PIONEER BOYS OF THE GOLD FIELDS
OR
_THE NUGGET HUNTERS OF '49_
BY CAPTAIN RALPH BONEHILL
AUTHOR OF "PIONEER BOYS OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST,"
"WITH BOONE ON THE FRONTIER," "FLAG OF
FREEDOM SERIES," ETC.
CHATTERTON-PECK COMPANY
NEW YORK, N. Y.
COPYRIGHT, 1906
BY
STITT PUBLISHING COMPANY
BOOKS BY CAPTAIN RALPH BONEHILL
THE FRONTIER SERIES
Price, per Volume, $1.00
WITH BOONE ON THE FRONTIER;
Or, The Pioneer Boys of Ohio.
PIONEER BOYS OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST;
Or, With Lewis and Clark Across the Rockies.
PIONEER BOYS OF THE GOLD FIELDS;
Or, The Nugget Hunters of '49.
FLAG OF FREEDOM SERIES
Price, per Volume, 60 cents
WHEN SANTIAGO FELL;
Or, The War Adventures of Two Chums.
A SAILOR BOY WITH DEWEY;
Or, Afloat in the Philippines.
OFF FOR HAWAII;
Or, The Secret of a Great Volcano.
THE YOUNG BANDMASTER;
Or, Concert Stage and Battlefield.
WITH CUSTER IN THE BLACK HILLS;
Or, A Young Scout Among the Indians.
BOYS OF THE FORT;
Or, A Young Captain's Pluck.
PREFACE
"Pioneer Boys of the Gold Fields" relates the adventures of three
sturdy youths who go west to seek their fortune during the great rush
to California in 1849.
At the start the boys are unknown to each other--one coming from the
city, another from the country, while a third is just home from a
long whaling voyage. But the magic word, "Gold!" is on every lip, and
in company with thousands of others, they make the long and perilous
journey across the plains and the mountains, to the Land of Promise.
On the way they have several encounters with wild beasts and with
Indians,--scenes taken from actual life. When the gold diggings are
reached they find that a great deal of hard labor lies before them, but
they do not shirk, and their success is well deserved. They find the
gold fields overrun with bad men, and at the height of their prosperity
they are robbed of their treasure. What happens after that, the pages
which follow relate in detail.
In writing this story the author has had but one purpose in view--to
give his readers a faithful picture of the exciting times of '49, when
rich and poor, high and low, laborers and bankers, journeyed by land or
by water to California in search of gold. The excitement was intense,
equaled only by that when gold was first discovered in the Klondyke
region. In those days there were no railroads across the western
portion of our country, and the journey had to be made on foot or on
horseback and took months where it now takes but days. Those who did
not go by land sailed either to the Isthmus of Panama, crossed, and
went up the coast of California by ship, or else took the still longer
voyage around Cape Horn. Surely the hearts of these Argonauts were of
the stoutest, and their deeds deserved to be chronicled!
CAPTAIN RALPH BONEHILL.
_August 15, 1906._
CONTENTS
I. MARK AND HIS DIFFICULTIES
II. NEWS FROM CALIFORNIA
III. MARK RUNS AWAY
IV. MARK MAKES A FRIEND
V. UP A TREE
VI. TWO BOYS AND A MULE
VII. TAKING IN ANOTHER PARTNER
VIII. OFF FOR THE LAND OF GOLD
IX. A STORM AND A WASHOUT
X. AT FORT LARAMIE
XI. SAG RUFF'S THREAT
XII. SUFFERING FROM THIRST
XIII. A FIGHT WITH AN ELK
XIV. THE STEALING OF THE OUTFIT
XV. A SNAKE, A DEER, AND A SURPRISE
XVI. GETTING BACK THE OUTFIT
XVII. AMONG THE INDIANS
XVIII. SI TAKES A TUMBLE
XIX. A GLOOMY OUTLOOK
XX. AT THE TRADING CAMP
XXI. ANOTHER BRUSH WITH THE INDIANS
XXII. THE COMING OF SPRING
XXIII. NUGGETS OF VALUE
XXIV. THE RESULTS OF A CAVE-IN
XXV. THE MAN FROM PHILADELPHIA
XXVI. MARK'S SICKNESS
XXVII. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MAYBE DIXON
XXVIII. STRIKING A BONANZA
XXIX. A FORTUNE IN NUGGETS
XXX. THE LANDSLIDE
XXXI. A CRUSHING LOSS
XXXII. THE TRAIL OF THE GOLD THIEVES
XXXIII. BROUGHT TO BAY--CONCLUSION
PIONEER BOYS OF THE GOLD FIELDS
CHAPTER I
MARK AND HIS DIFFICULTIES
"I wonder if this report can be true, Carl?"
