CHAPTER XVIII
DISCOVERY
The clatter of a frying pan against the cook stove; the swish of canvas on canvas as tent flaps were rolled back; the bubbling of coffee; the good-natured cries of men keen for the coming day’s labor--this was morning at Nugget Camp.
As Teddy and Roy tumbled from their blankets, the crisp air quickened their motions, and within five minutes of getting up they were splashing water over their faces and necks--cold, breath-taking water, from tin basins. Then a satisfying breakfast of bacon, flapjacks, coffee, eggs and corn bread. The corn bread they got from Gus Tripp, and cooked the rest themselves.
There is a feeling of great, unreasonable joy that comes to those who, in a high altitude, arise early in the brisk weather of late August, to watch the sun toss its beams over the tops of the mountains and breathe in deeply of the tingling air. The world is changed. Sights and sounds assume a new significance, a deeper meaning. A man will clap his partner heavily on the back or yell suddenly in his ear or shoulder him off the trail--all for no reason at all.
And breakfast, eaten beneath the light blue of the early morning sky--breakfast, with fragrant, crisp bacon, the smell of wood burning in the stove or fireplace, the aroma of coffee--
“A breakfast,” Nick said, reaching for the last slab of corn bread, “than which there is no whicher. Boys, you see what’s under my feet?”
The other stared down. Nick had his feet on a little mound of earth.
“That,” the puncher went on, “is the world. Me, I’m sittin’ on top of it. Savvy? Yay, boy, what a meal!”
“Like it?” Silent asked. Since he seemed to be an expert in the culinary art, he was unanimously elected cook.
“I’ll tell a maverick!” Roy declared fervently. “Best I ever had. Makes you feel all pepped up, ready to carry loads and loads of gold without feeling the weight.”
“Uh-huh,” Teddy remarked dryly. “Without feeling the _weight_--you got that part of it right, anyhow.”
The dishes were cleaned, cots made up, and the tents put in order. When, finally, the horses were saddled and all was ready for the start, Gus decided suddenly to take along a rifle and a box of cartridges.
“You never can tell,” he remarked in explanation. “Me, I’m a great believer in proverbs.”
Nugget Camp was cupped in a sort of bowl among the mountains. Two large streams and one small one watered the district, and a large amount of timber grew near by, which in itself was an unusual occurrence. Seldom are gold and timber found allied.
Gus’s claim was but a short ride from the tents, and as he trotted along, ahead of the boys, he waved to several of his newly made friends.
“There’s a bird you ought to know!” he exclaimed suddenly, pointing. “See if he remembers you. Hey, Maryland!”
“Howdy, Gus! How they comin’?” Maryland looked straight at Roy and Teddy with no sign of recognition.
“Forgot you completely,” Gus chuckled. “It’s easy to figger how he was feelin’ last night. Don’t hold it against him, boys. When he’s sober he’s O.K. Trouble with Maryland is, he can’t control his thirst.”
“Just what I said,” Teddy asserted. “Or Roy said it, or somebody.”
“Sure, we’ll forget it ever happened,” said Roy. “We knew he was pretty well under the weather. Say, Gus, where is that claim of yours?”
“There she is,” Gus answered proudly, pointing. “See her?”
A short distance away, at the foot of a small hill, was a well-worked plot of ground. Four piles of stones were its boundaries. Near the center a stick of wood was driven in the ground, a paper nailed to the top.
“What’s she say?” Nick demanded.
“This claim located and filed by Gus Tripp--me--August twenty-second,” was the reply. “It’s about the only claim this far up except Maryland’s. That’s his over there.”
“What’s he do, stick a shovel into it every so often?” Silent asked.
“Yea, that’s about it. She ain’t been worked much, has she? Well, that’s Maryland. Now, boys, I tell you. This here camp has been quieter than I thought it would be, an’ I reckon that’s because the news hasn’t really got around yet. But somethin’ tells me that to-morrow or next day you’ll see plenty of excitement near here.”
“So we better get located quick, hey?” Nick said.
“That’s it. Here! How about taking a claim right next to mine?”
“Sure! That’s a good idea,” Roy agreed. “How do you stake it?”
“Just like I staked mine. Take stones or stakes an’ set ’em out. Make it just the size of mine--that’s regulation. Come on, let’s go.”
They dismounted and tied the ponies to a tree.
“You pace it off, Teddy,” Roy suggested. “In line with Gus’s.”
The claim was paced and stones placed at each corner. Suddenly Gus exclaimed:
“Hey, I forgot! Don’t you want four claims, one for each? Sure you do! Then we’ll incorporate it--wow, that’s a word for you!--we’ll incorporate it in one big claim. That’s legal. Here, I’ll pace it for you.”
This was done.
“Now, the thing to do is to go to the filing office--that’s at the end of the street near Mike’s Place--and register your claim. At the same time you can leave an assay sample--some of the ore--to see how much it’ll assay to the ton.”
“Can’t we do that later?” Teddy asked. “We’ve got to get some more shovels and picks first. And we’ve got to get out some real sample dirt, not this top soil.”
“Yea, later’ll do for that. This is one hundred an’ eleven above discovery, because mine’s a hundred an’ ten. Funny, all the other waddies went below discovery. They have over six hundred claims staked down there. But I’m bettin’ this is just as good. Who’s goin’ to ride in an’ file this?”
“I’ll go,” offered Silent. “An’ I’ll bring back a mule with some stuff on him. We might as well get to work.”
“Hope to tell you!” Nick exclaimed eagerly. “Let’s see that shovel, Teddy! Me, I’m startin’ now!”
