STAKING THEIR CLAIMS
Once more the pursuit was on, but the boys were determined never to give
up as long as their horses could go. On their part the bad men were
equally relentless. Urged on by the greed of Con Morton, the three kept
up the chase.
"What's the good of it?" asked Haverhill, when after the second day the
boys were still in the lead. "They'll get away from us."
"No, they'll not," said Morton fiercely. "I'll catch 'em if it takes a
week!"
"What makes you think they have gold?"
"I'm sure of it. The way they acted convinces me of that. And I'm going
to make 'em tell where they got it."
On they kept. The steeds of the boys were getting weary, for though they
kept up a good lead they could only stop at short intervals for feed and
water. This could not last, and Jed knew it. But with grim determination
he and Will kept on.
It was toward the close of the fourth day of the pursuit amid the
mountains. Only the fact that there were a number of trails, which wound
in and out, had, up to this, prevented the capture of the boys. They
doubled on their track several times, and thus fooled the gamblers, who
knew as little of the mountains as did Will and Jed. And, in darkness,
it was equally impossible for either party to advance, so uncertain was
the travel.
But the bad men had this advantage--their horses were used to the
mountains, and those of the boys were not. The pace was too rough and
was being kept up too long for the farm steeds. They began to go slower.
"They're getting closer," announced Will, as they trotted along a ledge
which skirted a dizzy canyon. "I can hear them more plainly."
"Guess you're right," admitted Jed. "Suppose we hide the gold somewhere,
and let them catch us?"
"No, there's no telling what such desperate men would do to us. Let's
keep on."
They urged their tired horses to a gallop. As they turned into a broader
part of the trail, they could hear the rattle of stones dislodged by the
horses of their pursuers.
"They're closing in," spoke Jed, "and I can't get any more speed out of
Pete. I guess it's all up with us."
"Better give up!" called a voice behind them. "We've got you, and the
longer we have to chase you, the worse it will be. Hold on now, or I'll
shoot!"
They had a glimpse of Morton, with a revolver in his hand.
"Think he'll shoot?" asked Will.
Before Jed had a chance to answer there came the sharp crack of the
weapon, and a bullet sang through the air over the boys' heads. Morton
had purposely fired high, as he only wanted to scare the lads, but the
shot had an unexpected effect. It so startled the horses of Jed and Will
that they galloped forward as no urging by voice or whip could have made
them.
"Shoot again!" cried Jed softly. "That's what we need. We'll leave 'em
behind again!"
They were coming out on a shoulder of the mountain now, and could look
down into the valley below them. There seemed to be something familiar
about it. Both lads noted that at once.
"Isn't that where we were encamped?" asked Jed.
"It certainly looks like it," added Will.
"And there's a horse there, and a man who looks like Gabe!"
"It is Gabe!" cried Jed. "Hurrah! We're back at our old camp! Now let
Morton and his gang come after us if they dare!"
The trail led downward, and the horses of the lads, finding going
easier, or, perhaps, recognizing the place where they had strayed from,
and desiring to get back to it, did not drop back into the slow pace
that had characterized their gait before the shot was fired.
"Hello, Gabe!" yelled Jed, waving his hat at the old man.
Mr. Harrison looked up. He recognized Jed and Will. He swung his hat in
answer and shouted a welcome.
At that moment the pursuers came in sight around the bend in the trail.
They, too, saw the camp, and noted Gabe. But they also saw that he
walked with a limp. Instead of turning back, as the boys expected the
gamblers would, they kept on.
"Are you going up against Gabe?" asked Haverhill of Morton. "He's a good
fighter."
"I'm not afraid. He's been hurt. See him limp. I've come too far to back
out now. I'm going to get that gold!"
"I'm with you," said the third gambler, whose name was Sim Sanders. "We
three are more than a match for them."
On they galloped toward the camp, where Gabe in wonder awaited the
arrival of the boys. He saw the men in pursuit, and knew who they were.
Hobbling to where he had left his rifle, he secured the weapon.
Into the camp rushed Jed and Will, their tired horses barely able to
carry them. After them came the three gamblers.
"What do you want here?" demanded Gabe.
"We want the gold those tenderfeet found, and we're going to have it
even if we have to fight!" answered Morton savagely.
