FRED HAS HOPES
"How long will it take you to get home?" asked Mr. Gardner of Fred, as
he accompanied him toward the street.
"Oh, about three hours. I'm a pretty fast walker, and it's mostly down
hill."
"Then you'd better take my tame snake."
"Your snake? Oh, you mean the donkey."
"Yes, I think he would go pretty well down hill. He could slide most of
the way. Better let me get him for you. You can send him back whenever
you get ready. I shan't want him for a week or so."
"Thank you very much, but I think I'll walk."
"Well, maybe you'll get home a little sooner, even if it is down hill.
Stop and see me whenever you're in this direction. I don't expect to go
to prospecting right away, and I'm going to make this hotel my
headquarters."
"Thank you, Mr. Gardner, I will."
"And give my regards to your father. I'd like to see him."
"I will do so, but I'm afraid you can't see him unless you call. He is
not able to get very far from the house."
"Then I'll try to call. Don't forget to say that Old Bill Gardner was
asking for him. And if he wants to have a try at the Stults treasure,
why, I'll give him a letter of introduction to the widow. I know her."
"Do you?" asked Fred eagerly. "Then perhaps you would give me a letter?"
"Give you one? Why, you don't expect to have a try for it; do you?"
"I don't know," replied the boy seriously. "I would like to talk to my
father about it. But I have another scheme in mind. If I had a letter to
Mrs. Stults, she might be able to tell me where I could get work. I
believe you said she had an interest in some mines."
"She has, and she might be able to get you a place. I did not think of
that. But Denville is quite a way off."
"Well, I may have to go quite a distance before I can get a job."
"All right. Wait a few minutes and I'll write you a letter of
introduction to Mrs. Stults. She is rather a peculiar German woman,
slow-going, and she doesn't make her mind up in a hurry."
"Then I will give her plenty of time to consider matters, Mr. Gardner."
In a little while, charged with messages of remembrance to his father,
and bearing the letter of introduction to the widow, Fred was on his way
home. He stepped out at a quick pace, for in spite of his long walk that
morning he did not feel tired, as he was busy thinking of a certain
matter.
You have probably guessed that it was the buried treasure, though Fred
had only the most hazy notion where it was, and he knew that it was
almost entirely out of the question for him to go in search of it.
Nevertheless, as do all lads, he had hopes, and it was these hopes which
made the way seem short to him, so that he did not mind the long
mountain trail.
"Well, Fred, any luck?" asked his father, when he got home, about dusk.
"No, dad," yet the answer was not given in a despondent tone.
"I was afraid you wouldn't have. A new digging is usually quickly
overrun with miners, and there are two applicants for every place."
Fred described the incidents of the day, and gave his father the message
from Mr. Gardner.
"Yes, I remember him very well," said the miner. "He was a peculiar
man."
"He is yet," and Fred told of the various names applied to the little
donkey.
"That's just like Old Bill Gardner," commented Mr. Stanley.
"You'll not have to go without your supper, Fred," said his mother,
coming in at that moment. "I have a nice meal for you."
"That's good. I have a fine appetite."
"I'm glad of it. Mrs. Robinson paid me more for the sewing than I
expected, and I got a little treat for you. I made some tapioca pudding.
We haven't had any in a long time."
"That's so, mother, but I can get along without it."
"You'll not have to, to-night."
Mr. Stanley's face flushed. He keenly felt the position he was in--that
of a man unable to support himself, much less his family. If only his
lameness would leave him! For there was no work for a lame man in
Piddock.
During the meal Fred was so busy thinking that several times his mother
had to ask him the same question twice. When this occurred, after she
had asked him if he was ready for the pudding, a dish of which he was
very fond, she exclaimed:
"Well, Fred! Something must be the matter. You are not ill; are you?"
"No, mother."
"Then of what are you thinking?"
"I'll tell you," said Fred, with sudden determination. "I am thinking of
a curious story I heard to-day."
"A story? What about?"
"About treasure, buried in the mountains of Alaska."
Then Fred told what Mr. Gardner had related to him about the gold left
by Stults.
"I have heard that story several times," said Mr. Stanley, when Fred had
finished the account, "but it was always from men in whom I could place
no confidence."
"Do you think Mr. Gardner is telling the truth, father?"
"I place more reliance on the story now than I ever did before," replied
the old miner. "You can generally depend on what Old Bill tells you."
"Then you think there might be treasure there?"
"I believe there might have been. Whether it is there still is another
question. Why, Fred, you weren't thinking of going after it; were you?"
"I was, father."
Though the boy spoke quietly the words startled his parents.
"You were!" exclaimed Mr. Stanley.
"What, Fred! Go away off to Alaska, and freeze to death on an iceberg?"
asked his mother.
"Oh, I guess I could stand the cold, mother. I could wear a fur suit,
like the Eskimos. But whether I could find the gold is, as father says,
another question. How much do you think would be there, dad?"
"It is utterly impossible to say. I have heard various amounts
mentioned, from as high as a million to as low as a thousand dollars.
But I think, from the stories current at the time of the death of
Stults, that it must be many thousands of dollars."
"So do I, father, and I would like to go after it."
"You don't appreciate what that means, Fred," said Mr. Stanley. "In the
first place the treasure, if there is any, is in a desolate place, hard
to get at, once you are in Alaska. Then Alaska is no easy place to
reach, and it takes more money to get there than we shall ever have, I'm
afraid. Another thing: you would have no right to go after the treasure.
It belongs to the widow of Stults."
"I would have a right to search for it, if she gave me permission, as
she has others."
"Yes, but you do not know her, and I doubt if any one knows where she
is. No, Fred, it is out of the question."
Fred drew something from his pocket.
"I admit it may be impossible for me to go after the treasure," he said,
"but part of the objections can be overcome. I know where Mrs. Stults is
now, and I have a letter of introduction to her," and he showed the
epistle given him by Mr. Gardner.