DISAPPOINTMENT
Ned’s chums were not long in following him, nor were the two Westerners
far behind. Mrs. Hopkins, who had seen her son and his friends come in,
wondered much at their sudden departure, with the excitable Andy Rush
leading the procession.
“Oh, I just know something is going to happen!” exclaimed the widow.
“I’m sure those boys are planning another of their wild trips.”
“Well, never mind,” said a friend who had called. “I’m sure it seems to
do them good. But I wonder what it is this time?”
“So do I,” said Jerry’s mother.
In fact the motor boys themselves wondered much why Mr. Nestor had
come East, bringing the friend who spoke so mysteriously of the sixty
nuggets of gold. But there was no time now to question them, for the
present excitement drove all other thoughts from their minds.
“What do you know about it, Andy?” questioned Jerry, as he raced along
beside his small acquaintance.
“Not much--I was coming from the store--I had to get a loaf of bread
and some----”
“Skip all that,” interrupted Bob.
“Well, I saw a crowd at the railroad--big mob--all yelling--digging at
the tracks--some said gold--they want to take up the rails--pull out
the ties--move the cars off the tracks--Hitter is wild--he wants the
militia----”
Andy had to stop for breath. The boys could hear the excitement as they
came nearer the depot. It was evident that the excitable little chap
was more than half right.
“Look at the crowd!” yelled Bob. “I should say they _were_ crazy!”
“What does it all mean?” asked Ned.
“I expect we’re to blame,” replied Mr. Nestor. “We started a gold rush,
Harvey.”
“Is there really gold there?” asked Jerry.
“There sure is,” declared Mr. Brill. “You can’t fool me on the yellow
stuff.”
“We just had a glimpse of it as we got off the train to come and see
you,” explained Jim. “Nothing would do Harvey but he must prospect a
bit, and we did--with broom handles we picked up.”
“And the gold was there,” declared his friend. “But it isn’t much that
I got, though I’m going to look for more.”
By this time they were close to the crowd. Truly it was a frenzied
throng. Men and boys were eagerly digging at the cinders and stone
ballast between the rails and ties. Some had picks and shovels and
others merely sticks, but one and all were tossing out the dirt, and
eagerly looking for traces of gold.
“Here! Here! You’ve got to stop this!” cried the agent. “You’ll have
the rails all loose, and the trains will run off the tracks. Oh, won’t
somebody get the police? Send in a riot call! I want the militia! I’m
going to wire the Governor for troops! I’ve sent for the directors of
the railroad! This is awful!” and Mr. Hitter raced up and down the
track.
Occasionally he would thrust aside some enthusiastic digger, who seemed
to be undermining the rails, but this one’s place was immediately taken
by another. Up and down the tracks, for some distance, men and boys,
and even some girls, were digging away furiously.
“Oh, this is awful!” groaned Mr. Hitter. “The road will be ruined!”
“Not if there’s gold here!” exclaimed one man. “If the tracks are
over a mine they can be moved. Better get a shovel, Hitter, and help
yourself.”
“You’re crazy!” shouted the agent. “There is no gold here!”
“Yes, there is! Those fellows found some!” declared the man, pointing
at Mr. Nestor and his friend.
“Oh, it’s all your fault!” cried the agent, addressing the motor boys
and their friends. “You started this wild panic. Tell them there is no
gold here!”
“But there _is_ some!” insisted Mr. Brill, taking the yellow grains
from his pocket. This seemed to make the crowd wilder than ever, and
they pushed and shoved to get to the very place where the miner had
found the golden particles.
“Oh, they’ll all be killed!” cried the agent. “Here comes the other
fast express! Get out of the way!” he yelled.
The crowd did not seem to hear him, and Jerry and his chums were
beginning to get alarmed, when there was a rush from the other side of
the track, and several officers, led by the chief of police, dashed up.
“Oh, Chief!” cried Mr. Hitter. “This is terrible! There won’t be any
railroad left, soon. Make ’em get back!” and he quickly told of the
trouble, and explained about the coming train.
The chief acted without hesitation.
“Come, men!” he cried. “Get back or I’ll arrest you. Officers, draw
your clubs!” he cried sternly. “Use ’em if these persons don’t get off
the track. You’re trespassing!” he added. “Get back!”
He emphasized his words by shoving away those nearest to him.
“Lend a hand here!” the chief called to the motor boys.
“Come on!” yelled Jerry. “It’s partly our fault. Get ’em back out of
the way of the train!”
The two Westerners lent their aid, and, much against their will, the
mob got out of the path of the train, which whizzed past a moment
later. The agent breathed a sigh of relief.
Many of the crowd had pieces of stone in which they detected yellow
gleams. Others had hats or bags full of gravel.
“I’m going to have this tested at a jewelry store!” cried one man, as
he rushed off up the street. His example was followed by others, and
soon nearly half the crowd had started on a rush for the jeweler’s.
“I wish they’d all go,” said the freight agent. “Can’t you keep ’em off
the track, Chief?”
“I’ll try, but it’s all foolishness anyhow. There’s no gold here.”
“There is!” asserted Mr. Brill. “I found some,” and he exhibited the
yellow grains.
