CHAPTER SEVEN.
ALL FOR GOLD.
It was not until the doctor rapped sharply at the wooden partition thatseparated the boys' from the men's quarters at the shanty, that themurmuring buzz ceased. "Look here, you two," he said; "if you don'twant to sleep we do, so just be quiet. It's somewhere about oneo'clock, and when getting-up time comes you'll want to sleep."
"All right, father," said Chris, in a very wakeful tone; "we won't talkany more."
But they did, in a whisper, for something in the way of recriminationbegan.
"It was all your fault," said Ned. "I wanted to go to sleep hours ago,but you would keep beginning again about the bothering old chart."
"Oh come, I like that!" replied Chris. "Who kept on wondering whetherwe should meet Indians, and whether they scalped people now!"
"Well, yes, I did say something about that. Only fancy, though, howhorrid!"
"Shan't! We're to go to sleep. I say, though, Ned; think we shallreally get away from this bothering old hoeing and weeding and killingblight?"
"Can't think: I'm nearly asleep."
"Oh, what a thumper! You're as wide awake as I am."
_S-n-n-o-r-r-r-e_!
"Gammon!"
"Oh!" and a sudden jump.
"What's the matter?"
"You stuck a pin into my leg."
"Must have been a mosquito."
"I'll skeeter you to-morrow morning, Master Chris!"
"Don't wait: do it now!" (defiantly.)
"You coward! You know that if I hit at you the doctor would jump up ina rage."
"No, he wouldn't, because we'd creep out through the open door and gointo the shed. Come on; I'm ready."
"I shan't. I want to sleep."
"I don't. I can't. I feel all over of a tingle. I should like aset-to. Come on out, and then I should like you to skeeter me."
"Don't be a fool, Chris. Let's go to sleep and get ready for to-morrow.My word, what a day we shall have! It seems wonderful. I can hardlybelieve it's true."
"That is," said Chris, for there was an angry rap on the partition,given by the doctor, who felt as nervously excited as the two boys.
The final rap brought calm, though, sending the lads off into a deepsleep which lasted till sunrise, when they stepped out of their roughbunks, hurried down to the water-pool to have a bathe, and had justfinished bathing when Chris caught sight of the tall gaunt figure of theAmerican striding through the Bartlett-pear plantation.
"_Coo-ee_!" cried Chris.
"Oh, there you are, young 'uns," came in reply. "Mornin'. Well, whattime will you be ready to start?"
"Directly after breakfast," cried Chris.
"Packed up your duds?"
"No, not yet."
"Well, look sharp."
"All right. But if we go--"
"_But if_! Why, we are going."
"I hope so," cried Ned. "But I say, Griggs, what are you going to doabout your shanty? Are you going to lock it up and leave the key withthe nearest neighbour?"
"Tchah! Nonsense! I'm going to put together what I want in a mule-car,ready for hitching the two kickers on, and then I'm going to take ahammer and a bag of spikes, and nail up the door and window. I shalladvise your gov'nors to do the same here."
"But of course we shall take no end of things with us," said Chris.
"You won't, my lad. We shall load up two or three cars, but it will bewith meal and tinned meat, bacon and ham. Tea, coffee, and sugar, ofcourse. Ammunition, a few tools, a waterproof or two, and a tent.That's all."
"What about clothes?"
"Oh, we shall bring them on our backs. It's going to be lightmarching-order, I can tell you."
"That won't matter," said Ned. "I shall like it. I say, Griggs, it'llbe like one long jolly great picnic."
"Yes, if we keep well, and the Indians let us alone."
"But, shall we meet Indians, Griggs?" cried Chris excitedly.
"Not we. Sooner go miles round; but they'll meet us, I expect."
"Oh!" said Chris thoughtfully. "But what for?"
"To get our mules and carts, and all we have with us."
"But what about ourselves?"
"Oh, we're no use to them," said the American dryly. "They'll pitch usaside as so much rubbish--if we'll let 'em."
"Get on!" cried Ned. "He's talking like that to frighten us. But Isay, Griggs, what about the gold?"
"Well, what about it?"
"If there's tons upon tons of it, how are we going to bring it away?"
"Ah, yes. I've been thinking about that," said the American dryly, "andI've settled upon this."
"Yes! What?" cried the boys eagerly.
