Over the Rocky Mountains: Wandering Will in the Land of the Redskin by Ballantyne (desktop ebook reader .txt) đ
- Author: Ballantyne
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âWhat is it?â inquired Will, eagerly, on beholding the huge frame of the trapper quivering with suppressed laughter.
âNothinâ, nothinâ,â said Ben, dismounting, âonly the redskinâs ears are sharp, and he has heard surprisinâ sounds. Go with him on foot. Iâll hold the horses.â
âCome âlong, foller me quick as you can,â said Bunco, in a whisperââno take gum?âno use for dem.â
Filled with surprise and curiosity, Will and Larry followed their comrade, who went straight towards the window from which the light streamed. A voice was heard singing within, but it was not loud, and the air could not be distinguished until the chorus burst forth from, a number of powerful lungs:â
âHearts of oak are our ships, Jolly tars are our menââ
At the first note, Larry sprang past his companions, and peeped into the room. The sight that met his gaze was indeed well calculated to strike him dumb, for there, in a circle on the floor, with the remains of a roast of beef in the centreâred-shirted, long-booted, uncombed, and deeply bronzedâsat six old comrades, whom they had not seen for such a length of time that they had almost forgotten their existenceânamely, Captain Dall, long David Cupples, old Peter, Captain Blathers, Muggins, and Buckawanga! They were seated, in every variety of attitude, round a packing-box, which did duty for a table, and each held in his hand a tin mug, from which he drained a long draught at the end of the chorus. The last shout of the chorus was given with such vigour that Larry OâHale was unable to restrain himself. He flung open the door, leaped into the room with a cheer and a yell that caused every man to spring up and seize the nearest weapon, and Captain Dall, in a burst of fiery indignation, was in the act of bringing a huge mass of firewood down on the Irishmanâs skull when Will Osten sprang in and arrested his arm. At the same moment Muggins recognised his old messmate, and, rushing at him, seized him with a hug worthy of a black bear!
To describe the scene of surprise, confusion, and delight that followed were impossible. The questions put that were never answered; the answers given to questions never put; the exclamations; the cross purposes; the inextricable conglomeration of past, present, and future historyâpublic, personal, and local; uttered, ejaculated and gasped, in short, or incomplete, or disjointed sentencesâall this baffles description. After a few minutes, however, they quieted down, and, while the new arrivals attacked the roast of beef, their former messmates talked incessantly, and all at once!
âYouâre the laird of a splendid estate of rocks and scrub,â said Captain Dall to Will.
âNot to mention the river,â replied Will, smiling.
âWithout fish in it, ha!â groaned Cupples.
âBut lots oâ goold,â suggested Larry, with a wink; âgive us a drop oâ yer grog, lads, itâs dry work meetinâ so many friends all at wanst.â
âNothinâ but water here!â said Muggins.
âWhat! wos ye singinâ like that on cowld wather?â
âWe wos!â returned Muggins.
âAnâ whatâs more,â said Old Peter, âweâve got used to it, anâ donât feel the want of grog at all. âWhatâs in a name,â as Jonathan Edwards says in his play of âHave it yer own way,â or somethinâ like that. Why, if you call it grog anâ make believe, it goes down likeâlikeââ
âWather,â suggested Larry; âwell, well, letâs have a drop, whativer it is.â
âBut how comes it to pass,â inquired Will, âthat we should all meet here just as people are made to do in a novel, or at the end of the last scene in a play?â
âNothing more natural,â said Captain Blathers. âYou know, when we were cast adrift by the scoundrels that took my ship, Captain Dall, Mr Cupples, and I, made the coast, and got to San Francisco, where we remained, working at what we could, to scrape together a little money before leaving for England, as we had no heart for the goldfields. Some months after that we were surprised to see Old Peter and Muggins wandering about the town like beggars. They had come in a small craft from South America, and were very glad to join us. We were soon persuaded by them to go to the goldfields, and were about to start when we heard of this estate that had been left to a Mr Osten by his brother. I made inquiries, found it was your father it was left to, and, having heard from Muggins of your fatherâs death, I wrote a letter to let you know we were here, and to ask adviceâwhich letter, by the way, is about half seas over to England by this time, if allâs well. Then we agreed to come here, and prospect for gold all over the estateâthe which we have done, but without much luck as yet, Iâm sorry to say.â
âBut you have not yet accounted for the appearance of Buckawanga?â said Will.
âOh, as to that, Muggins recognised him one day in the street. We found he had come over from them rascally Cannibal Islands, in the service of a missionaryââ
âWhat!â exclaimed Will, dropping his knife and fork.
âThe missionary, you know,â said Captain Dall; âMr Westwood, whoââ
âIs heâis his familyâin San Francisco?â asked Will, recovering himself and pretending to be busy with his supper.
