CHAPTER XIX
SOME EXCITING MOMENTS
Exactly at three o'clock, by Mr. Conroyal's big silver watch, the lastshovel of dirt and the last stone was thrown on the dam; and, withcheers that echoed and reechoed up and down the narrow gulch, ourfriends saw all the water of the little stream flowing into its newchannel.
"Now get your pans and pails, and we'll hustle the water out of thehole, so that we can get at the dirt," Mr. Conroyal cried excitedly, themoment it was seen that the dam was working perfectly and that the oldbed of the stream below the dam was fast becoming dry.
With another cheer, each grabbed up a pan or a pail, and all made a rushfor the hole in the elbow of the now nearly drained bed of the stream,acting more like an excited troop of school boys than gray-haired andlong-bearded men, as some of them were.
The old bed of the stream was solid rock, worn smooth by the action ofthe water; and, as Thure and Bud, in their anxiety to be the first toreach the hole, raced down this, Thure's feet suddenly slipped on thewet rock and down he went, the gold-pan he was carrying flying from hishands and banging loudly as it slid for a short distance over the hardrock. He jumped quickly to his feet, fortunately unhurt, and benthastily to pick up the pan. As he lifted the pan, which had been stoppedby a bit of rock that projected a couple of inches above the level ofthe bed, his eyes caught a bright gleam that came from the upper side ofthe projecting rock.
For an instant Thure stared wildly at the shining bit of metal lodgedagainst the rock; and then, with a yell that brought everybody to ahalt, he dropped the pan and grabbed the bit of metal.
"Gold! Gold!" he shouted excitedly, as he held up between the thumb andfinger of his right hand the bit of metal he had picked up, which wasabout the size and something the shape of his thumb.
In a moment all were crowded around him, eagerly examining the nugget.
"It certainly is gold!" declared Marshall, as he hefted the nugget onthe palm of his hand.
"Hurra, that's a durned good sign that that thar hole is chuck full ofit!" cried Ham, excitedly swinging the gold-pan he held in his handaround his head. "Come on! Let's git that water out of th' way an' downtew pay-dirt, jest as quick as th' Lord'll let us," and he started onthe run for the hole, followed by all the others.
The hole in the point of the elbow of the old channel of the stream wasabout twenty feet across; and now, of course, was level full of water,which had to be thrown out before any digging could be done.
Ham, who had a long pair of rubber boots, bought on purpose for thisoccasion, now slipped them on his feet, pulled the legs up to his waist,where he fastened them to his belt, seized one of the pails, and steppedinto the hole. At the first step he went down to the knee, at thesecond, nearly to the tops of his rubber boots, but the third steplowered him in the water only a couple of inches.
"Gosh, 'tain't deep! We can have th' water out of here in no time. Now,jest git in line an' I'll pass th' water out tew you," and he plungedthe pail down into the water, and quickly passed it to the man standingthe nearest to him, who passed it on down a line that had been quicklyformed until the last man was far enough down for the water, when thrownon the ground, to run off down the old channel.
There were enough pans and pails to keep a constant stream of thempassing up and down the line; and, as everybody, under the spur of thethought of what might lie hidden there in that hole, worked withfeverish haste, the water was speedily lowered, until after an hour ofas hard and tiresome work as was ever done by men, the bottom of thehole was laid bare.
"We'll dig a hole first off right in th' center of th' hole plumb downto bed-rock," declared Ham, as he passed out the last pailful of water."Then, if thar's any gold here, we'll strike it shore. Throw me ashovel!" Ham's face was flushed and his eyes were sparkling withexcitement; for now the great moment was near, the moment that wouldtell whether or not all their labor had been in vain, whether or notthey were to find the expected gold.
"Here! Here!" and Thure caught up a shovel and rushed to Ham; and almostcollided with Bud, who, shovel in hand, was also rushing to Ham.
"Let us help you dig! Let us help you dig!" cried both boys, almostbeside themselves with excitement.
"Now, jest hold y'ur hosses an' git out of here. This is men's work,"and Ham good-naturedly thrust the two boys aside, caught up a shovel,and began throwing up the moist sand and gravel like an animated steamshovel.
The hole was partly filled with coarse sand and gravel; and, since goldis so heavy that it will sink down through sand and gravel until itcomes to something more solid, all this had to be thrown off before theycould hope to come to pay-dirt, which is usually a thin layer of gravelor clay lying on top of the bed-rock. Ham was now digging down to thisbed-rock; and, when he reached it, he would throw a few shovels of thedirt directly on its top into a gold-pan, and then a few minutes'washing of the dirt in the pan would show whether or not they had struckgold. The hole he was digging was not large enough for more than one manto work in it at a time, consequently the others formed a circle aroundHam and watched his progress with faces feverish with excitement, anyone of them ready the moment Ham tired to seize a shovel and jump intothe hole in his place. But the shoveling was not hard and the sturdymuscles of Ham did not tire.
In the excitement of these thrilling minutes nobody saw anything butHam, nobody heard anything but the push of his shovel through the moistgravel and the thud of the dirt as it fell on top of the ground. It isdoubtful if a cannon fired within a rod of them, would have made one ofthem jump. Hence it is not to be wondered at that none of them saw theblack clouds gathering about the tops of the mountains to the northeastand swiftly sweeping down toward them, nor heard the peals of distantthunder, sounding louder and nearer with the passing of each minute. Thegold-fever was hot in their blood; and they were deaf and blind to allbut the digging man.