"What report, Mark?"
"This report in the newspapers that great nuggets of gold are to be
found in California," replied Mark Radley. He pointed to the sheet
he had been perusing. "Here is an account of a miner picking up ten
thousand dollars' worth of nuggets in two days, and another account
of a gold hunter washing out six thousand dollars' worth of dust in
a week. I declare it's enough to make a fellow's mouth water just to
think about it!"
"Beats working in a musty law office all to bits, eh?" was Carl
Felmore's remark, and he uttered a short laugh. "I'll wager the
reports are false, Mark," he added. "Why, if there was so much gold in
California the Spaniards out there would have gotten it long before
Uncle Sam took possession of the country."
"Here are names and dates," answered Mark, with a serious shake of his
head. "If the reports are false, I don't see how they got those."
"Even if the reports are true, I don't think I'd care to go away out
to California for the gold," resumed Carl, who was a bit of a coward.
"Why, it's three thousand miles from Philadelphia, and you'd have to
either go out on horseback most of the way, or take a steamer or a
sailboat to the Isthmus of Panama and then up the gold coast, or else
go clear around Cape Horn! You don't catch me making such a trip as
that!"
"It would just suit me," cried Mark, enthusiastically. "I'd take a trip
to the moon if I could get there. I'd like the sport----"
"Never mind taking a trip to the moon, young man!" broke in a harsh
voice at Mark's back. "Just get to work and leave California alone.
Have you finished that copying I gave you yesterday?"
"Not yet, Mr. Powers," answered Mark. "But I'll have it done in half an
hour."
"Good-by, Mark," came from Carl Felmore, and he slipped out of the
office without another word.
"I don't want that Felmore boy hanging around here," cried Jadell
Powers, wrathfully. "After this he must keep away."
"He brought over some legal papers for Cross & Barwick," answered Mark,
quietly. He saw that his step-father was not in an agreeable frame of
mind.
"Oh! Well, he needn't hang around, even so," grumbled Jadell Powers,
but in a more subdued tone of voice. "Hurry up with those papers. I
must get to court by ten o'clock and it's now half-past nine."
"I'll hurry all I can," answered Mark.
"You were out late last night," went on the lawyer, after a moment of
silence.
"Only until ten o'clock. I went to a concert given by the college boys."
"Humph! A fine way to waste your money."
"It was my own money," answered Mark, with spirit.
"Nevertheless, you had no need to throw it away, young man. But don't
talk now--get through with those papers," and the lawyer turned away,
and departed for a nearby court.
Mark Radley was a lad of sixteen, tall, broad-shouldered, and rather
good-looking, with brown eyes and curly brown hair. He was an orphan,
his father having died when he was but five years old and his mother
departing this life when the boy was fourteen. Mark had had two
sisters, but both had died when quite young.
When Mark was ten years of age, Mrs. Radley had met and married Jadell
Powers, a man ten years her senior, and known in Philadelphia as a
fairly successful lawyer. Powers was a widower, having one son, who had
run away from home when out of grammar school. Those who had dealings
with him knew him to be very irritable and a good deal of a miser, but
Mrs. Radley knew nothing of his shortcomings until they were married
several months. Then her eyes were opened, and for four years--up to
the day of her death--she suffered much, but always in silence.
Almost from the start, Mark could not get along with his step-father,
and boy and man had more than one open quarrel and on three different
occasions the youth was on the point of running away, but the presence
of his mother deterred him.
When Mrs. Radley died Mark felt he was free, but much to his
consternation he was given to understand that his mother had made no
will and that his step-father had legal rights in the property which
could not be ignored. By slick management Jadell Powers had himself
made Mark's guardian.