"Then you'll have to fight," replied Gabe grimly. "I don't know anything
about any gold they have, for we haven't struck any luck yet, but if
they have any they're going to keep it, and you know what kind of a man
I am, when it comes to a fight."
"Ride 'em down!" exclaimed Haverhill.
Gabe was about to raise his rifle, when an unexpected diversion
occurred.
There was heard a sound of galloping. Every one turned to see what it
was, and then into the camp rode five horsemen, each one with a pack on
the saddle before him, and a rifle in his hand. At the sight of the
foremost rider Gabe cried:
"Ted! Ted Jordan! You're just in time! I'm hurt and these scoundrels are
trying to rob us!"
"Whoop!" yelled Ted. "If it ain't my old partner, Gabe Harrison! Who's
trying to rob you? Those chaps? Go for 'em, boys! Show 'em how the lads
from Dizzy Gulch can handle a crowd of gamblers and thieves!"
But Morton and his cronies did not wait for this. Wheeling their
horses, they rode back the way they had come, while to hasten their
speed the members of Ted Jordan's party fired several shots over the
heads of the scoundrels.
"Well! well!" exclaimed Ted, when quietness had been restored. "How in
the world did you get here, Gabe?"
"Prospecting with these two lads," indicating Jed and Will. "But what
takes you away from Dizzy Gulch?"
"Dizzy Gulch has petered out. It's no good. There was only outcropping
gold, and that's all gone. So I made up a party, left the place, and
we're prospecting. Have you had any luck?"
"Not much."
"But we have!" exclaimed Jed, as he pulled some of the nuggets from
their hiding place, and showed them to the astonished miners.
"What! Where did you get those?" asked Gabe.
Jed and Will quickly explained, telling where their wonderful find was
located. They also gave an account of the pursuit, and how they had, by
great luck, managed to get on the trail that led back to camp. Gabe
explained what had happened to him, and said that his leg was getting
better every hour.
"I'm all right to travel now, if you go slow," he said.
"Travel? Travel where?" asked Ted Jordan.
"To where the boys made the lucky strike, of course. We'll all go there
and stake out claims. If Dizzy Gulch is no good we've found something
better."
They started off, not making especially fast progress on account of
Gabe. They calculated to take two days in getting to the place, and they
had no fear now that Con Morton's gang would interfere with them.
It was toward the evening of the first day, when as they were looking
for a good place to camp, that Gabe Harrison remarked, as he looked up
toward the sky:
"I think we're in for a bad storm."
"What makes you think so?" asked Ted Jordan.
"The way my leg hurts. It always hurts when there's a storm coming."
"It doesn't look so," remarked one of the men. "The sky's as pretty as a
picture."
"You wait," said old Gabe, slowly shaking his head.
In spite of the fact that no one else took much stock in Gabe's
prophecy, it was noticed that the camp was made more snug than usual,
and the men looked well to the fastenings of their horses.
After supper, when they were all seated about the campfire, the men
smoking and telling stories, to which the two boy gold miners listened
eagerly, one of the men remarked:
"I believe it is going to blow up a little rain."
The evening sky was beginning to be overcast with clouds, and there was
a moaning and sighing to the wind, as if it bemoaned the fact that the
pleasant scene was so soon to be spoiled by a storm.
"Better look to our tent-ropes, boys," suggested Gabe, for he and the
two lads from the farm bunked together in a small tent that had been
brought along. "I don't want it blown away in the night, and have us all
get soaking wet."
The darkness increased more rapidly, now that the sky was becoming
thickly covered with clouds, and the wind grew stronger.
"Say, do you notice anything queer?" asked Jed of Will, as they stood
together on a little jutting point of rock and looked over the valley
spread out below them, a valley now shrouded in gloom.
"Something queer? How do you mean?"
"I mean like when your foot goes to sleep, and you try to walk on it."
"As if pins and needles were all over you?" asked Will.
"Yes, that's it."
"I did notice something like that," admitted his brother, "but I didn't
think it was anything. It's growing worse, though."
"You're right, it is. Let's ask the men and old Gabe if they feel it.
Why, it's just like an electric battery now."
The boys looked at each other curiously and in some alarm. They were
both now conscious of a very peculiar sensation. Their flesh all over
was tingling as if tiny needles were being brushed against them.
"Do you notice anything queer, Gabe?" asked Will.
