"No," says Aggy, thoughtfully, "that"s so."
"And would you mind," says the dealer, his hand fairly trembling to get hold of it, "just letting me have a squint at that gunny-sack full of dust you have in your clothes?" I didn"t require any hint from Ag that it was my place to be violent. With one loud holler I landed on my ear on the floor and kicked the poker table on top of the dealer. More"n a half-dozen men hopped on to me, and we had it for fair all over the place. I gave "em the worth of their time before they got me in the corner.
"Whew!" says Aggy, wiping his brow, "this is the worst attack he"s had yet."
"Just what I was telling you," says the dealer, very confidential and earnest. "You want to get him away from here quick--I"ve had some experience in those kinds of cases, and when I see your friend"s face, I knew you wanted to get a move on."
"It"s dreadful, ain"t it?" says Ag. "I believe you"re in the right about it--but, say, I feel that I"d ought to pay for the lamp he busted."
"Not at all," says the dealer, as generous as could be. "Not at all!
That"s an accident might have happened to any gentleman. Now, I"ll just take a friend along, and we"ll sail right out to your place. Can you drive there?"
"Oh, yes!" said Aggy. "The roads ain"t anything extra, but you can make it all right."
So away goes the four of us that afternoon. Ag and me, we felt leary of the fourth man at first. He let on to be considerable of a miner, but after a bit we sized him up.
"Did you ever," says Aggy whilst they was talking this and that about mines, "did you ever run your pay dirt through a ground-sluice rocker that was fitted up with double amalgam plates, top and bottom, and had the ap.r.o.n sewed on to a puddle board that slanted up, instead of down?"
"Why, sure!" says that feller, judging from Aggy"s tone of voice that this was the proper thing to do. "We didn"t use to handle our dirt no other way out in Uckle-Chuckle county."
"Is that so?" cries Aggy, very much surprised. "Well, do you know that very few people do?"
"It makes me tired," answers the man in a knowing way, "to think of the way some folks mines. Now that you"ve called my attention to it, I don"t recollect that I"ve heard of anybody using a ground-sluice rocker the way you speak of, since I left old Uckle-Chuckle county." And here I got a little violent again, because I can"t conceal my feelings as well as Ag. I had to have several attacks on the way out when Ag was brought to close quarters, but we did pretty well on the trip.
"Well, gentlemen, there"s the Golden Queen!" says Aggy when we turned the bend in the creek. "Seems funny that such an uninteresting-looking heap of rocks and stuff as that should be a gold mine, don"t it?"
He sees by their faces that they was a little disappointed and that he"d better get in his crack first. Then the question come up of how we was to get them fellers to dig where we wanted "em to without letting "em see we wanted "em to. But, Ag, he was able for it.
"Gentlemen," says he, "just stick your pick in anywhere"s--one place is just as good as another. [That was the gospel truth.] But if you don"t know just where to start suppose we try an old miner"s trick, that Mr.
Johnson there, I make no doubt, has done a hundred times."
Johnson, he smiled hearty. "Yes, yes! That old game!" says he. "I"d nearly forgot all about it--let"s see--how is it you do it?"
"First you throw up a rock," says Ag.
"Oh, now I remember! Sure!" says Johnson. "You throw up a rock----"
He stopped, smiling feeble and uncertain, waiting to hear the rest of it.
"Suppose we let Mr. Daggett [that was the tinhorn] do the throwing?"
says Aggy. "He"s a new chum, and we fellers always feel they have the luck. You may think this is all foolish superst.i.tion," says he, turning to the gambler, "but I tell you, honest, there"s a good deal in it," and that was the second true thing Ag said that day.
Daggett, he threw up the rock.
"Now, go and stand over it," says Ag. Daggett"s goes over according, but he ain"t pointed in the right direction.
"Now, you turn around three times."
But after he done it we weren"t no better oft than before, for the chump landed just as he had started.
Ag surveyed the ground.
"Now, you walk backward three steps, then four to the left, then back five more--ain"t that it?" turning to Johnson.
"That"s it!" says Johnson, slapping his leg. "That"s her! The same old game! Lord! how it all comes back to a feller!"
"And just where you land, you dig," finishes Ag, handing Daggett"s pick.
Daggett sinks the pick to the eye the first crack.
"Gosh!" says he. "Seems kind of soft here!"
"Is that so?" cried Aggy, highly excited. "Then you"ve struck gold for sure!" Having put it there himself he felt reasonably certain about it.
Well, they sc.r.a.ped up the bedrock, and Aggy offered to let Johnson pan it, but Johnson said he"d had to quit mining because his hands got so sore swinging a pan, so Daggett he kind of scrambled the dirt out after a fashion, and there at the bottom was our ounce and a half of gold!
Well, I want to tell you there was some movement around there. We weren"t in the same fix of a friend of mine who loaded a pan for a tenderfoot with four solid ounces, and when he slid the water around on that nice little yeller new moon in the corner of the pan, "Humph!"
says the tenderfoot, "don"t you get any more gold than that out of so much dirt?"
Four ounces to the pan only means about a hundred thousand dollars a day income.
"Gooramighty!" says my friend, plumb disgusted. "I"d have had to borrow all the dust there is on the creek to satisfy you--did you think it was all gold?"
It broke my heart to see the way that man Daggett washed the fine gold into the creek, but he was familiar enough with handling the dust to know that an ounce was good money, even if it did look small. He turned pale, and begun to dig for dear life. There was no prying him loose. Well, that"s a point Aggy hadn"t counted on. He managed to slide over near me.
"For heaven"s sake, Hy!" he whispers, "fly down to Uncle Peters" and get some more dust or we"re ruined! I"ll put it in the pan somehow, if you"ll only get it here! Hold the old man up if you have to--but get that dust!"
I begun to holler very melancholy, and prance around. By and by I pulled my freight loose and careless down creek.
"Say!" says Johnson, "there goes your friend, Mr. Jones! Shall I ketch him?"
"Oh, no," says Aggy. "Let him alone--he"s used to it around here--he"ll be back right away again."
When I got out of sight I humped for Uncle Peters.
"Sure!" says the old man, when I told him our troubles. "Take the whole blasted clean-up, Hy. We honest men has got to stand by each and one another--don"t let that rascally tinhorn escape."
So I grabbed Uncle Peters" hard-earned savings and hustled back again.
As soon as I got in good view of the outfit, I knew something was wrong, by the look of Ag"s face; but what it was got me, for there was both them fellers in the hole now, digging dirt like all possessed.
Daggett had busted his supenders, and the other lad"s coat was ripped up the back; but they didn"t care; they were mauling the fair face of nature like genuine lunatics, and cussing and swearing in their hurry.
"Well, what"s the matter with Ag?" thinks I. "Them fellers ain"t got on yet, that"s certain," but he looked as if he"d swallowed a stroke of lightning the wrong way. Never see a man--particular a man with Aggy"s nerve--look so much like two cents on the dollar. I didn"t have to be cautious in my approach; our friends were too busy to notice me.
"What the devil"s loose, Ag?" says I.
"Oh, nothing!" says he. "Nothing much! They"re taking it out by the hatful, that"s all. Look!"
I looked, and sure enough! There was the pan with a small-sized shovelful of yaller-boys in it--pieces that would weigh up to $10 some of them. I couldn"t believe my eyes.
"Where"d they get it?" says I.