“A pick’s what you want, first along,” Gus declared, tossing him the last named article. “Look! See how I started to dig the shaft in my claim? She ain’t down so far yet, but I’m aimin’ to sink her lots deeper.”
“Well, I’ll be goin’,” Silent said. “Be back as soon as I can.”
While Silent rode back to camp, the Manley boys and Nick inspected the shaft that Gus had sunk. By its side were some cut timbers, which, Gus explained, would soon become a windlass--“when I sinks her a little lower ’n she is now.”
“Exactly how much gold have you found so far?” Roy asked.
“Hum--about, maybe, a hundred bucks’ worth at a liberal estimate. That’s not so bad.”
“It’s not so good, either,” Nick asserted. “Well, boys, here she goes--the first one!”
He swung the pick over his head and sunk the point into the earth.
“Wait a second!” Teddy, taking the top from his canteen, poured a libation over the pick as it stuck in the ground.
“For good luck,” he said, grinning. “All right, Nick, go to it!”
When Silent returned there was quite a sizable hole to show for Nick’s diligence. While he dug, the others busied themselves with the cutting of some timber for sluice-boxes and a windlass.
“Filed ’em,” Silent said laconically. “Two bucks the guy charged. That’s all. Now we can dig through to China.”
“You got any choice as to claims?” Nick asked, resting from his labors and wiping the perspiration from his forehead.
“Nope. Not any. I’ll take the furtherest one, or any other. Don’t make no difference,” was Silent’s reply.
“All the gold we find we split,” Roy declared, coming up at that moment. “Even shares O.K.?”
“It is with me,” Silent responded. “Hey, Nick, suppose you help me unload this here mule.”
The work of mining went on. Gus had his own claim to work but now and then he would walk over to see how his neighbors were making out. By lunch time the hole had reached a depth of ten feet.
“Let’s knock off,” Teddy suggested. “I’m hungry.”
“Wait a couple more minutes,” Roy suggested. “Hey, pull up!”
Roy was digging from the bottom of the shaft, filling with dirt a basket that Silent had brought, and Teddy was engaged in pulling up the basket by means of a rope tied to the corners, and emptying it.
“We’ll have to board that up this afternoon,” Silent declared, stopping for a moment the construction of a sluice-box. “We don’t want no accidents to happen.”
“You mean a cave-in?” Nick asked. “Say, we will have to watch out for that! Be a fine thing if--”
“Don’t get so blamed close!” Silent interrupted. “Roy’s down there. Want to shower him with dirt?”
“Yea, that’s right,” Nick agreed, stepping back. “Jiminy, I--”
Whatever it was that he was going to add remained unsaid, for at that moment the soil at the top of the hole began to slide.
“Golly! I knew that should have been shored up!” Silent shouted. “Roy, get out of there!”
“Coming!” was the answer. “Who’s tossing stuff at me? Hey, don’t do that! I can’t--”
The voice stopped, cut off as though by a heavy curtain. The edge of the hole crumbled away and shot down into the shaft--and Roy was underneath.
“Roy!” Teddy shouted hoarsely. “Roy! You fellows, come here! Run! Quick! He’s buried!”
The little landslide stopped as quickly as it had begun. Now the hole was barely three feet deep.
Teddy leaped into it and began frantically to dig with his bare hands. “Get him!” he was yelling. “We’ve got to get him before he suffocates!”
Nick jumped to Teddy’s side, and his shovel ate into the earth. Silent, with rare presence of mind, ran for Gus, to obtain more shovels.
“We’ll make it,” Nick panted. “He’s not so far down!”
“That was my fault,” Teddy almost sobbed. “I leaned over the edge, and all of a sudden--”
Gus, bearing two shovels, arrived on the scene. As best he could he helped Nick and Teddy dig, while Silent shoved back the earth from the edge of the hole so as to prevent another cave-in.
“Careful,” Nick panted. “We’re gettin’ near him. If you feel your shovel strike--”
“Watch it!” Teddy shouted. “Look!”
A hand burst through the earth, and opened and closed frantically. Roy was still conscious, and just below the surface.
“Go it!” Teddy shouted. “Don’t hit his head with the spades!”
More of the wrist appeared, then the arm. Then, with a sob of relief, Teddy was wiping the dirt from his brother’s face, while Roy gasped in the precious air again. He was saved, though still buried to his shoulders.
It was some moments before he could speak. Nick and Gus continued to dig, carefully, so they would not injure Roy. In all, his head had been covered with the heavy, damp earth about three and a half minutes.
“Boy, that was a close one!” Teddy babbled. “Roy, are you all right now? Swallow any of that dirt? You can breathe all right, can’t you?”
With his free hand Roy brushed the soil from his hair. The first words he said were:
“Did some one mention food?”
“Hot dog, there’s a guy for you!” Nick exclaimed. “You stick to it, and we’ll have you out in a minute. Legs all right?”
“Little weak, or I could get out myself now,” Roy answered. “Snakes, that was sudden! Oh, by the way--”
Standing up to his armpits in dirt, Roy managed to get his other hand loose. The fist was closed.
“Here’s a souvenir,” he said, grinning. “Take a look!”
His hand opened. For a moment Nick and Gus stopped digging. Silent peered down from the surface.
In Roy’s hand lay a large, yellow-colored stone, studded with darker rock. Nick saw it, and gave a yell.
“A nugget!” he shouted. “A nugget, and a blame big one! Silent, have a look! Boy, you sure hit it!”
“I reckon,” Silent drawled, “that you have. From the looks of things, that there is worth about two hundred bucks.”