"Queer!" exclaimed the miner. "I should say I did. It feels like ginger
ale tastes."
"That's it," remarked one of the men. "I was wondering what was the
matter with me."
The miners and the boys were ill at ease. There seemed to be something
strange in the air about them--some unseen influence at work. They
looked all around. The storm was evidently coming closer. The wind was
now blowing quite a gale, and there were occasional mutterings of
thunder.
"The horses feel it, too," observed Ted. "I don't like it here. I wish
we'd kept on, or else stopped down below."
Hardly had he spoken than there came a vivid flash of lightning,
followed an instant later by a startling clap of thunder. But it was not
the lightning which caused every one in the camp to jump sharply. Nor
was it the thunder.
"Did you feel that?" cried Jed.
"I should say I did," answered Will. "A regular electric shock, that's
what it was. Felt as if I had hold of the business-end of a battery."
There came another flash of lightning, a far-off one, for the forked
tongues of it shot down behind a distant, towering peak, but the effect
on the little party of gold-seekers was even more pronounced than
before. Gabe fairly leaped into the air, in spite of his injured leg.
"Tarantulas and centipedes!" he cried. "Something's the matter!"
"We're on top of a natural electric battery!" shouted Ted Jordan.
"No, we're not, but it's almost as bad," spoke one of the men. "I know
what it is."
"What then?" cried several.
"We're on a part of the mountain that's filled with iron ore. The
electricity is attracted to it, and we're getting shocks from it. I was
in a place like this once before, out in Australia, and a lot of natives
were killed during a storm. The iron ore acts just like a live wire."
"Then we'd better get off," said Will. "I don't want to be electrified
any more."
"Move's the word, and we can't be any too quick," spoke Gabe.
There came another flash, and once more the gold-hunters felt the
sensation of pins and needles. They noted, too, that the storm seemed
coming more rapidly toward them.
"Up stakes and vamoose!" shouted one of the men, who had been living on
a ranch. "Let's get away from here before it's too late."
"It'll be worse when the rain comes," stated the man who had explained
about the iron ore causing the trouble. That his theory was right was
admitted by all the miners, when they had examined the character of the
ground on which they stood. They lost no time in breaking camp, and they
had only gotten the tents down and re-arranged the packs on the horses,
when the storm broke in a fury of wind and rain.
Fortunately, this outburst seemed to take the edge off the electrical
outburst, and they were hoping they would escape without any more
shocks. But it was a vain hope. When the ground was thoroughly wet there
came such a sudden glare of lightning that it nearly blinded every one.
The crash of thunder was not an instant in following, and such an
electrical shock resulted that one of the men was knocked down. As for
the horses, they were so frightened that it was with difficulty that
they could be controlled.
"Hurry up!" cried Ted Jordan. "We're likely to be killed if we stay
here. Hurry, every one!"
The man who had been knocked down arose with a curious look on his face.
He ran at top speed until he came to a spot about five hundred yards
from where the others were.
"It's all right here," he cried. "No iron ore here. You'll be safe when
you get here."
They made all haste to join him, slipping, stumbling and leaping over
the rough way. The rain was falling in torrents, and even the slight
discharges of electricity that followed the one big flash set their
flesh to tingling, and made them fear that worse was to follow.
But they got safely across that patch of ore, and were soon on neutral
ground. There they tried to establish a camp, but it was hard work in
the storm. The boys helped as best they could, and so did Gabe, but his
leg pained him too much to allow him to do a great deal.
At length, however, something like order was brought out of chaos. It
was out of the question to get tents up, so strong did the wind blow,
but the men used the canvas to shelter them somewhat from the downpour.
The horses were tethered to trees in the open.
"Look there!" cried Jed suddenly, pointing to the spot of ore which they
had left. They all looked and beheld a curious sight. Right on the place
where they had first camped the ground seemed covered with tiny blue and
green spots. They leaped about here and there, and some seemed like tiny
flames.
"It's the electricity," called the man who had explained about the
effect of the lightning on the iron ore. "A connection has been made
because of the rain, and that place is now charged like a battery. It's
a good thing we got away from there."
They all congratulated themselves on this score, and watched with
curiosity, not unmixed with fear, the curious play of the lightning and
the tiny flames seeming to come up from the earth.
