CHAPTER XXII
STAKING THEIR CLAIMS
Once more the pursuit was on, but the boys were determined never to giveup as long as their horses could go. On their part the bad men wereequally relentless. Urged on by the greed of Con Morton, the three keptup the chase.
"What's the good of it?" asked Haverhill, when after the second day theboys were still in the lead. "They'll get away from us."
"No, they'll not," said Morton fiercely. "I'll catch 'em if it takes aweek!"
"What makes you think they have gold?"
"I'm sure of it. The way they acted convinces me of that. And I'm goingto make 'em tell where they got it."
On they kept. The steeds of the boys were getting weary, for though theykept up a good lead they could only stop at short intervals for feed andwater. This could not last, and Jed knew it. But with grim determinationhe and Will kept on.
It was toward the close of the fourth day of the pursuit amid themountains. Only the fact that there were a number of trails, which woundin and out, had, up to this, prevented the capture of the boys. Theydoubled on their track several times, and thus fooled the gamblers, whoknew as little of the mountains as did Will and Jed. And, in darkness,it was equally impossible for either party to advance, so uncertain wasthe travel.
But the bad men had this advantage--their horses were used to themountains, and those of the boys were not. The pace was too rough andwas being kept up too long for the farm steeds. They began to go slower.
"They're getting closer," announced Will, as they trotted along a ledgewhich skirted a dizzy canyon. "I can hear them more plainly."
"Guess you're right," admitted Jed. "Suppose we hide the gold somewhere,and let them catch us?"
"No, there's no telling what such desperate men would do to us. Let'skeep on."
They urged their tired horses to a gallop. As they turned into a broaderpart of the trail, they could hear the rattle of stones dislodged by thehorses of their pursuers.
"They're closing in," spoke Jed, "and I can't get any more speed out ofPete. I guess it's all up with us."
"Better give up!" called a voice behind them. "We've got you, and thelonger we have to chase you, the worse it will be. Hold on now, or I'llshoot!"
They had a glimpse of Morton, with a revolver in his hand.
"Think he'll shoot?" asked Will.
Before Jed had a chance to answer there came the sharp crack of theweapon, and a bullet sang through the air over the boys' heads. Mortonhad purposely fired high, as he only wanted to scare the lads, but theshot had an unexpected effect. It so startled the horses of Jed and Willthat they galloped forward as no urging by voice or whip could have madethem.
"Shoot again!" cried Jed softly. "That's what we need. We'll leave 'embehind again!"
They were coming out on a shoulder of the mountain now, and could lookdown into the valley below them. There seemed to be something familiarabout it. Both lads noted that at once.
"Isn't that where we were encamped?" asked Jed.
"It certainly looks like it," added Will.
"And there's a horse there, and a man who looks like Gabe!"
"It is Gabe!" cried Jed. "Hurrah! We're back at our old camp! Now letMorton and his gang come after us if they dare!"
The trail led downward, and the horses of the lads, finding goingeasier, or, perhaps, recognizing the place where they had strayed from,and desiring to get back to it, did not drop back into the slow pacethat had characterized their gait before the shot was fired.
"Hello, Gabe!" yelled Jed, waving his hat at the old man.
Mr. Harrison looked up. He recognized Jed and Will. He swung his hat inanswer and shouted a welcome.
At that moment the pursuers came in sight around the bend in the trail.They, too, saw the camp, and noted Gabe. But they also saw that hewalked with a limp. Instead of turning back, as the boys expected thegamblers would, they kept on.
"Are you going up against Gabe?" asked Haverhill of Morton. "He's a goodfighter."
"I'm not afraid. He's been hurt. See him limp. I've come too far to backout now. I'm going to get that gold!"
"I'm with you," said the third gambler, whose name was Sim Sanders. "Wethree are more than a match for them."
On they galloped toward the camp, where Gabe in wonder awaited thearrival of the boys. He saw the men in pursuit, and knew who they were.Hobbling to where he had left his rifle, he secured the weapon.
Into the camp rushed Jed and Will, their tired horses barely able tocarry them. After them came the three gamblers.
"What do you want here?" demanded Gabe.
"We want the gold those tenderfeet found, and we're going to have iteven if we have to fight!" answered Morton savagely.