"To find it first. It's of no use to settle how you'll cook your birdtill you've caught it."
"But we couldn't expect the mules to drag tons of metal across thedesert."
"Oh yes, we could, easily. We might expect a deal more than that; butthey wouldn't do it."
"Get out! He's laughing at us, Ned."
"Of course I was. Here, are your governors up yet?"
"They weren't when we came out," replied Chris.
"Well, I wonder at them, I dew," said Griggs. "Sleeping, with an idealike this to think about. I never had a wink all night. Say, this isgoing to be a change from pruning and weeding, eh?"
"Oh, it's glorious--splendid!" cried the boys.
"Is it? Wait a bit. Now come on; you're dressed enough, ain't you?"
"Yes, quite right now."
"Then let's go and hunt up the gov'nors. I want to know whether theyreally mean business."
"Oh yes, they'll go," cried Chris.
"Think so?"
"I feel sure of it."
"So do I," added Ned. "My father's quite eager to go."
"_Bagh_!" cried Griggs. "I was afraid that after sleeping on it they'ddraw back. This is good news, boys, for, oh, how tired I am of drudgingon here for nothing! Come on."
There was not much need for coming on. They had not gone half-way tothe big shanty before they came suddenly upon the doctor and his twofriends, who met them with the customary good-morning.
"Well, Mr Griggs," said the doctor, "you've come to say that the ideaof last night is wild and impossible."
"Who told you so, sir?" cried the young American.
"No one. I only came to that conclusion."
"Then you thought wrong, sir, and perhaps it was what you had made upyour mind to yourself."
"Oh no, Griggs. We have decided quite the contrary. If there is anydrawing back it will be on your side."
"That's right then, sir. When do we start?"
"As soon as we have settled our affairs and bought the necessarystores."
"But we shall try and find a purchaser for the plantation--of course, ata reasonable price," said Bourne. "Just about the value of what we haveput into the place, the building and the tools."
"If we wait for that, gentlemen," said Griggs, "we shall never get off.But you try."
"Yes, we will try," said the doctor. "Of course it will be amongst thesettlers a few miles round."
This was decided upon, and the doctor and Bourne rode off that morning,making a tour of about thirty miles from plantation to plantation,before they returned, tired out, to the evening meal, and found Griggsbusy with Wilton and the boys just finishing up the task of thoroughlycleaning and oiling the firearms.
"Back again, then?" said Griggs. "Will you want my hammer and spikes,gentlemen?"
"Your hammer and spikes?" cried the doctor, wonderingly. "What for?"
"To lock up your doors and windows here, same as I'm going to do mine."
"Oh, I see," said the doctor. "Yes, I expect we shall."
"Didn't find no customers then, sir?"
"Customers?" cried the doctor querulously. "Every one wanted to sell.My impression was that not one settler we broached the subject to wouldhave taken our plantation as a gift."
"That's about how it stands,
sir," said Griggs. "They wouldn't. Whyshould they? It would only make them more work and less profit. You doas I do, sir--I mean, as I'm going to do: nail up the doors andshutters. I don't suppose any one would meddle with the shanty. If hedid he couldn't take away the land, so it would be here all right if youever came back and wanted it, which isn't likely, is it?"
"Not at all," said Bourne emphatically.
"Didn't say you were going gold-hunting, I s'pose, sir?" asked Griggs.
"Not exactly."
"Then some one did ask questions?"
"Everybody did," replied the doctor, "and I said we were goingprospecting."
"Oh, you might have said the real thing, sir. They sneer at you as muchfor one as for t'other. But that don't matter. I don't know, though:if they knew as much as we know we should have the whole settlementafter us; not that I should mind every one I know having a nibble at theyellow cake, but where half-a-dozen people might manage to find enoughwater, fifty folk would die of thirst, and perhaps tell us it was allour fault."
"Yes, the smaller our party the better, I say," said Bourne.
"Which means I'd better stop out of it, sir," said Griggs shortly.
"No, it does not, Griggs," cried the doctor warmly. "Cer-tain-ly not,"added Bourne. "You will come with us, of course."
"Well, I--"
"That'll do, Griggs; no backing out," said Wilton shortly.--"Now then,what about stores?"
"I propose that two of us decide what money will be necessary, and thengo over to Mainton with two mule-carts and spend it on such things as weshall want. That will take a week, including the obtaining asufficiency of ammunition."