The rain kept up for an hour more, and then ceased. By that time it was
impossible to light a fire, so they had to eat cold victuals; but they
did manage to get up the tents, though it was as bad inside them as it
was out, for they were soaking wet.
But they all accepted it as part of the game they were playing, and as
part of the price they had to pay for gold. The night seemed as if it
would never end, but morning came at last, and with the advent of
daylight every one felt better. The old miners knew how to get dry wood
from the inside of hollow logs, and soon, over cups of steaming coffee,
the terrors and discomforts of the night were forgotten.
"Forward!" cried Gabe when breakfast was over and the packs adjusted.
"Now for the place of the nuggets. You boys will have to show us the way
soon."
"We can do that, all right," declared Jed. "We'll show you where we hid
the nuggets."
They traveled on all the rest of that day. Jed and Will were able to
direct the men along the same trail they had taken in retreating from
Con Morton and his gang. As they advanced the various landmarks were
pointed out by the lads.
"We're 'most there now," said Will as they turned around a shoulder of
the mountain and set off at right angles to the way they had been going.
"We'll be there in half an hour now."
"Just in time to dig out about a thousand dollars' worth of the yellow
boys and have grub," remarked Ted Jordan. "Well, it can't happen any too
soon for me, boys. I've been down on my luck lately, and I need a
change."
They pressed on more eagerly, the two boys in the lead, as they alone
knew where the secret spot was.
"Here's the place!" cried Will at length.
"No, it isn't," declared Jed. "It's farther on."
"It's here," insisted Will. "Don't you remember this big rock? I said at
the time that the nuggets were about five hundred feet from it."
"Which way?" asked Gabe quickly. "That's important to know."
"Right in line with that dead tree," answered Will. "I'll show you."
He walked confidently to the spot.
"Yes, that's it," spoke Jed, convinced that his brother was right.
Will began to dig, while the men gathered about him, with eager eyes
watching him. It meant a lot to them, for some of them were down to
their last dollar, and a rich strike would prove a fortune to them.
"Did we put 'em as deep as that?" asked Jed, when Will had removed
considerable dirt and had not come upon any of the precious yellow
nuggets.
"Must have, but I don't remember that we went very deep."
"Let me have a try," suggested Ted. "I'll soon turn 'em out."
He took the pick from Will and began to dig. He went quite deeply into
the ground, and turned it up for some distance in a circle. But there
were no nuggets.
"They're--they're gone!" gasped Will at length.
"Somebody's taken them! Morton and his gang!" came from Jed. "He saw
where we hid them!"
"He couldn't," insisted Will.
"Are you sure this is the place?" asked Gabe anxiously. "Take a good
look, boys."
Much depended on the two young gold-hunters. The men gazed at them
anxiously.
"I'm sure that's the rock," said Will. "Aren't you, Jed?"
"It certainly looks like it."
"Is that the only mark you went by when you uncovered and then hid the
nuggets?" went on the old miner. "Now, think carefully."
"No, there was another stone near the big rock," said Jed suddenly. "I
remember now. It looked like a man's face. I thought at the time that it
looked like Con Morton. There were two rocks close together, a big one
and a little one."
"Where's the little one?" asked Gabe.
"It's gone."
"Maybe it's the big one that's gone," suggested the old miner.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean maybe the big stone got displaced by reason of the storm last
night. It might have rolled several hundred feet out of the way. In that
case you'd be all out of your calculations. Suppose you look for the
little rock?"
"That's it!" cried Jed. "I thought this place didn't look just right.
It's farther up."
They ran up the trail a little way, and Jed gave a shout of delight.
"There's the little rock!" he cried. "Now for the nuggets!"
They knew just where to dig now, and five minutes later Jed and Will had
uncovered their store of gold. Such a shout as went up from the men,
old Gabe joining in!
"We've struck a bonanza!" cried Ted.
And so they had; for when they came to stake out their claims, they
found the indications were of such richness that the mines bid fair to
be regular bonanzas. At Gabe's suggestion they formed a sort of company,
taking in the men who had come with Ted at such an opportune time.
Because they were the discoverers of the gold mine, Jed and Will were
given larger shares than any of the others, though there was enough for
all.
"Now we must write and tell dad of our good luck," proposed Jed one
night, in the new camp that had been formed near the place where the
nuggets were found.
"And I'll mail the letter," promised Ted. "I've got to ride to the town
to-morrow."