"Then you'll have to fight," replied Gabe grimly. "I don't know anythingabout any gold they have, for we haven't struck any luck yet, but ifthey have any they're going to keep it, and you know what kind of a manI am, when it comes to a fight."
"Ride 'em down!" exclaimed Haverhill.
Gabe was about to raise his rifle, when an unexpected diversionoccurred.
There was heard a sound of galloping. Every one turned to see what itwas, and then into the camp rode five horsemen, each one with a pack onthe saddle before him, and a rifle in his hand. At the sight of theforemost rider Gabe cried:
"Ted! Ted Jordan! You're just in time! I'm hurt and these scoundrels aretrying to rob us!"
"Whoop!" yelled Ted. "If it ain't my old partner, Gabe Harrison! Who'strying to rob you? Those chaps? Go for 'em, boys! Show 'em how the ladsfrom Dizzy Gulch can handle a crowd of gamblers and thieves!"
But Morton and his cronies did not wait for this. Wheeling theirhorses, they rode back the way they had come, while to hasten theirspeed the members of Ted Jordan's party fired several shots over theheads of the scoundrels.
"Well! well!" exclaimed Ted, when quietness had been restored. "How inthe world did you get here, Gabe?"
"Prospecting with these two lads," indicating Jed and Will. "But whattakes you away from Dizzy Gulch?"
"Dizzy Gulch has petered out. It's no good. There was only outcroppinggold, and that's all gone. So I made up a party, left the place, andwe're prospecting. Have you had any luck?"
"Not much."
"But we have!" exclaimed Jed, as he pulled some of the nuggets fromtheir hiding place, and showed them to the astonished miners.
"What! Where did you get those?" asked Gabe.
Jed and Will quickly explained, telling where their wonderful find waslocated. They also gave an account of the pursuit, and how they had, bygreat luck, managed to get on the trail that led back to camp. Gabeexplained what had happened to him, and said that his leg was gettingbetter every hour.
"I'm all right to travel now, if you go slow," he said.
"Travel? Travel where?" asked Ted Jordan.
"To where the boys made the lucky strike, of course. We'll all go thereand stake out claims. If Dizzy Gulch is no good we've found somethingbetter."
They started off, not making especially fast progress on account ofGabe. They calculated to take two days in getting to the place, and theyhad no fear now that Con Morton's gang would interfere with them.
It was toward the evening of the first day, when as they were lookingfor a good place to camp, that Gabe Harrison remarked, as he looked uptoward the sky:
"I think we're in for a bad storm."
"What makes you think so?" asked Ted Jordan.
"The way my leg hurts. It always hurts when there's a storm coming."
"It doesn't look so," remarked one of the men. "The sky's as pretty as apicture."
"You wait," said old Gabe, slowly shaking his head.
In spite of the fact that no one else took much stock in Gabe'sprophecy, it was noticed that the camp was made more snug than usual,and the men looked well to the fastenings of their horses.
After supper, when they were all seated about the campfire, the mensmoking and telling stories, to which the two boy gold m
iners listenedeagerly, one of the men remarked:
"I believe it is going to blow up a little rain."
The evening sky was beginning to be overcast with clouds, and there wasa moaning and sighing to the wind, as if it bemoaned the fact that thepleasant scene was so soon to be spoiled by a storm.
"Better look to our tent-ropes, boys," suggested Gabe, for he and thetwo lads from the farm bunked together in a small tent that had beenbrought along. "I don't want it blown away in the night, and have us allget soaking wet."
The darkness increased more rapidly, now that the sky was becomingthickly covered with clouds, and the wind grew stronger.
"Say, do you notice anything queer?" asked Jed of Will, as they stoodtogether on a little jutting point of rock and looked over the valleyspread out below them, a valley now shrouded in gloom.
"Something queer? How do you mean?"
"I mean like when your foot goes to sleep, and you try to walk on it."
"As if pins and needles were all over you?" asked Will.
"Yes, that's it."
"I did notice something like that," admitted his brother, "but I didn'tthink it was anything. It's growing worse, though."
"You're right, it is. Let's ask the men and old Gabe if they feel it.Why, it's just like an electric battery now."
The boys looked at each other curiously and in some alarm. They wereboth now conscious of a very peculiar sensation. Their flesh all overwas tingling as if tiny needles were being brushed against them.
"Do you notice anything queer, Gabe?" asked Will.
