"We"ve a sack of oats and a sack of flour, and I wouldn"t trade "em for his sacks of gold--yet," retorted Harry.
This night the flickering camp-fires of the other gold-seekers twinkled all along the road. Fiddles were tuned up, to play "Monkey Musk," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Yankee Doodle," and other tunes, and voices joined in. What with the playing and singing, the barking of dogs and the noises from cattle, sleep was difficult except for persons as tired as were the "boys from the Big Blue."
At Fort Riley, which was a new army post, with ma.s.sive stone buildings, near the juncture of the Smoky Hill River from the west and the Republican River from the north, here forming the Kansas River, the number of outfits lessened. Some struck north, some took a short cut south for the Santa Fe Trail at the Arkansas River.
At Junction City, beyond, the last of the white settlements, the route of the remaining "Pike"s Peak Pilgrims" again split. The main portion of the travelers seemed to favor the new trail straight westward, up along the Smoky Hill River, and on they toiled, to "get rich in a hurry." It was the common report that the Smoky Hill River could be followed clear to the mountains, but this, as Harry and Terry afterward heard, proved untrue.
Another portion turned off southward, for the Santa Fe Trail again. A good government road led down to it. Only a few had decided upon attempting the newest trail of all: that to the northwest, for the Republican by way of the divide between the Solomon River on the left and the Republican, far on the right.
"We"re on our way," tersely remarked Harry, as the "Pike"s Peak Limited"
left Junction City for the unknown. "It"s liable to be lonesome, till the stages come."
However, several wagons had preceded; and this first night camp was made at a creek, and close to another party also camped.
"Whar you boys from?" That was the first question.
"Do you calkilate to get thar with a buffalo and a yaller mule?" That was the second question.
"How"ll you swap dogs?" That was the third question.
And--"Do you figger on diggin" out your pound of gold a day?" was the fourth question. For Eastern papers had a.s.serted that this was the regular output of the Pike"s Peak country: a pound of gold a day to each miner!
"Half a pound a day will suit us," responded Harry.
"Dearie me!" sighed the woman--a nice, motherly woman, the sight of whom imbued Terry with a little sense of homesickness. "We all count on a pound a day for one hundred days, so as to buy a farm back in Missouri.
Maybe, if the children and I dig, we can raise it to two pounds a day.
That"ll be two hundred pounds, which is a right smart amount of money."
Junction City having been put behind, now there was not even a cabin to be seen. The high plain between the valley of the Solomon on the south and the valley of the Republican on the north stretched wide and unoccupied save by the squads of antelope, the scant trees marking the creek courses, and the scattered white-canvased wagons ambling on.
It was a go-as-you-please march. Outfits wandered aside, seeking better trail or better camping-spot. Occasionally one had broken down, and was halted for repairs or rest. Already the chosen route was dotted with cast-off articles, abandoned to lighten the loads. Bedsteads, trunks, mattresses, chairs--and Harry, pointing, cried:
"There"s the "Lightning Express" stove!"
For the German"s heavy cook-stove reposed, by itself, on the prairie--and odd enough it looked, too.
"Wish we"d come to his feather tick, some evening," quoth Terry.
Fuel, even buffalo chips (which were the dried deposits left by the buffalo, and burned hotly) were scarce. The "Limited" aimed to camp each evening at a creek, if possible, where trees might be found; but most of the dead wood had been used by other travelers, or by Indians, and the green willow and ash smudged. The sage and greasewood burned well, but burned out very quickly.
Duke and Jenny footed steadily, making their twelve and fifteen miles a day, up and down, into draws and out again, and the "Limited" seemed to be gradually forging ahead. For a time, each night camp might be established (a very simple matter) in company with other pilgrims; and the spectacle of the half-buffalo and the yellow mule pulling in, or already waiting, invariably excited the one conversation.
"How far to Pike"s Peak, strangers?"
"Five hundred miles or so, yet, I guess," would answer Harry, politely.
"It"s an awful long trail, this way, ain"t it? How far to the Republican?"
"That I can"t say."
Then the outfits would exchange travel notes and personal history.
But the trail was petering out, as Harry expressed, more and more, as the creeks were being headed, and anxious gold-seekers swerved aside looking for the Republican Valley and better water.
About noon one day a giant, solitary tree waited before. Several wagon-tracks led for it, and Duke and Jenny followed of their own accord. It was a big cottonwood, with half the bark stripped from its trunk by lightning.
"A store of good wood, there," remarked Harry. "Wonder why n.o.body"s chopped it down."
"It"s got a sign on it," exclaimed Terry. "See?" And--""Pike"s Peak Post Office,"" he read, aloud.
The sign was plain; and presently the reason of the sign was plain. On the white surface of the peeled trunk was scrawled a number of names and other words.
"Pike"s Peak or Bust!"
Underneath: "Busted! No wood, no water, no gold. Boston Party."
Also:
"Keep to the north."
"Climb this tree and you won"t see anything."
"The jumping-off place."
"The Peoria wagon. All well."
"Bound for the Peak, are you?"
""Litening Express"!" announced Harry. "Our German friend is still ahead."
""Mr. Ike Chubbers"!" spelled out Terry, with difficulty. "Aw, shucks!
He"s this far already."
"Yes, and there he went!" laughed Harry, gleefully. "Those are sure his tracks. He"s sampling his barrel."
And by token of a weaving, wobbling, sort of drunken pair of wagon-wheel tracks that made a wide swing for the north, Pine Knot Ike evidently had continued in a new direction.
"He"s hunting the Republican," agreed Terry. "Hope we don"t run into him."
"Nope," declared Harry. "Once is enough. Hurrah!" he uttered. And he read: ""Stage line here. Sol Judy.""
"That"s so." And Terry peered. "But I don"t see the line. Wonder which way he went. There"s a double arrow, pointing both ways. Wonder if it"s his. Wonder when he wrote here. If somebody hadn"t written on top of him with charcoal, a fellow might tell."
"Anyway, we won"t turn off yet," declared Harry. "And if we stand here "wondering" we won"t get anywhere at all. He said to keep northwest by the high ground. Maybe that wagon track ahead is the Lightning Express.
We"ll keep going. Gwan, Duke! Jenny!"
"Sort of wish we"d gone by the Smoky Hill, don"t you?" ventured Terry.
"We"d had more company."