Ham's shovel bit swiftly down into the soft, moist sand. Now he is downto his waist. Now only his shoulders show above the top of the hole.Suddenly, with a violent grunt, he straightens up.
"Bed-rock!" he yells, and begins digging again.
The excitement is now intense. Nearly every one has a gold-pan in hishand, and is holding it out toward Ham, ready to receive the firstshovel of pay-dirt. That first shovel of dirt means so much, possibly afortune for all! Even the graybeards, Mr. Conroyal and Rad Randolph andFrank Holt, men who could, who often had faced death without the quiverof a muscle, are now all of a tremble with excitement. Thure and Bud areboth bending forward so far that there is danger of their tumbling intothe hole on top of Ham.
For a couple of minutes longer Ham shovels out the dirt, but more slowlyand carefully now.
"Give me a pan," and he suddenly straightens up, seizes one of the pans,and disappears in the hole. A moment later he jumps out of the hole, thepan nearly filled with dirt in his hands, and races like a mad man withit to the little stream of water, followed by all the others.
In the excitement of the moment no one notices how dark it is becoming,nor hears an ominous sound, a distant roar, each second growing louder,and coming from far up the gulch.
Ham reaches the water, and, plunging the pan down into it, beginscarefully stirring its contents with his big fingers. Around him bendthe others, regardless of wet feet. In a few minutes the larger part ofthe sand and the gravel is washed out of the pan by the water. Now onlya thin layer of black sand remains on the bottom of the pan. The crucialinstant has come. Ham slowly straightens up, carefully pours all thewater out of the pan, bends his head down close over it, and beginsmoving the thin layer of black sand about with his fingers.
"Is there, is there any gold?" queries Thure, unable longer to keepsilent.
Ham does not answer for a moment, but continues to stir the sand withhis big fingers, bending his head still closer to the pan.
"Not a durned smell!" and he suddenly hurls the pan violently from him.
At this moment Mr. Conroyal utters a startled exclamation and glancesquickly up the gul
ch. One look is sufficient to turn his face white.From where he stands he can see straight up the gulch for nearly half amile; and half that distance up the gulch he sees a dark gray wall, tenfeet high, topped with white, rushing down toward him with the speed ofa race horse, and hears a roar like the rushing charge of a thousandcavalrymen.
"My God, a flood!" he yells. "Climb for your lives!"
There was no need of a second warning. All could now see the advancingflood, could hear the deafening roar, could feel the solid earthbeginning to tremble beneath their feet; and all began to climb fortheir lives up the steep side of the gulch. There was no time to stop topick up anything. Pans, shovels, picks, and such parts of their clothesas happened to be off their bodies they left where they lay.
Thure and Bud happened to be climbing almost directly under Marshall.Suddenly, before they were above the danger line and when the flood wasalmost upon them, Marshall's feet slipped and he slid past the boys downdirectly in front of the advancing flood. It looked like death to stopto help him; but neither boy hesitated an instant.
"Here, grip wrists!" yelled Thure, who was a little above Bud. "I willhold you while you pull Marshall up."
Bud instantly saw what was wanted; and, in another moment the two armsof the boys were locked together in a grip almost impossible to break.
"Now reach down and try and get hold of one of Marshall's hands. Quick!"and Thure gripped, with the strength of desperation, the point of aprojecting rock with his free left hand and planted his feet firmly onthe narrow ledge where he stood.
"Here, catch hold of my hand, quick," and Bud bent and stretched hisfree hand down to Marshall, who, with a face as white as death, wasvainly struggling to climb up the almost perpendicular side of the rockdown which he had slid.
BUD BENT AND STRETCHED HIS FREE HAND DOWN TO MARSHALL.]
Marshall saw the hand and caught it, as a drowning man would grasp abeam of wood floating within his reach.
There was a terrible wrench on the arms and bodies of the two boys, butneither broke his hold; and, with a tremendous pull, Marshall was jerkedup on the ledge of rock on which they were standing, and, in anothermoment the three had climbed to safety, just as the flood swept by them,so close that they were covered with the foam that rode on its top.
For a minute the three stood panting and trembling where they were; andthen they climbed to the broad ledge where all had halted out of reachof the flood.
Mr. Conroyal gripped Thure's hand and held it warmly for a minute; buthe did not speak a word. There was no need; for Thure understood.
Mr. Randolph was a little more demonstrative, but he said little.
The two boys had done exactly what the two men expected their sons todo; and the hearts of both were glad and proud, but neither man showedhis pride in their brave action, only his joy that they had escaped theflood.
Marshall, the moment their fathers dropped their hands, seized a hand ofeach boy in each of his hands and started to thank them, with tears inhis eyes; but both boys quickly jerked their hands away.
"Forget it," Thure said impatiently. "We only did what you or any otherman would have done under the same circumstances--Great Moses, just lookat that water!" and Thure's eyes turned to the flood that was nowfoaming and boiling a few feet beneath them.
At this moment the edge of the black clouds swept over them, and therain fell down in torrents; but in a quarter of an hour the clouds hadpassed, and the sun was shining again, and the violence of the flood wasbeginning to slacken. In half an hour the flood had swept by; and withit had gone every vestige of the wing dam they had builded with so muchlabor and with so many high hopes.
"Durn th' durned dam!" and, without another word, Ham turned his back onthe scene of their fruitless labors, and strode off toward Hangtown,followed by all the others, who fervently echoed his words in theirhearts.