The Cave of Gold<br />A Tale of California in '49 by Everett McNeil (summer books txt) 📖

"Great Moses, but this is exasperating!" complained Thure, staring indignantly at the blank walls of rock. "To be held up like this, when almost at the entrance to the Cave of Gold! But we have got to find it," and the heat of his excitement having cooled down a little, he began a more careful and systematic search of the face of the wall of rock.

"Found it?" yelled Ham, who at this moment came round the turn in the canyon at the head of the remainder of the company.

"No," Dickson called back. "Not a sign of an opening anywhere in sight."

"I reckon this is where our trouble begins," Ham declared a few minutes later, when he stood near the Big Tree and searched the precipitous side of the wall of rock vainly with his keen eyes. "It shore don't look as if there ever had ben any gulch entrance thar."

"Let us have another look at the map," suggested Mr. Conroyal, after all had searched the face of the wall of rock in vain for some time. "Possibly we have overlooked some little point of guidance on it."

Thure at once procured the map and handed it to his father; and all crowded anxiously around him, as he seated himself on a rock and spread the map out on his knees.

"This sure must be the right place," he declared, as he glanced down at the map and then up and down the canyon; "for here is the Big Tree and there," and he pointed to the white pillar, "is Lot's Wife, and that slide down there must surely have been the Devil's Slide; and, if this is the right place, then the entrance to Crooked Arm Gulch must be right there, according to this map," and he pointed to the wall of rock against which the great limbs of the tree were pressing.

"Wai, it ain't thar," and Ham turned away disgustedly from the map. "Any fool with eyes in his head can see that it ain't thar. I reckon we've come on a wild-goose chase. Let's go intew camp an' git some grub down us. I'm allfired hungry, an' it's tew late tew look any more tew-day," and he glanced toward the west wall of the canyon, up the side of which the shadows of night were already beginning to creep. "Possibly we can dew better in th' mornin', though it's more'n I can see how, seem' that thar's nuthin' but th' face of a solid wall of rock tew search; an' we've searched 'bout every inch of that that we can a'ready," and he threw his big frame down on the ground and stared at the wall of rock wrathfully.

And much of the same disappointment and disgust that troubled Ham was troubling the hearts of all; for it did not seem possible that there could be any entrance to any gulch anywhere near the Big Tree. The wall of rock was too steep to climb, but the eye could search its entire face, except where the limbs of the giant oak hid a few square yards of the surface, and nowhere was there a break in the wall nor the least sign of an opening of any sort, let alone the entrance to a gulch. This was so plainly evident, so easily and so quickly to be seen, for the smooth face of the wall of a canyon offers few opportunities of concealment, that the gloom of bitter disappointment deadened the spirits of all; and, consequently, it was a very downhearted and discouraged company of men that now started to make ready for the night under the overhanging branches of the Big Tree.

All the next day the search was continued, but without any results.

"Durn th' old map! Let's throw it intew th' fire an' git back tew th' diggin's," Ham declared wrathfully, as they gathered for the night under the Big Tree. "Stackpole shore must have been loony when he made that map."

"Reckon you are right," agreed Mr. Conroyal. "Well, we'll have another look at the map; and, if we can't get any new ideas from it, we will do as you say and start back for the diggings in the morning."

"No; no! Just one more day! Let us look one more day!" pleaded Thure. "I can't believe that Stackpole did not find that Cave of Gold. He was so sure of it, so earnest about it—and there is the nugget and the gold he had with him when murdered! Let us look just one more day!"

"Well, son, I am sure that we all are just as anxious to find that Cave of Gold as you can possibly be; but, where can we look that we have not already looked? What is the use of going over exactly the same ground that we have already been over many times? It isn't a question of sticking. I'd say stick as long as there was any hope. But, as Ham says, any fool with eyes in his head can see that there is no gulch opening here. Either Stackpole was crazy, or we've struck the wrong canyon; and, in either case, we might just as well give up the search and get back where we know there is gold. However, I will put the matter to a vote; and we will do as the majority wishes. Shall we start back for the diggings in the morning? All in favor of starting back in the morning stand up," and Mr. Conroyal's eyes glanced over the little company seated around him.

All arose slowly to their feet, except Thure and Bud, who looked almost ready to cry at this untimely ending of all their romantic dreams.

"I know it is hard, hard on us all, and especially hard on you two boys," Mr. Conroyal said, turning sympathetically to the lads. "But it would be foolish to waste any more time here. Now, let us have a last look at that map, before we fling the cussed thing into the fire," and he motioned Thure to hand him the skin map. "We don't want it to fool anybody else."

Thure slowly took the map from its place of concealment in his shirt bosom and reluctantly handed it to his father. Then all bent their heads over it; but there was little interest in their faces. They had examined the map too often and too closely to hope to find anything new in it now.

Suddenly Mrs. Dickson uttered a little exclamation and pointed with her finger to the roughly drawn tree in the left hand corner of the map.