"Queer!" exclaimed the miner. "I should say I did. It feels like gingerale tastes."
"That's it," remarked one of the men. "I was wondering what was thematter with me."
The miners and the boys were ill at ease. There seemed to be somethingstrange in the air about them--some unseen influence at work. Theylooked all around. The storm was evidently coming closer. The wind wasnow blowing quite a gale, and there were occasional mutterings ofthunder.
"The horses feel it, too," observed Ted. "I don't like it here. I wishwe'd kept on, or else stopped down below."
Hardly had he spoken than there came a vivid flash of lightning,followed an instant later by a startling clap of thunder. But it was notthe lightning which caused every one in the camp to jump sharply. Norwas it the thunder.
"Did you feel that?" cried Jed.
"I should say I did," answered Will. "A regular electric shock, that'swhat it was. Felt as if I had hold of the business-end of a battery."
There came another flash of lightning, a far-off one, for the forkedtongues of it shot down behind a distant, towering peak, but the effecton the little party of gold-seekers was even more pronounced thanbefore. Gabe fairly leaped into the air, in spite of his injured leg.
"Tarantulas and centipedes!" he cried. "Something's the matter!"
"We're on top of a natural electric battery!" shouted Ted Jordan.
"No, we're not, but it's almost as bad," spoke one of the men. "I knowwhat it is."
"What then?" cried several.
"We're on a part of the mountain that's filled with iron ore. Theelectricity is attracted to it, and we're getting shocks from it. I wasin a place like this once before, out in Australia, and a lot of nativeswere killed during a storm. The iron ore acts just like a live wire."
"Then we'd better get off," said Will. "I don't want to be electrifiedany more."
"Move's the word, and we can't be any too quick," spoke Gabe.
There came another flash, and once more the gold-hunters felt thesensation of pins and needles. They noted, too, that the storm seemedcoming more rapidly toward them.
"Up stakes and vamoose!" shouted one of the men, who had been living ona ranch. "Let's get away from here before it's too late."
"It'll be worse when the rain comes," stated the man who had explainedabout the iron ore causing the trouble. That his theory was right wasadmitted by all the miners, when they had examined the character of theground on which they stood. They lost no time in breaking camp, and theyhad only gotten the tents down and re-arranged the packs on the horses,when the storm broke in a fury of wind and rain.
Fortunately, this outburst seemed to take the edge off the electricaloutburst, and they were hoping they would escape without any moreshocks. But it was a vain hope. When the ground was thoroughly wet therecame such a sudden glare of lightning that it nearly blinded every one.The crash of thunder was not an instant in following, and such anelectrical shock resulted that one of the men was knocked down. As forthe horses, they were so frightened that it was with difficulty thatthey could be controlled.
"Hurry up!" cried Ted Jordan. "We're likely to be killed if we stayhere. Hurry, every one!"
The man who had been knocked down arose with a curious look on his face.He ran at top speed until he came to a spot about five hundred yardsfrom where the others were.
"It's all right here," he cried. "No iron ore here. You'll be safe whenyou get here."
They made all haste to join him, slipping, stumbling and leaping overthe rough way. The rain was falling in torrents, and even the slightdischarges of electricity that followed the one big flash set theirflesh to tingling, and made them fear that worse was to follow.
But they got safely across that patch of ore, and were soon on neutralground. There they tried to establish a camp, but it was hard work inthe storm. The boys helped as best they could, and so did Gabe, but hisleg pained him too much to allow him to do a great deal.
At length, however, something like order was brought out of chaos. Itwas out of the question to get tents up, so strong did the wind blow,but the men used the canvas to shelter them somewhat from the downpour.The horses were tethered to trees in the open.
"Look there!" cried Jed suddenly, pointing to the spot of ore which theyhad left. They all looked and beheld a curious sight. Right on the placewhere they had first camped the ground seemed covered with tiny blue andgreen spots. They leaped about here and there, and some seemed like tinyflames.
"It's the electricity," called the man who had explained about theeffect of the lightning on the iron ore. "A connection has been madebecause of the rain, and that place is now charged like a battery. It'sa good thing we got away from there."
They all congratulated themselves on this score, and watched withcuriosity, not unmixed with fear, the curious play of the lightning andthe tiny flames seeming to come up from the earth.