"Which means plenty, gentlemen, for we might be regularly besieged inour wagon, and have to beat the Injuns off."
"I don't anticipate that," replied the doctor calmly, while the boysfelt their nerves tingle; "but we will be prepared. Then we shall comeback--I mean those who undertake the task will come back, and that willbe all that is necessary to be done, save having one or two gooddiscussions as to the route we shall take. Then we'll start upon ourwild quest."
"Wild indeed, I'm afraid," said Bourne.
"Nay! Not it," cried Griggs. "We've got plenty of time."
"And plenty of room," said Wilton, laughing.
"To be sure we have," continued Griggs. "Lookye here, I've beenthinking this little bit of a job over, and it seems to me as plain as AB C."
"Indeed!" said the doctor, smiling. "How do you make that out?"
"This way. We've got the map of the part where it is."
"Certainly, and all we've got to find out is whereabouts that partlies."
"Of course: and there lies the difficulty."
"Difficulty, doctor? Not it. Now, just look here. We've got, say,three States where it's likely to be. Say, at a guess, Colorado,Arizona, and New Mexico."
"Oh yes, and California, Texas, and you can join on Old Mexico."
"Nay, nay; the three I said will do for a beginning. If neither of themturns out right we'll begin on one of the others. Say, we give two orthree years apiece to the first lot. We've plenty of time, asaforesaid."
"Then you are going to set aside nine years of our lives to begin with,and when they are gone--wasted--begin another nine years?"
"Time won't be wasted, doctor; we shall have found out something oranother."
"The question seems to me," said Bourne, "is it worth the trouble?"
"If we'd got to spend nine more years in making a fortune here, doctor,we shouldn't think the time too long."
"Perhaps not."
"Well, it wouldn't be in getting the gold, even if it took nine years,and if we're lucky it mightn't take nine months. It's all chancewhether we hit on the right trail to begin with or at the last."
"It's a wild and desperate adventure," said the doctor sternly, "andonly excusable on the ground that we have wasted years upon thisplantation and are now in a desperate state."
"Oh, don't call it desperate, doctor. We're going on a job that's goingto be full of fun. We've only got to hold together pluckily to do it.Why, it's as easy as easy."
"To go and seek blindly through three great States for the spotdelineated on this rough map?" cried Bourne.
"We shan't go blindly, sir; you may depend on that. We shall keep oureyes open pretty wide," said Griggs, with a merry look at the boys."Now, look here, gentlemen, I tell you I've been thinking all this out,and it seems to me that we can cut it all down into a small patch."
"How?" said the doctor.
"By getting rid of all the outside useless bits of the job."
"I don't understand you," cried Wilton. "Hard or easy, I've made up mymind to see the thing through; but just explain a little more what youmean, Griggs."
"That's right enough, sir; I will. Now, look here; we've got our map,or plan, or whatever you call it."
"Yes," said Bourne.
"It's not very good writing, nor yet nicely finished off, but to my mindone thing's very clear, and it's this: wherever the ruined city is itmust be somewhere that hasn't been settled by emigrants and ranchers."
"Certainly," cried the doctor; "that's clear."
"Very well, then, sir; if you think a moment you'll see that you clearaway thousands o' square miles of settled country at once, where weneedn't go to look."
"Yes, he's right there," said Bourne. "Go on, Griggs."
"Give me time, sir. Well, then, the only parts we've got to search arethose where the country's quite wild, and no one been there butIndians."
"Exactly," said the doctor.
"Then the parts we have got to search are not half so big already, beingonly the bad desert lands."
"Good," cried Wilton.
"Here's where the map comes in now, gentlemen," continued Griggs. "Whatdoes it say on it--what does it show?"
"Very little," replied Bourne.
"That's true, sir. I could make a better map myself; but it does showone thing, and that is that the gold city lies amongst the mountains."
"Yes, quite true," said the doctor.
"Then here you are, sir: if the gold city lies amongst the mountains itcan't be any good for us to go hunting for it among the plains."
"Of course not."
"There you are, then, sir. Look, as the proper maps'll show you, what abig hunch of these three States we're going to search is marked off asprairie-land."
"To be sure."
