"We"re looking "round. No, we haven"t struck anything yet," they answered. "Have you? How long have you been here?"
"Do you know of any good place to claim?" added Terry.
"Yes. And you won"t have to drive a stake! When did you get in? Where"s your camp?"
"Down yonder somewhere. We got in this morning."
"Gee, but I"m glad to see you," panted Archie. "Hurrah! Let"s go to your camp and move your stuff. What you got? The cart? Didn"t buy a tent, did you?"
"No. We came in with just the mule. Expect we"ll fix up a bough hut till we strike it rich," explained Terry.
"No, you needn"t. You"re to stay on my place. I"ve got a cabin and a stove and--and----" here Archie lowered his voice, "boys, I"ve struck it rich, myself! I"ve got the best claim in these diggin"s!"
"You have! How long have you been here?"
"About two weeks. Come on and I"ll tell you about it. Do you know anything about mining?"
"No," they confessed, ruefully.
"I didn"t, either," admitted Archie, as together they pressed on for Jenny and Shep and the packs. "So I bought a claim. There was a man here who couldn"t stay--he had to go down to Denver; and I bought his claim for only $500. First I"d prospected for myself, and didn"t find anything, and then I came across him just in time. Gee, I was lucky. He wouldn"t have sold, only he was obliged to get out. Of course, I panned samples of it before I bought, and in the very first pan there was four dollars" worth of gold! He sold me his cabin and stove and everything.
Boys----" and Archie"s voice sank again, "you may not believe it, but I"ve already taken out near $80, by myself, and I can"t dig very long at a time, either."
"How"d you pay for it?" blurted Terry. "Did you have the money with you?"
"Yes. Our outfit had put in $200 apiece, for the trip across the plains, and we"d spent only half, and I carried that because I was treasurer. I paid for the stage ride from the station, though; but in Denver I worked at the hotel--and--and I nursed a gambler who was sick, and when he found out that I"d studied medicine he said I"d saved his life and he gave me $250 as a doctor"s fee. But I"m not a regular doctor yet. Now you fellows are to come and work the mine. It"s named the Golden Prize, and it"s _yours_!"
Harry stopped short. Terry scarcely could believe his ears.
"What?" challenged Harry.
"Aw, get out!" scoffed Terry.
"But it is," insisted Archie. "I"ve been just praying that you"d come along. I didn"t really save that gambler"s life, though he was right sick. But you saved mine; and if he thought what I did was worth $250, I reckon what you did was worth three or four times that because you risked your lives, too. And anyway, I can"t stay. It"s too high for me up here. I lose my breath. I feel a heap better down on the plains, and I guess I"ll go back home for a spell. If I don"t give the mine to you somebody"ll jump it. There isn"t anybody up here I can trust."
"But, great Caesar!" expostulated Harry. "We"ll work it, if you want us to, while you"re gone. We won"t accept it forever, though."
"I should say not!" affirmed Terry. "We can find our own claim."
"No, you can"t. The trained miners are the ones who find the best ground, and you"re not trained. All right: you can work it just as if it were your own, and you can have all you find till I come back."
"Cracky, but that will make us rich, won"t it?" cried Terry.
"Of course it will. I"ve taken $80 in four days and I tell you I"ve just dug a little bit. It tires me all out to dig; and the water"s so far.
But you fellows can put in a sluice--I"ll lend you enough dust to buy boards with, if you haven"t enough----"
"We"ve got a little, and if we haven"t enough we"ll dig out more,"
declared Harry, quickly.
"And with a sluice running you can just _pile_ up the yellow!"
"Whoop-ee!" cheered Terry, wildly. "We"re rich at last."
CHAPTER XII
PANNING THE "GOLDEN PRIZE"
The Golden Prize property appeared to be a very snug proposition. It was located about a mile up Gregory Gulch, and right in the midst of things.
