CHAPTER III
THE SKIN MAP
No mortal can look on death unmoved. Savage or civilized, Christian orpagan, a great awe, a questioning wonder thrills the spirits of all whostand in the presence of the dread, unsolvable mystery, death. The soulasks questions that cannot be answered, that the ages have leftunanswered. And, as Thure and Bud now stood, with uncovered heads,looking down on the quiet, peaceful face and the motionless, rigid formof the dead miner, the world-old awe and wondering concerning deaththrilled their hearts. For a couple of minutes neither spoke, neithermoved. Then Thure's eyes sought the face of Bud.
"He is dead," he said solemnly.
"He is dead," answered Bud, not moving his awed eyes from the stillface.
"Dead!" and Thure bent and reverently straightened out the bent legs andarms and smoothed back the matted hair from the forehead. "Dead, yes, asdead as a stone; and yet a few minutes ago he was breathing and talking!What a queer thing life is anyhow! Well, it won't do neither him nor usany good to stand here thinking and talking about it. Now we must getthe body to the house and give it as decent a burial as possible. I'llcarry the body across the saddle in front of me. Come, let's hurry. I amgetting anxious to have it over."
For the moment, so great had been the shock of the miner's sudden death,Thure and Bud had forgotten all about the dead man's marvelous tale ofthe Cave of Gold; but now, as Bud stooped to help lift the body from thebearskin, his eyes caught the yellow glow of the gold nugget, which layon the skin by the side of its unfortunate finder, and the sightrecalled the wondrous tale.
"What do you think of his story about finding that nugget in a cavewhere the floor is covered with gold nuggets as thickly as pebbles onthe bed of a stony river? Do you suppose it is true or, just one of thequeer notions that sometimes come to the dying?" and Bud lookedwonderingly from the nugget to Thure's face.
"Great Moses, I forgot all about the gold!" and Thure's face flushedwith excitement. "Quick, let's get the body on the grass and then we'llhave another look at the nugget. That was a powerful queer story hetold; but it might be true. And if it is true," and his eyes sparkled,"then we've just got to go to the mines and hunt up our dads and theothers and get them to help us find that cave."
In a moment more they had lifted the body off the bearskin and had laidit down on the grass; and the gold nugget was in their hands.
"Glory! But isn't it heavy?" and Bud balanced the nugget in one hand."And it looks and feels and weighs like gold! It must be gold."
"It sure does look like gold," agreed Thure. "It looks and feels justlike the nuggets dad sent home, only larger. Oh, if we only could findthe cave where it came from! Let me see, he said that it was in theGolden Elbow of Crooked Arm Gulch, in Lot's Canyon, near a white pillarof rock and a big tree that we must climb to the third limb--a mightyqueer place I call that to find a cave! I reckon he must have beenlunaticy," and Thure turned a disappointed face to Bud.
"Well, he certainly found gold, and this proves it," and Bud tossed thebig nugget up in the air and caught it as it came down, "to say nothingof the five thousand dollars' worth of gold nuggets that he claims hismurderers stole from him. But, didn't he say something about a map, askin map, that would tell us how to find the cave?" and his facelighted.
"Yes, yes, that was the little roll of white skin I pulled first out ofthe bag," and Thure's eyes searched eagerly the ground. "Here it is!"and, stooping quickly, he picked up the little roll of whiteparchment-like skin that he had pulled out of the little bag and droppedon the ground, and began unrolling it with fingers that trembled withexcitement, while Bud crowded close to his side, his eyes on theunrolling piece of tanned skin.
The skin was some ten inches long by seven inches wide, of a somewhatstiff texture, and tanned so that it was nearly white. On the inner sidean unskilled hand had rudely drawn a map; and beneath the map waswritten the words:
Map, showing the location of the Cave of Gold in the Golden Elbow of Crooked Arm Gulch, which opens into Lot's Canyon near the white pillar of rock and the big tree, made by John Stackpole, the discoverer of the Cave of Gold.--1849.
In the lower left-hand corner of the map was a rudely drawn tree, withthree huge limbs, and, from near the end of the upper and third limb, anarrow pointed slantingly downward, away from the trunk of the tree. Inthe lower right-hand corner was a hand holding a flaming torch. Betweenthe tree and the torch was a cross, marked with the four main points ofthe compass. In the lower left-hand corner of the map itself was a smallcircle, marked "Hangtown"; and from there a crooked line trailed in anortheasterly direction to the upper right-hand quarter of the skin,where a map of Lot's Canyon and Crooked Arm Gulch was drawn withconsiderable detail.
THE SKIN MAP.]
For a couple of minutes the two boys studied this map in silence, whilethe conviction that the Cave of Gold was no deathbed hallucination, buta wonderful reality, grew upon them; or else, how came the skin map,which evidently had been made many days ago?
"Hangtown!" and Thure pointed excitedly to the name on the map. "That'sthe name of the mining camp where dad was when he wrote last. And here,"and his finger followed up the trail marked on the map, "is Lot'sCanyon! and the Big Tree! and Crooked Arm Gulch! and the Golden Elbow!and--and this black spot, marked 'cave,' right at the point of theGolden Elbow, must be the Cave of Gold! Great Moses, but I believe theminer did actually find that Cave of Gold, just as he said he did!" andThure's eyes and face glowed with excitement.
"So do I," Bud agreed emphatically. "The skin map, the gold nugget--why,even his murder! all go to prove the truth of his tale. The robberskilled him to get this map. They could have got the gold without killingand got away all right; but they knew of the Cave of Gold and themap--the miner said he told them--and, expecting to get the map alongwith the gold, they killed him to get him out of the way, so that theycould have all the gold in the cave to themselves. Say, but let's hurryhome and tell our mothers. They can't refuse to let us go to the minesnow! And we must start just as soon as possible. Come," and, for themoment, in his excitement, forgetting the dead body of the miner, hestarted to mount his horse.
"But, we can't leave him there!" and Thure pointed to the body. "Justhelp me to get him up on the horse in front of me and then we'll gethome as soon as possible," and, picking up the little buckskin bag, heslipped the nugget and the map back into it, thrust it into his pocket,and soon, with the help of Bud, was on his horse, with the body of thedead miner in front of him.
Bud now quickly threw the grizzly bearskin back on his horse, jumpedinto his saddle, and the homeward journey was resumed.