"Then that as good as halves what we've got to go over again. We've gotto make for the mountain-path always till we find those threesugar-loafy bits the poor fellow marked down. Why, neighbour, we'recutting off a lot of pieces that we shan't need to meddle with. Yousee, it's coming down and getting less every time we begin to work."
"There's a deal in what you say," said the doctor thoughtfully, "but thecountry is immense."
"So was the Atlantic Ocean, sir, when Mr Christopher Columbus set sailin his ship to find land. That was jumping right into the darkness."
"Hear, hear!" cried Bourne and Wilton together, and the boys hammeredthe table.
"Yes," said the doctor, more thoughtfully, "and he had nothing but akind of faith to work on. You are quite right, Griggs; we have somegrounds to go upon."
"Instead of deep water, sir," said the American, grinning.
"And you being captain of the expedition, Lee," cried Wilton, "will havea far better chance of success."
"Shall I? I don't see why."
"You will, because you'll have a smaller crew, one that will not rise inmutiny against you and want to go back."
"How do I know that?" said the doctor dryly.
"Because we promise you, to a man--and boy--eh, Chris--Ned?--that we'llstick to you to the end."
"Of course," cried the boys together; while the others said, "Hear,hear!"
"That's all very well," said the doctor dryly. "We're sitting herecomfortably at this table, and in this shanty, and rough as it is wehave found it a comfortable home. We've had our even
ing meal, and we'regoing to lie down for a good night's rest. But wait till some day whenwe're all worn out with hunger and fatigue--out, perhaps, in somethirsty desert--without a roof to cover us, and surrounded by dangerssuch as at the present time we cannot conceive. How will you feelthen--what will you say then?"
"Never say die, father," cried Chris.
"Britons never shall be slaves," cried Ned.
"Nor Yankee Doodles neither, doctor," cried Griggs, laughing.
"I say we'll all stick to our captain like men," said Wilton warmly.
"And I that I shall clap you on the shoulder, Lee, and say, Thankgoodness, we've fought through our troubles so far, and that, pleasegoodness, we'll go on bravely to the end."
"Hah!" exclaimed the doctor, uttering a long-drawn sigh. "Yes, I find Ishall be better off than Columbus, and I begin to feel that with suchhelp I shall have a much easier task. There: we'll go. Our friendGriggs has put quite a different complexion on the expedition, and Ibegin to think now that all we have to do is to keep on till we find theruined city."
"If it exists," said Bourne.
"If it exists? Oh, it must exist, if you can say that of a dead city,"cried Wilton.
"The poor fellow we buried may have invented it all, being so bent uponhis search, and gone crazy at last and made up that chart out of his ownhead."
"No," said the doctor thoughtfully. "I had the advantage of you othersin being with him during his last moments, and hearing him talk calmlyand sensibly to the end. He had suffered horribly from fever, anddoubtless had been delirious again and again, but that chart was thework of no madman; half-an-hour's conversation with him satisfied methat he knew perfectly well what he was talking about, and, after allsaid and done, there is nothing preposterous in what he told me. Wehave had proofs enough of there being rich gold-loving nations in North,South, and Central America who built great temples--the Mexicans, thePeruvians, and the nations who have left the huge ruins in Yucatan. Ido not see why there should not be another gold city and temple here."
"Here!" said Bourne dryly. "Where?"
"In the desert place among the mountains that we are going to find, mydear sir," said the doctor firmly.
"_Bagh! Bagh! Bagh! Bagh_!" roared Griggs enthusiastically, and theboys joined in the "tiger," as he called it.
"Don't say any more, doctor," he cried. "That's enough. I began tothink you were playing fast and loose, and I said to myself, Doctor'sgot too much shilly-shally, willy-nilly in him to make a good leader ofthis expedition, but I don't now. I can see farther than I did, andthat you've been weighing it all over and looking before you leaped.And that's the right way to succeed. Gentlemen, and you two youngsters,we've got a grand captain--one that can lead us and guide us, and cureus, and set us up when we're down. What more can we want? We're sureto succeed. I won't sell my share now for anything."
There was a fresh cheer at this, and the party broke up to take thenecessary rest.
"Ned," said Chris, after they had been in bed a short time, "we're off."
"Yes," said Ned. "_Bagh! Bagh! Bagh_! as Griggs has it."
"Hush, or you'll wake my dad."