There was a good enough dug-out, set partly into the slope at the bottom of one of the rocky hills in the gulch, with log walls surrounding the single room and a sod roof. It contained a rusty stove (better than a fireplace) and a bunk and a slab table and a slab stool, all on a dirt floor. The cooking utensils were hung on the wall. The door, of split logs, like puncheons, swung by leather hinges and fastened with a wooden pin and latch-string.
But the mine of course was the most important. That was really the first thing to be inspected. Archie showed it rather proudly, although it did not look very imposing, being only a deep trench into the hillside just beyond the cabin.
Down the shallow side draw that helped to form the hill ran a small stream of muddy water, which finally joined the main drainage stream, below.
"You see," said Archie, "I have to carry all my dirt to that stream so as to wash for the gold, and, gee! but it"s hard work. About breaks my back. The digging and the climbing up and down are too much for me. A fellow ought to lead the water nearer, some way."
"Why didn"t you?" asked Terry.
"I did think of digging a ditch, but that"s an awful job, and I"d have to squat with a gold-pan just the same. I suppose if I"d stayed here I"d have built a sluice or hired one built. I couldn"t build it myself, because the boards are too heavy to handle. And anyway, I want to go out. I can"t breathe up here. I don"t feel as good as when I came in, and mostly I just sit and puff. I felt lots better down on the plains.
If I can"t work the mine, what"s the use in having it? But I"d a heap rather give it to you fellows than sell it to strangers."
"We won"t take it, but we"ll work it for you, on shares," again a.s.serted Harry.
Archie stubbornly shook his head--and his thin cheeks were crimson.
"Nope. You can share together but you can"t share with me. You work it and keep all you find; I owe it to you. I"m so tickled I can hardly see."
"Where do we begin?" cried Terry, excited. "Which is the best spot, Archie?"
"I"ll show you in the morning. I"ll show you everything," panted Archie, "before I go. We"ll wash out some color, anyway."
"We"d better get our stuff unpacked before dark, Terry," reminded Harry.
"The mine will keep. We know it"s there. Whew, but this is a big stroke of luck. Doesn"t seem as though we"d earned it."
Dusk settled early in the gulch, and by the time they had stowed their stuff away, and Jenny had been turned out to browse among the rocks and pines on the hillside, most of the camps in the gulch had ceased their work of the day and had changed to the work of the evening. Smoke was welling from chimneys and from open fires, far and near; wood was being chopped and men and women were cooking. The gulch suddenly seemed cheerful and homelike: a miraculous contrast with the dark timber rising above on all sides, where the wild animals, bear and bobcats and elk and wolves, probably sniffed in astonishment.
Harry made a big batch of flap-jacks and a pot of coffee; Shep curled in a corner and snuggled for comfortable sleep; the air outside was chill, but within was warm, and a candle that Archie produced gave light enough to eat by.
Archie was awarded the bunk, for a good rest. Harry and Terry spread their beds on the floor. They were used to sleeping on the ground, but Terry found it hard to go to sleep. He wanted to talk--he fairly itched to be out with spade and pan, digging gold from "their" mine. Think of it! A mine, a genuine gold mine, at last! Now they could pay his father back easy, and also show him and George how to get rich.
"I know how you feel," said Archie, from the bunk. "They say that when Gregory discovered his lode after tracing it for miles, and found four dollars in his first pan, he kept his partner awake till three o"clock in the morning, talking, and he was still talking at breakfast time."
"Wonder how he discovered it," hazarded Terry.
"He just started in on lower Clear Creek, at the Platte, and kept panning, and panning, on up, until above this gulch the gold quit. Then he turned into this gulch, because it seemed to yield the most color, and the gold was the coa.r.s.est, and he kept panning and panning until the color quit again. Then he knew he"d come to the place where the gold below was washed from. So he went back to the Platte and got a partner; and they sized up the natural lay of the gulch, at the highest spot where the color had quit--and they struck rich diggin"s with the very first spadeful. That was the sixth of May. After they"d located a lot of ground for themselves and their friends the news got out, and now look at the mob!"