"And I can"t be of any use to you there?"
"No, I don"t think you can. I may not be back to the city before next spring."
"I wish you would tell me what you are going to do when you get there.
You can"t get the box; that will be safe in the bank."
"But perhaps I can pa.s.s myself off for Mr. Haberstro. I have some of his cards in my pocket."
"But you will only get yourself into trouble if you try that game.
There are people out there who know Haberstro."
"Well, that is so," said Claus, looking reflectively at the ground. "I shall have to think up some way to get around that. At any rate, you cannot be of any further use to me, and so you had better start by the next train."
"Well, you had better give me some money before you turn me off in this way," said Casper. "How am I going to get back to the city without money?"
"Where is that ten dollars you got out of the telegraph office when your time was up?" asked Claus, who did not like it whenever the subject of giving some of his hard earnings was brought up before him.
"You have not spent all of that, I know."
"Yes, I have. I have just a quarter, and there it is," said Casper, pulling out of his pocket the coin in question.
"I wish to goodness I had never seen you!" said Claus, shoving his hand into the pocket in which he kept his money. Casper heard the jingling of some silver pieces, and thought that perhaps his companion might be tempted to give him a few dollars. That would be better than nothing, and he would have some money left when he reached St. Louis.
"If I had never seen you, I would have more dollars left in my pocket than I have now," said Claus, bringing out a handful of small change.
Casper said nothing in reply. He wanted to see how much Claus was going to give him; and, once he had the money in his hand, he could talk to him as he pleased.
"There are five dollars that I will give you, and you need not ask me for any more," said Claus, counting out the money; "for, if you do, you won"t get it."
"I don"t know whether five dollars will pay my fare to St. Louis or not," said Casper. "Give me six."
"No, sir; that"s all I have to spare. It will take you so close to the city that you can easily walk in," said Claus, turning on his heel and starting toward the town they had just left. "You can walk twenty-five miles very easily."
It was right on the point of Casper"s tongue to "open out" on Claus, and give him as good as he sent. Wouldn"t he have had more dollars in _his_ pocket if he had never met the man who was anxious at all times to play a game of billiards or pool with him, especially on pay-day, when Casper was known to have money in his pocket? But, on thinking the matter over, he decided that he would say nothing about it. Claus was a pretty big man, and there was no knowing what he would do if the boy made him angrier than he was now.
"He is going to be fooled again," said Casper, as he fell in behind Claus, who walked toward the town as if he were in an awful hurry to get there. "What good will it do him to go on to Denver? He can"t get the box there, neither can he cheat Julian out of his money. Julian will find any amount of friends there--I never heard of a boy with a hundred thousand dollars in his pocket who could not find somebody to stand by him--and they will tell him what to do. Oh! why did I make so great a mistake! I ought to have started for Denver the moment I got my hands on that box. Well, I got five dollars out of Claus, anyhow."
Casper sauntered along behind Claus, who was walking rapidly, and when he reached the depot he looked all around for his companion, but failed to see him. Claus had gone off somewhere, and Casper was there alone.
CHAPTER XV.
HOW A MINE WAS HAUNTED.
"Well, boys," said Mr. Fay, when they had reached the street and were walking toward their hotel, "I have somehow taken a great interest in you, and I am anxious to see you come out all right. It is the most remarkable thing I ever heard of. You did not know what was in that box when you bought it, did you?"
"No, sir," replied Julian; "it was all sealed up. The auctioneer said something about a miner having hidden the secret of a gold-mine in it, and I bought it for thirty cents."
"The auctioneer happened to hit the matter right on the head. I will go with you in search of a cheaper boarding-house than the one at which you are now stopping, and you had better remain there until Mr.
Gibson hears from those people in St. Louis. That will be two weeks, probably. If, at any time, you grow weary of walking about our city, looking at what little there is worth seeing, come down to the office, and we"ll sit there and swap a few lies."