"I wonder if that tree, with the arrow pointing downward toward the east point of the cross, does not mean something," she said.

"Moses!" yelled Thure, jumping to his feet excitedly. "It does! It's the key to the whole secret! I remember now! The miner said the gulch was blocked by great rocks, that we must climb the Big Tree to the third limb. You remember, don't you, Bud?" and he turned excitedly to Bud.

"Yes," answered Bud, now as greatly excited as was Thure himself. "He said, 'Climb to the third limb. Remember, climb to the third limb—third—third—' and then he choked all up. Come! It is yet light enough to see!" and both boys made a jump for the huge trunk of the great oak tree and began climbing up it almost with the agility of two squirrels.

"Gosh! Thar might be somethin' in that!" and Ham, and all the others, jumped to their feet and followed the movements of the two boys with deeply interested eyes.

The third limb was about twenty feet from the ground, of huge size and thrust itself straight out to the rocky wall of the canyon, against which its end appeared to be tightly pressed.

Along this limb Thure and Bud now scrambled, as swiftly as hands and feet and body could propel them, Thure in the lead. The limb was sufficiently large and strong to make this neither difficult nor dangerous. In a few minutes they were at the face of the wall of rock. Here Thure paused for a moment, then he was seen to rise on his feet, push a few branches aside, and, with a yell, disappear. The next moment he was followed by Bud.

"Wal, I'll be teetotally durned!" and Ham and the others stared blankly at the spot where the two boys had disappeared.

For five minutes they stood staring at the spot, without speaking a word, so intense was their interest. Then the heads of the two boys appeared through the branches almost simultaneously; and a loud yell of triumph broke wildly from the mouth of each.

"Found! Found!" yelled Thure.

"We've found the gulch! Crooked Arm Gulch!" cried Bud. "Come up and see."

"Durned if I don't!" and Ham leaped for the trunk of the tree, followed by every other man in the company, except Pedro, who, together with Mrs. Dickson, remained below.

"Not too many on the limb at a time," cautioned Rex, who had succeeded in reaching the third limb first. "It might break," and he began working his way along it, closely followed by Dill.

In a couple of minutes he had reached the opening in the wall of rock, a jagged hole some four or five feet in diameter, into which the sturdy limb had thrust itself in such a manner that its branches completely concealed all signs of the opening from below.

"Great! This is great!" Rex exclaimed, as he pushed his way through the branches into the hole.

In a few minutes more all were through the hole, and were standing on a narrow shelf of rock, looking down into a deep, narrow gulch, whose bottom was considerably below the level of the bottom of Lot's Canyon.

"By gum! if we ain't struck th' right spot at last!" and Ham stared in astonishment up the gulch to where it made a bend, like a crook at the elbow in a man's bent arm. "Thar's th' Golden Elbow," and he pointed to the bend; "an' this shore must be Crooked Arm Gulch. Wal, this is what I call luck! Hurra!" and he swung his hat around his head and yelled at the very top of his strong lungs; and every man there joined with him in the yell; and the rocky walls of the narrow gulch echoed and reëchoed the sound, until it seemed as if a hundred men were shouting their joyous yells of triumph.

"Too bad it is so late in the day that we must put off exploring the gulch until to-morrow," Mr. Conroyal lamented, when the excitement had somewhat quieted down.

"Oh, dad, just let us see if the cave is really there!" begged Thure.

"Impossible. See how swiftly the dark shadows of night are gathering. We must hasten back to Lot's Canyon at once. In fifteen minutes it will be too dark to see our way plainly. Come on, everybody. I reckon the Little Woman is some curious to know what has been happening up here," and, smiling happily, he started back toward the opening, followed by all the others.

When they again reached the ground at the bottom of the Big Tree, they found Mrs. Dickson alone. She said that Pedro had asked permission to go back to where the grizzly bear had been filled to get a chunk of bear steak for their supper, and had hurried off, taking one of their rifles with him, as soon as she had said yes. She was nearly wild with joy, when told of the find they had made, and vowed that she would go with them in the morning, when they started out to look for the Cave of Gold, in spite of the seemingly dangerous climb along the big limb of the Big Tree.

Half an hour later Pedro returned with a big chunk of bear meat, which was soon roasting on wooden spits placed around the blazing camp-fire.

That was as joyful an evening as the night before had been gloomy. Even the saturnine spirits of Pedro seemed greatly affected by the general hilarity; for his sallow face was all smiles and his little black eyes snapped and twinkled, as he passed hither and thither among the men, and he was very careful to place the pan in which he washed the dishes within easy hearing distance of every word they might utter. Indeed, it seemed almost impossible for him to tear himself away from the sound of their voices; and, when he was compelled to go to the little spring they had discovered some twenty rods distant from the Big Tree, after water, he had gone there and back on the run, as if he was fearful that something might be said while he was away that he ought to hear. But, to all this, our friends gave no heed, save that Ham