The rain kept up for an hour more, and then ceased. By that time it wasimpossible to light a fire, so they had to eat cold victuals; but theydid manage to get up the tents, though it was as bad inside them as itwas out, for they were soaking wet.
But they all accepted it as part of the game they were playing, and aspart of the price they had to pay for gold. The night seemed as if itwould never end, but morning came at last, and with the advent ofdaylight every one felt better. The old miners knew how to get dry woodfrom the inside of hollow logs, and soon, over cups of steaming coffee,the terrors and discomforts of the night were forgotten.
"Forward!" cried Gabe when breakfast was over and the packs adjusted."Now for the place of the nuggets. You boys will have to show us the waysoon."
"We can do that, all right," declared Jed. "We'll show you where we hidthe nuggets."
They traveled on all the rest of that day. Jed and Will were able todirect the men along the same trail they had taken in retreating fromCon Morton and his gang. As they advanced the various landmarks werepointed out by the lads.
"We're 'most there now," said Will as they turned around a shoulder ofthe mountain and set off at right angles to the way they had been going."We'll be there in half an hour now."
"Just in time to dig out about a thousand dollars' worth of the yellowboys and have grub," remarked Ted Jordan. "Well, it can't happen any toosoon for me, boys. I've been down on my luck lately, and I need achange."
They pressed on more eagerly, the two boys in the lead, as they aloneknew where the secret s
pot was.
"Here's the place!" cried Will at length.
"No, it isn't," declared Jed. "It's farther on."
"It's here," insisted Will. "Don't you remember this big rock? I said atthe time that the nuggets were about five hundred feet from it."
"Which way?" asked Gabe quickly. "That's important to know."
"Right in line with that dead tree," answered Will. "I'll show you."
He walked confidently to the spot.
"Yes, that's it," spoke Jed, convinced that his brother was right.
Will began to dig, while the men gathered about him, with eager eyeswatching him. It meant a lot to them, for some of them were down totheir last dollar, and a rich strike would prove a fortune to them.
"Did we put 'em as deep as that?" asked Jed, when Will had removedconsiderable dirt and had not come upon any of the precious yellownuggets.
"Must have, but I don't remember that we went very deep."
"Let me have a try," suggested Ted. "I'll soon turn 'em out."
He took the pick from Will and began to dig. He went quite deeply intothe ground, and turned it up for some distance in a circle. But therewere no nuggets.
"They're--they're gone!" gasped Will at length.
"Somebody's taken them! Morton and his gang!" came from Jed. "He sawwhere we hid them!"
"He couldn't," insisted Will.
"Are you sure this is the place?" asked Gabe anxiously. "Take a goodlook, boys."
Much depended on the two young gold-hunters. The men gazed at themanxiously.
"I'm sure that's the rock," said Will. "Aren't you, Jed?"
"It certainly looks like it."
"Is that the only mark you went by when you uncovered and then hid thenuggets?" went on the old miner. "Now, think carefully."
"No, there was another stone near the big rock," said Jed suddenly. "Iremember now. It looked like a man's face. I thought at the time that itlooked like Con Morton. There were two rocks close together, a big oneand a little one."
"Where's the little one?" asked Gabe.
"It's gone."
"Maybe it's the big one that's gone," suggested the old miner.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean maybe the big stone got displaced by reason of the storm lastnight. It might have rolled several hundred feet out of the way. In thatcase you'd be all out of your calculations. Suppose you look for thelittle rock?"
"That's it!" cried Jed. "I thought this place didn't look just right.It's farther up."
They ran up the trail a little way, and Jed gave a shout of delight.
"There's the little rock!" he cried. "Now for the nuggets!"
They knew just where to dig now, and five minutes later Jed and Will haduncovered their store of gold. Such a shout as went up from the men,old Gabe joining in!
"We've struck a bonanza!" cried Ted.
And so they had; for when they came to stake out their claims, theyfound the indications were of such richness that the mines bid fair tobe regular bonanzas. At Gabe's suggestion they formed a sort of company,taking in the men who had come with Ted at such an opportune time.Because they were the discoverers of the gold mine, Jed and Will weregiven larger shares than any of the others, though there was enough forall.
"Now we must write and tell dad of our good luck," proposed Jed onenight, in the new camp that had been formed near the place where thenuggets were found.
"And I'll mail the letter," promised Ted. "I've got to ride to the townto-morrow."