“But there isn’t any more,” declared Mr. Hitter. “I know there isn’t.
How can there be gold where none was ever found before--and in railroad
ballast at that? Oh, if you don’t want to see all the tracks torn up,
tell these crazy folks that there’s no more gold here!” implored the
agent.
“Well, I’ll take a look and see,” agreed Mr. Brill. “And I’m free to
confess I don’t see how this gold got here anyhow. Certainly it isn’t
the place for it, though some gold quartz might have gotten in the
railroad ballast. But I’ll take a look. Come on, Jim. You know pay dirt
better than I do.”
“All right,” agreed the mine foreman. The crowd suspended operations
while the two made a careful investigation, not only in the place where
the first particles had been found, but for some distance up and down
the track. While they were doing this, loud voices were heard off to
one side of the track.
“Let me past!” demanded someone. “Shove ’em out of the way, Bill. We’ve
got as good a right to this gold as any one!”
“It’s Noddy Nixon!” exclaimed Jerry.
“Yes, and Bill Berry is with him,” added Bob.
“They’ve got a wheelbarrow,” said Ned.
It was true. The town bully and his crony, having heard the wild rumors
of the gold “strike,” had come with shovels and a barrow to carry away
as much as they could of the track ballast.
“Here! You stop that!” yelled Mr. Hitter, as he saw Noddy and Bill
shoveling heaps of rock and cinders into the barrow. “You can’t do
that--you’ll ruin the roadbed!”
“Don’t let him bother us, Bill,” advised Noddy. “My father owns stock
in this road, and I have as good a right to this gold as anybody.”
He went on shoveling. Mr. Hitter raced up and down, calling for help,
but no one paid much attention to him. All eyes were centered on the
two miners. They made a careful examination, and then Jim Nestor
announced:
“Nothing doing!”
“That’s right,” added his friend. “It’s streaked out!”
“What?” cried the throng about them.
“No more gold,” announced Jim. “It was just in that one spot, and it
wasn’t much at that. Not more than a few dollars worth. Your road is
safe, stranger,” and he nodded to Mr. Hitter.
“Thank goodness!” ejaculated the agent.
“But how did any gold get there?” asked Jerry.
“I don’t know,” replied Mr. Brill. “Some of the ballast might have been
loaded in a car that had been out in the mining region, and some quartz
might have got stuck in a crack, to fall out when they unloaded here.
But that’s all the gold there is in these diggings,” and once more he
looked at the particles he possessed.
“What’s that?” cried a fussy old gentleman, who had just come up,
having only a few minutes before heard of the odd discovery. “You found
gold, and think it came from quartz?”
“That’s my theory,” said Mr. Brill.
“Let me look at what you found,” said the old gentleman, and the miner
did so. The old gentleman chuckled. Then he exclaimed:
“Well, I never. If this isn’t odd!”
“What is it?” asked Jerry.
“Why this is gold all right, but it isn’t from any gold quartz. It’s
from my gold watch. It fell out of my pocket as I got off the train the
other day, and rolled on the track. Before I could rescue it the train
started and rolled over it. It was caught on the rails and ground to
pieces, and some particles fell in the ballast. That’s where your gold
is from. I was in a hurry at the time, and as the watch was not a very
valuable one I did not report it to Mr. Hitter, but went off home. I
just returned from a trip, and I heard about this excitement. But that
gold is from my watch as sure as anything. I recognize a small piece
that had my initials on it--see,” and he showed a bit of engraving.
“That’s right,” agreed Jim Nestor, slowly.
“It sure is,” assented his partner. “The gold strike has fizzled out.”
There was a groan of disappointment from the crowd.
“Stung!” cried one discouraged youth.
“Look!” cried Jerry, as he pointed to Noddy Nixon and Bill Berry,
wheeling away a big barrow full of ballast, with Mr. Hitter racing
wildly after them.
“Let him go,” advised the old gentleman. “He won’t come back after he
has that assayed,” and he chuckled.
“I guess not,” agreed Mr. Nestor.
“I hope the sixty nuggets don’t turn out that way,” said Ned, in a low
voice.
“Indeed they won’t!” exclaimed Mr. Brill. “I’m sorry I caused such a
rumpus, but I didn’t mean to. I saw the gleam of gold as I got off the
train, and it always excites me. But those sixty nuggets--they’re as
real as heart could wish. Now if you boys want to hear the yarn, I’m
ready to tell you, seeing that this excitement has petered out.”
“Indeed we do,” said Jerry, as he led the way out of the crowd.
“And we’ll help you recover the gold, too,” added Bob.
“Indeed we will,” came from Ned. “We were just wishing for some
excitement.”
“Well, you’ll get it all right,” was Mr. Nestor’s opinion. “You’ll get
it if you reach the border with us and have a hunt for those sixty
nuggets of gold. Come on, Harvey, and spin your yarn. I reckoned as how
these lads would help us,” and as they once more approached Jerry’s
house, while the disappointed crowd filed away from the railroad, they
had a glimpse of Noddy Nixon and Bill Berry hurrying with their barrow
of track ballast to the nearest jewelry store.