CHAPTER V
OFF FOR THE GOLD-MINES
The next morning when the sun rose, in all the golden glory of dawningday in beautiful California, above the tops of the eastern mountains andshone down into the Valley of the Sacramento, its rays fell on aninteresting scene in front of the Conroyal house, where nearly all themen, women and children of the place had gathered about two heavilyladen pack-horses, four saddled horses, and two boys, and two girls. Thetwo boys were Thure and Bud, ready to start for the mines, the two girlswere Iola and Ruth, who were to ride with the boys for an hour or so ontheir way, the four saddled horses were their riding horses, and the twopack-horses bore the outfits of the young miners, as well as sundrytokens of love and affection sent to the dear ones at the mines. Theboys stood at their horses' heads, ready to mount. The very moment ofdeparture had come.
"Well, I reckon we must be going now. Good-by, mother," and Thure turnedfor a last embrace in those dear arms, and then swung himself up intohis saddle.
"God bless you, and protect you, and bring you safe home, my son," andMrs. Conroyal, trying in vain to keep back the tears from her eyes andthe sobs from her voice, embraced and kissed Thure farewell and bravelysaw him mount.
Bud tried very hard to control his feelings, but his voice choked alittle and there were tears in his eyes, as he kissed his mother good-byand jumped into his saddle; and then, just to break the gloom thatseemed to be gathering too thickly about the parting, he jerked off hishat, and, swinging it around his head, shouted: "Hurrah, for thegold-mines! Hurrah, we're off for the mines!"
And everybody shouted with him; and, in the midst of the shouting, thetwo boys, leading their pack-horses and with Iola and Ruth on theirhorses by their sides, rode out of the house-court and started acrossthe valley toward the distant eastern mountains.
The search for the dead miner's Cave of Gold had begun.
Iola Conroyal and Ruth Randolph were two very lively and high-spiritedgirls, just old enough to see all the romance and little of the roughreality and danger of such a quest as their two brothers had begun. Thewonderful tale of the dying miner, with its Cave of Gold, itsrough-drawn map and its big gold nugget, had appealed very strongly totheir vivid and romantic imaginations; and the starting of Thure and Budin search of this marvelous cave had surrounded them, in their eyes,with something of the glamour that gilds the heroes of romance. Theyenvied them their quest; they would have gone joyfully with them, ifthey could; and now, as they rode along by their sides in the coolmorning air, they could think or talk of little else than this wonderfulquest and of what would happen, if the boys should really and truly findthat marvelous Cave of Gold.
"Will you--will you promise to give me the first gold nugget you pick upin this wonderful cave?" Ruth said, after they had been riding andtalking for some little while, glancing up a bit shyly into Thure'sface. "I will have a breastpin made out of it and always wear it inremembrance of that great event--and--and of you," she added in a lowervoice, her face flushing a little.
"Sure I will! I--that is exactly what I had planned to do anyhow," Thuredeclared. "And I'll see that it is a big one, Ruth, the biggest that Ican find. And the next nugget I pick up you shall have for a ring; andthen I'll pick up a lot of little nuggets and make you a gold necklaceout of them."
"That will be glorious," and Ruth's eyes shone. "And--and I shall prizethem all very much. Oh, dear, I don't see why we girls were just borngirls and not boys! I never wanted to do anything as much as I want togo with you and Bud, and help hunt for this Cave of Gold. I'd go anyway,if mother would let me."
"So would I," Iola declared, her dark eyes and cheeks glowing at thethought. "It is terrible to be just a girl, when there is anything likethis to be done. We, at least Ruth and I, do not want to be put in acage and fed, like canary birds. We want to do things, too; and we coulddo things, too, if folks would only let us."
"Hoity-toity!" laughed Thure. "I reckon God knew what He was about whenHe made you 'just girls'--just sisters, sweethearts, wives, mothers, thedearest words spoken in every language the world over; and, for one, Iam powerful glad that He did make you 'just girls.'"
"So am I," Bud agreed, so emphatically that all laughed.
