ship ahoy! who's within, boys!"
"Hooroo! capting," shouted Larry, jumping up with delight; "mind yer
fut, capting, dear; don't come in."
"Why not?" inquired the captain, as he lifted the curtain.
"Sure, it's no use tellin' ye _now_!" said Larry, as Captain Bunting
fell head-foremost into Ah-wow's arms, and drove that worthy creature--
as he himself would have said--"stern-foremost" into the mud and water
at the bottom. The captain happened to have a haunch of venison on his
shoulder, and the blunderbuss under his arm, so that the crash and the
splash, as they all floundered in the mud, were too much for Larry, who
sat down again on the mud-heap and roared with laughter.
It is needless to go further into the details of this misadventure.
Captain Bunting and the Chinaman were soon restored to the upper world,
happily, unhurt; so, having changed their garments, they went into
Ah-wow's tent to discuss the letter.
"Let me see it, Larry," said the captain, sitting down on an empty pork
cask.