Mr. Fay continued to talk in this way while they were walking along the streets, meanwhile turning several corners, and the longer he talked the more the boys saw the traits of his Western character sticking out all over him. He talked like a gentleman, and then spoiled it all by remarking that they would "swap a few lies" when they came around to his office. He had probably been out West so long that he had become accustomed to Western ways of conversation.
At length Mr. Fay turned off from the sidewalk, ascended the steps that led to the door of a house, saying, as he did so, "Now we will go in here and see what we can do," and rang the door-bell. It was a very different-looking house from the one they had been in the habit of living in when in St. Louis. There were no broken-down doors to be opened before they went in, nor any rickety steps to be climbed, but everything was neat and trim, and kept in perfect order. A motherly-looking old lady answered Mr. Fay"s pull at the bell.
"Ah! good-morning, Mrs. Rutherford," was the way in which Mr. Fay greeted her. "Let me introduce Julian Gray and John Sheldon. They are looking around for a cheap boarding-house,--not too cheap, mind you,--and I have called to see if you have any place in which to hang them up for the night."
Mrs. Rutherford was glad to meet Julian and Jack, invited them into the parlor, and asked them if they wanted a room together. The boys replied that they did, and she conducted them upstairs, to show them a room that was vacant. They were gone not more than five minutes, and when they came downstairs again Mrs. Rutherford was putting some bills away in her pocket-book, and the boys acted as though they were well satisfied.
"Well, you have found a place, have you?" said Mr. Fay. "Have you jotted down the street and number?"
No, the boys had not thought of that, and Julian quickly pulled his note-book from his pocket.
"Your city is somewhat larger than we expected to find it," began Julian.
"You don"t find many wigwams around here now," answered Mr. Fay. "We keep spreading out all the time. Can you boys find the way back to your hotel?"
Julian and Jack thought they could find it if they were given time enough, but Mr. Fay thought he had better go with them. It was right on the road to his office, and he walked off so rapidly that his young companions were obliged to increase their speed in order to keep up with him. Before they had gone a great way, Julian, who was anxious to learn all he could about their surroundings, asked how far it was to the mountains behind them. Mr. Fay had evidently answered such questions before, for all he said in reply was,
"How far do you think it is?"
"I think two miles would cover the distance," he answered, for he was determined he would guess enough while he was about it.
"How far do _you_ say it is, John?" said Mr. Fay, turning to Jack.
"I would rather be excused from expressing an opinion, but I think we could walk out there in two hours."
"And come back the same day?"
"Why, yes; certainly."
"Now, let me tell you," said Mr. Fay: "If you have made up your minds to go out to the mountains, hire a good, fast walking-horse, and go out one day and come back the next."
"Is it as far as that?" exclaimed the boys, looking at each other with amazement.
"It is all of twelve miles. You must take into consideration that the air is very rare up here, and that things appear nearer than they are.
You are 5135 feet above the level of the sea."
"My goodness! I didn"t think we were so far out of the world!"
"We have awfully uncertain weather here," continued Mr. Fay, "but still we regard our climate as healthy. Our thermometer sometimes changes as much as forty degrees in twenty-four hours. Since Professor Loomis took charge of the matter, the mercury has changed forty-five times in one day. What sort of a place did you expect to find Denver, anyway?"
"Well, I did not know what sort of a place it was," said Julian. "We thought we should find more wigwams here than houses, and you can"t imagine how surprised we were when we found ourselves in a depot full of people."
"Denver used to be full of wigwams, but it is not so now. Until the year 1858 the Indians lived in peace; but in that year gold was discovered by W. G. Russell, a Georgian, on the banks of the river Platte, which is but a little way from here, and that settled the business of the Indians in a hurry. Denver, Black Hawk, Golden City, and many other cities that I can"t think of now, were founded in 1859, and a host of immigrants appeared. Since that time we have been spreading out, as I told you, until we have a pretty good-sized city."
"It shows what Western men can do when they once set about it," said Jack. "Now, answer another question while you are about it, if you please. If the mercury changes forty degrees in twenty-four hours, working in the mines must be dangerous business."