"But, it really does seem too bad that Iola and I have got to stay athome with our mothers, where nothing exciting ever happens," persistedRuth, "while you two, just because you are boys, can go hunting caves ofgold and have all sorts of wonderful adventures--not that I really andtruly would like to be a boy," she added hastily and a littlecontradictorily. "Boys are so awkward and have such big feet and hands,and--and--"
"And are such good fellows to wait on girls," grinned Bud provokingly.
"Which shows girls' real superiority," smiled back Ruth.
"Well, if you are satisfied, what are you kicking for? You haven't heardThure and me wishing that we were girls, have you?" queried Budtriumphantly.
"Well, I should say not, not when you are off on a hunt like thisanyhow!" Ruth rejoined. "Oh, but I do hope you will find that Cave ofGold! And come back covered with gold nuggets and glory!"
By this time our young friends had reached the foot of the ridge, onwhose top it had been agreed they were to say farewell to one another;and the thought of the nearness of the parting was suddenly pressed hometo each heart, and they rode to the top of the ridge without speaking aword. Here they pulled up their horses; and, for a moment, their eyeslooked wistfully into one another's faces, while they sat silent intheir saddles.
"Oh, come, let's have the agony over!" and Bud tried to make his voicesound cheery and unconcerned. "Good-by, Ruth," and, urging his horse upclose to the side of his sister's horse, he leaned over, threw his armsaround her neck and kissed her. Then he turned and quickly served Iolain the same way; and, striking spurs into his horse, started off, hispack-horse tugging at the rope behind him.
Thure hesitated a moment; and then, following Bud's example, quicklykissed Iola and Ruth good-by, and started after Bud.
"Don't forget that you have promised me the first gold nugget that youpick up in the cave!" called Ruth.
"Nor the gold necklace!" warned Iola.
Thure and Bud waved their hands and shouted in reply; but rode steadilyon.
The two girls sat on their horses and watched them, until, with finalshouts and the waving of their hats, they passed over the top of adistant ridge and vanished from sight. Then Iola and Ruth turned theirhorses homeward and rode silently down the other side of the ridge. Theydid not care to talk, even about the wonderful Cave of Gold, just then.
They had ridden something like a couple of miles on their way homewardand their tongues were just beginning to wag, girl-like, again, whenboth were considerably startled by a loud hallo, coming from behind.They turned quickly and saw two horsemen, who had just ridden out frombehind a small grove of trees, some twenty rods back and to the right,and who were now riding toward them.
"I wonder who they can be!" exclaimed Ruth. "I am sure that I never sawthem before; but I suppose we had better wait and find out what theywant. They might be lost. They look like strangers to this part of thecountry," and she pulled up her horse.
"Yes," agreed Iola, halting her horse by the side of Ruth. "They areprobably foreigners on their way to the mines; and we had better wait tosee if we can be of any help to them."
In the holster that hung from the pommel of the saddle of each girlthere was a double-barreled pistol, loaded and ready for instant use;and it was not there for ornament. Both girls had been trained to usethe rifle and the pistol; and never, since Iola's frightful experiencewith the Mexican desperado, Padilla, some three years before,[1] hadeither girl been permitted to ride, even a short distance from thehouse, without having one or both of these weapons with her.Consequently, trained and armed as they were, they saw nothing to fearin meeting the two strange horsemen, although they were alone in alittle valley and out of sight and hearing of every other human being,so far as they knew.
[Footnote 1: For an account o
f this adventure, see _Fighting WithFremont_, the preceding book of this series.]
The two horsemen came up on a slow gallop; and pulled up their horses adozen feet from the girls.
"We asks your pardon, ladies," said the larger of the two men--a bigred-headed man with a broken nose--as he awkwardly doffed his hat. "But,seein' you ridin' by, an' thinkin' you might be able tew give us suminformation, we bein' strangers in this part of Californy, we made boldtew hallo tew you," and he paused, his bold eyes staring admiringly intothe dark face of Iola.
"We will be very glad to help you, if we can," answered Iola, a bitshortly, for she did not like the looks of the big man with the brokennose. "What is it you would like to know?"