"You must toe the mark after this, young man," said the lawyer, after
matters had been adjusted. Then he took Mark out of high school and
made the boy enter his law office, although Mark did not take to a
legal calling in the slightest degree.
"I wish I had hold of my money, I'd travel a bit before settling
down," Mark told his friend Carl. But Mark got hold of very little
cash, and so had to stick at the office grind, week in and week out,
winter and summer. Once in a great while he slipped away--to play ball
or go fishing--but this always brought on a good scolding from his
step-father.
"Boys nowadays want to play, they don't want to work," grumbled Jadell
Powers. And then he would give Mark copying and other work to do that
would keep the lad busy until nine or ten o'clock at night.
Two days before the opening of this story the boy and his step-father
had had some hot words concerning several legal documents which Mark
had copied. Mr. Powers had given directions to have them transcribed in
a certain way. Mark had followed directions, and then the lawyer said
that was not the way at all. In his rage Jadell Powers had threatened
to thrash Mark and had taken up a book to throw at the boy's head. But
Mark had stood his ground.
"You hit me and I'll hit you!" he cried, pale with resentment, and the
look in Mark's eye made the lawyer drop the volume on his desk. There
the quarrel rested, but it was not settled by any means.
Mark was so busy copying the papers which had been given to him that he
had no time to think of his troubles, but once his step-father was gone
a look of disgust crossed the boy's face.
"I'm just about as sick of this as a fellow can be!" he murmured, as
he walked across the office, to gaze out of the window to the street
below. "It's getting worse and worse every day! I really can't see how
I'm going to stand it much longer! I wish I was a thousand miles from
here!"
The office was a small affair, fronting on one of the main streets of
Philadelphia. Next to it was another apartment, in which were located
Mr. Powers' private desk and his safe--the latter an old-fashioned
affair and scarcely fireproof.
As Mark gazed out of the window he saw a commotion in the
street--coming from a restaurant on the corner. Then the cry of fire
was raised, and soon a crowd gathered, while a dozen people ran from
the burning building.
"A fire! I must see it!" cried the lad. He was dying for a little
excitement, and rushed out of the office, slamming the door after him.
He hurried downstairs and outside, and soon joined the crowd in the
street.
In those days--it was but the year 1848--fire engines were not what
they are to-day, and it took some time for them to reach the locality
of the conflagration. But fortunately, the fire did not amount to much,
and in half an hour it was out and the crowd dispersed as rapidly as it
had gathered.
"Phew! I'll have to get back to the office--somebody may come in on
business!" Mark told himself, and he ran back to the building with all
speed. As he hurried up the stairs, he met a man coming down--a tall,
slim individual, with a clean-shaven face.
"Excuse me, were you looking for Mr. Powers?" asked the boy. He had
never seen the man before.
"No," was the quick answer. "I got into the wrong building. I was
looking for No. 324," and without saying more the stranger descended
quickly to the lower hall and disappeared into the street.
"He is certainly in a hurry," thought Mark, and soon reached the door
to the office--to find it standing wide open. "Humph! I thought I shut
this," he added, as he entered.
Everything seemed to be as he had left it, and having taken a look
around, he began some more copying, keeping this up until half-past
twelve, when his step-father returned and allowed him to go to dinner.
"I want you to copy these papers this afternoon, Mark," said Jadell
Powers, when the boy returned. "Mind, I want the work done nicely, and
don't leave it until it is all finished."
Mark took the papers and looked them over. There were many pages of
fine writing.
"I can't get these done to-day!" he cried.
"Yes, you can!"
"They'll take until to-morrow noon, sir. There are eighteen pages in
this, and six pages of that----"
"I want no back talk, young man!" stormed Jadell Powers. "You'll have
those done by to-night. If not, I'll have an account to settle with
you!" And he shook his fist at the boy.
Mark's temper was none of the best and his face reddened. Then, seized
by a mood he could not control, he dashed the legal documents to the
floor.
"I won't copy your old papers!" he cried. "You can copy them yourself!"
"What's that?" screamed Jadell Powers, and of a sudden he made a leap
for Mark. But the youth was too quick for him. Catching up his cap, he
ran for the door, banging the barrier in his step-father's face. Then
he leaped down the stairs, three steps at a time, and reaching the
street, hurried up the block and around a corner as fast as his legs
could carry him.