âAy, he is on his way to Englandâwaiting for a ship, I believe; but Buckawanga prefers the goldfields, and so, has come with us, as you see.â
âAre the Westwoods wellâall of them?â
âSo far as we know, they are. But in regard to the gold hereaboutsââ
âAy, thatâs the thing,â said Larry, who had glanced at our hero with twinkling eyes when reference was made to the Westwoods; ânothinâ like goold to warm the heart of a poor man anâ gladden the eyes of a rich wan. Itâs that same asâll interest the doctor most.â
âWell,â resumed the captain, âas I was about to sayââ
âDidnât I hear you say something about going to San Francisco for fresh supplies and more tools a few minutes ago?â asked Will, abruptly.
âYou did; we are short of provender and hard up for tools. I meant to start to-morrow, but now that youâve come Iâll delayââ
âWeâll not delay an hour,â cried Will, with unusual energy. âIt will never do to waste time here when people are making fortunes all round us. The rest of the party can remain to prospectâbut you and I, captain, will start for San Francisco to-morrow!â
âHo, ho!â said Larry to himself that night, as he smoked his pipe after retiring to rest; âitâs neck or nothinâ is itânever venturâ never win, is the word? Well, well, âtis the way oâ the world. My blessinâ go wid ye, doctor.â With this benediction on his lips he turned round, shook the ashes out of his pipe and went to sleep.
Next morning, true to his word, Will Osten started off to retrace his steps to San Francisco, much to the regret as well as surprise of all his friends, except Larry OâHale and Bunco, both of whom, being aware of his motive, chuckled mightily in their sleeves but wisely said nothing. Will was accompanied by Captain Dall and Mr Cupples, the former of whom gave him an account of his adventures since the period of their separation in the South Seas. As most of these adventures, however, were not particularly striking, and as they do not bear upon our tale, we will not inflict them on the reader, but merely refer to that part of the captainâs career which was mixed up with our heroâs new possessions in the Grizzly Bear Gulch, as his valley was named.
âYou see, doctor,â said Captain Dall, as they cantered easily over the soft turf of a wide plain, which, a little beyond the entrance to the gulch, spread out for a considerable distance along the base of the Sierra Nevada, âyou see, when we discovered that this valley, or gulch, as they call it here, was yoursâor your fatherâs, which I suppose means the same thingâCaptain Blathers, Mr Cupples, Muggins, Old Peter, and I held a council of war, and came to the conclusion that we would go up anâ have a look at it, hopinâ to find gold, but first of all we went to the regular digginâs on the Sacramento River to learn how to wash out the dirt anâ make enough to keep us goinâ. When we had done this anâ lined our pockets with enough of gold-dust to set us up, we started for Grizzly Bear Gulch, where we found nobody but Old Timothy, the native that had been your uncleâs servant.â
âTimothy,â said Will, âwas that his name?â
âNo, but he could not tell us his name, for the good reason that he does not understand a word of English, so we christened him Timothy, and he answers to it. The old man cut up rusty at first, and seemed disposed to drive us away, but by howling the name of Osten into his ears and giving him a little gold, we converted him into a friend, and got him to allow us to squat in the empty house. Then we went off prospecting, and found gold, sure enough, in the stream in front of the door, but there was not much in the places we triedâlittle more than enough to pay.â
âThen you donât think much of the property, I suppose,â said Will, âfor it is evident that in regard to agriculture it is not worth a straw?â
âIâm not so sure of that,â returned the captain. âWhat do you think, Mr Cupples?â
The mate, whose melancholy tones and expressions had increased with his shore-going experiences, said that he did not know; that he was no judge of such matters, but that gold might be found in quantity, and, if so, the place would be worth something!
âA safe conclusion,â said the captain, laughing; âbut that is just the point. Gold has turned up in all directions near the valley, and why should we not find it there? Besides, there is a pretty fair bit of land under cultivation, and vegetables fetch fabulous prices at the digginâs; in addition to which there are a good many cattle on the ground, and provisions of all kinds are as good as gold just nowâso, you see, I think that even if we donât find more of the dust on it, there is some chance that you may raise the wind by the property if you act wisely.â
âWell, we shall see,â said Will; âat all events I intend to make the most of my opportunitiesâand, talking of that, Captain Dall, as I see that Mr Cupples is lagging behind, a word in your earâIâll tell you a secret.â
Hereupon our hero made the captain his confidant; told him of the object of his journey, and begged his advice and assistance, both of which the worthy man agreed to give him, to any extent, at any time, and under all circumstancesâproving the sincerity of his assurances on the spot by at once offering several pieces of advice. One of these was, that Will should hasten on the consummation of his wishes without delay. This, as may be believed, was so consonant with Willâs own opinion that he accepted it at once, and acted upon it then and there, as far as was possible, by plying whip and spur so vigorously that his steed skimmed over the plain more like a swallow than a quadruped.
Progressing thus they were not long in reaching the city of Sacramento, which was four or five daysâ journey from Grizzly Bear Gulch. Here they embarked in a small schooner, and descended the noble Sacramento River, into which all the other rivers in California flow. Thence they coasted along the bay of San Francisco, which is a land-locked sea of more than forty miles in length, and,
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