"Wal," answered the man, glancing toward his companion, "me an' mypardner was tew meet a man over yonder by that big rock that sticksitself out of th' ground, like a nose on a man's face," and he pointedto a huge rock a mile or more away that shot up out of the level of thevalley, not unlike the nose on a man's face. "He was tew git thar 'boutnoon yisterday; an' we haven't seen hide nor ha'r of him yit; an',gittin' powerful tired of waitin' an' thinkin' you ladies might haveseen him, we stops you tew ask."
"An' bein' a leetle afeared he might have come tew harm," the otherhorseman, a small man with a pock-marked face, here broke in, "seein'that he was a comin' from th' diggin's an' was supposed tew haveconsiderable gold-dust with him, we makes bold tew stop you ladies tewask about him, jest as my pardner says, thinkin' you might have seenhim."
"What--what did he look like?" Iola asked anxiously, the moment the manpaused; for her thoughts had gone instantly to the dead man they hadburied last night, when he had spoken of the man they were looking foras being on his way back from the diggings.
"Wal, he won't exactly what you ladies would call a beauty," answeredthe big man, grinning, "seein' that he'd let his whiskers an' ha'r growlong an' scraggly all over his face an' head; but you'd a-knowed him, ifyou'd a-seen him, by a peecoolyer scar over his left eye, shapedsumthin' like a hoss-shoe, with th' ends of th' shoe pointin' t'ord th'corners of th' eye."
"Why," and Iola's face whitened, "he must have been the man ourbrothers, Thure and Bud, brought home with them yesterday afternoon! Hehad a scar on his forehead like that. Didn't you notice it?" and sheturned to Ruth.
"Yes," Ruth answered, "and he was from the mines."
"Wal, now, that's good news," declared the big man, glancing out of thecorners of his eyes at his companion. "We was afeared sum harm had cometew him. An' so he's restin' safe an' easy at your home. Now, whar mightthat be, if I may be so bold as tew ask?"
"But, he'd been robbed--murdered!" exclaimed Iola. "And it was his deadbody that had been brought to our house. We buried him last night."
"Robbed! Murdered!" almost yelled the big man. "Do you hear that,Spike?" and he turned excitedly to his companion. "Sumone got him forhis gold, jest as he was afeared they would. An' you say 'twas yourbrothers who found him, an' took th' body home with them, an' gave itdecent burial. Now I call that decent, don't you, Spike?" and he glancedsharply at his companion.
"White an' decent," agreed Spike. "But," and his small snake-like eyesshifted swiftly from face to face of the two girls, as he spoke, "didhe--did he leave any message for his friends; or, was he dead when yourbrothers found him?"
"He lived only a little while," answered Iola. "He had been stabbed byone of the cowards, and he died before they could get him to the house.I don't think he left any message. I don't remember of hearing ourbrothers say anything about a message, do you?" and she turned to Ruth.
"No," replied Ruth. "He--he left no word for any friend. He only--" shestopped abruptly, and just in time; for, unthinkingly, she had beenabout to speak of the skin map and the Cave of Gold.
Both men started slightly at her words and abrupt stop and flashed swiftglances into each other's eyes.
"Now, that's tew bad," declared the big man. "We sure thought he wouldleave a message for us, seein' that he knowed we was here a-waitin' forhim. But, I reckon, we'd better ride on tew th' house with you ladiesan' see them brothers of your'n personal. You see we wants tew makesart'in 'twas our friend that was robbed and murdered, besides he mighthave left sum word for Spike an' me, an' your brothers not havementioned it, bein' naturally excited-like over th' robbery an' murder."
"But, you can't see them now!" exclaimed Iola, impulsively. "They leftfor the mines this very morning. Why, we parted from them not more thanan hour ago."
Both men started violently at this news, and again the swift suspiciousglances flashed from eyes to eyes, and an ugly threatening look cameinto their faces.
"Gone tew th' mines! An' started sudden, this very mornin'!" exclaimedSpike excitedly. "Did--Did th' old miner say an'thing 'bout whar hefound his gold afore he died?" and his beady black eyes glowed angrilyinto the faces of the two girls. "We're his friends, an' have a righttew know, an' we want tew know, an' we're goin' tew know," and he urgedhis horse nearer to the girls.
Both girls were badly frightened by this sudden and unexpected change inthe two men; for there was no mistaking the ugly and dangerous look ontheir faces; but neither girl lost her head.
"You will not come a step closer than you now are," and the white handof Iola flashed to the pistol in her holster; and Spike, to his evidenthorror, suddenly found himself looking straight down into two littleround holes that seemed to his startled eyes as big as the mouths ofcannons.
"And you, too, stay right where you are," and Ruth's pistol suddenlyturned the big man with a broken nose into a wildly staring equestrianstatue. "We two girls are not going to take any chances with you twomen; and--and now that we have given you all the information that wehave for you, you can turn your horses around and ride back the way youcame."
"YOU CAN TURN YOUR HORSES AROUND AND RIDE BACK THE WAYYOU CAME."]
The faces of both girls had suddenly grown as white as milk; for, almostat the same moment, each had remembered that the dying miner haddescribed his two murderers as a big red-headed man with a broken noseand a small man with a pock-marked face--and they were now lookingstraight into the faces of two such men. But the hands that held thepistols did not tremble; and there was no mistaking the look in theshining eyes back of the little round holes. They would shoot; and, ifthey shot, they would not miss; and it did not take the two men twoseconds to discover these facts.
"Oh, come, this ain't no hold up game, is it, ladies?" and the big mantried to look as if he considered the whole affair a huge joke; but hewas very careful not to make a threatening move; and he kept his eyesfixed on the two little round holes of Ruth's pistol, in a horriblestaring way that Ruth never forgot.
"No," Ruth answered shortly. "It is not a hold up; and there is going tobe no hold up in this case," she added significantly; "so just turn yourhorses around and gallop back the way you came; and be very careful notto let your hands go near your belts or to look back while doing it,"she warned.
"Oh, say, now," began the small man. "This ain't hospital-like. We ain'tmeanin' you ladies no harm. We--"
"Drop the talk and turn your horses around and get," Iola commanded soimperatively, so threateningly that both men, in a sudden panic offear--like nearly all rascals they were cowards and those two pistols inthose two girlish hands might go off at any instant--whirled theirhorses around and galloped off, while a bullet from one of the barrelsof Iola's pistol, whistling between their heads, added to their panicand speed.
"Do you," and Ruth turned her white face to Iola, the moment the two menwere at a safe distance, "do you really think they were the two men whomurdered the miner?"
"Yes," answered Iola, as she began reloading her pistol, with hands thattrembled now so that she could hardly pour the powder into the barrel."I am sure they were. Ugh! But what a dreadful fright they gave me! Ifelt certain they were going to murder us, when they started toward us."
"And--and do you suppose they were trying to find out about that skinmap and the Cave of Gold?" and Ruth's face aga
in began whitening.
"Yes, that is it!" and Iola started. "That was what made them so angryand ugly, when we told them that Thure and Bud had already started forthe mines. They at once suspicioned that the boys had the map and thatthey had started out to find the Cave of Gold. Oh, Ruth," and a look ofhorror came into Iola's face, "do you suppose they will start on thetrail of Thure and Bud and try to get the map from them? Why, they mightmurder them!"
"That is exactly what I am afraid they will do," declared Ruth, her ownface reflecting the horror in Iola's face. "But you may be sure that twocowards like them will never get the best of our brothers, unless theydo it in some sneaking underhanded way; and the boys have been warned tolook out for them. It won't take Thure and Bud as long to discover whothey are, as it did us. The instant they see that broken nose andpock-marked face, they will be on their guard. But I do wish we had saidnothing about the boys starting for the mines. Anyhow that is about allthe information they did get from us that will do them any good, thankgoodness! And they will have a mighty hard time finding and followingtheir trail, unless they are old hunters and trappers; and they did notlook as if they were. Anyhow it can't be helped now; and the best thingthat we can do is to get back home as quickly as we can."
"I don't think we had better say anything to our mothers about meetingthe two men," Iola said, as with a final look in the direction of thetwo horsemen, who were still galloping up the valley, they turned theirhorses homeward. "It wouldn't do any good to tell them and they'd worrya lot."
"You're right. Mum's the word," agreed Ruth; and then both girls strucktheir horses sharply and started on a swift gallop for the Conroyalrancho, where we must leave them for the present and return to Thure andBud.