The G.A. Henty MEGAPACK ®. G.a. Henty Henty
on a level plateau, from which they could see across to the three peaks. The path was everywhere worn smooth, showing that it had been used for ages by animals of some kind.
“One would almost think it had been cut by hand,” Dick said; “who would have thought from below that there was such a way as this out of the valley? The best of it is, that it is good enough for the horses to get up as well as us. Well, thank goodness, we have found a back door to that place. It was not a pleasant idea that we might be shut up there with the option of being either shot or starved.”
“They would take some time to starve us, Dick; nine horses would last us for a long time.”
“Yes, but it would come sooner or later, Tom. Anyhow, I shall feel a great deal more comfortable now I know that there is a way out.”
“But the Indians know of it too, Dick, if, as Dave thinks, they came down this way to attack the Mexicans.”
“Yes, that is not such a comfortable idea.”
“Well, lads, what do you make of it?” Dave shouted to them as they approached the bottom.
“We have been right up to the top; the ponies could go anywhere. It is narrow in places, but we have passed many worse on the way; the cliffs never close up, so even at the worst places there is room for them to get along with their loads.”
“What is it like at the top?”
“Level ground along to the drop of the cliffs, hills behind it to the south.”
“Well, it is a comfort there is a way down into the valley. Anyhow, since you have been gone, we have been fossicking about, and there is no doubt about the gold; it is the richest place any of us have ever seed.”
“Have you found water, Dave?”
“No, that is the one thing bad, we shall have to go out to fetch water, but maybe if we dig in the center of the channel we shall find it. The best place to try will be at the end, right under where the waterfall comes down in winter. There is most always a deep hole in the rock there, where the water and stones and so on have come down and pounded away the bed rock. We found where the gold comes from too. There is a big quartz vein running right up the face of the cliff there; it is just full of gold. You can see it sparkle everywhere. Some day, when the Indians is all wiped out, fellows will bring machinery and powder, and will have one of the richest mines in the world. However, that don’t concern us. I reckon there is enough in this gravel under our feet to make a hundred men rich. Now, Boston, what do you think is the best thing to do first?”
“See if we can get water, Dave. If we were shut up here without water they would have us in twelve hours, so we have got to get enough for ourselves and the horses to drink if we can, even if we have to fetch up what we want for the gravel. When we have got water, the next job will be to make a cradle; there are plenty of trees here, and we have got our hatchets, and we have brought the zinc screens, so we have got everything we want. I don’t say we mightn’t pick up a lot in nuggets. Still, I have got a dozen already, making, I should say, over an ounce between them. Still, the others is the real thing to depend on.”
“And there is another thing, Dave,” Zeke put in; “we must have a watch. We had intended that, but we thought we should have only one place to watch; now we have found this track up the hill we have two.”
“That is so, Dave, though it is pretty hard on us having two out of five idle. Still, we have got a lesson there,” Boston said, pointing to the spot where they had found the skeletons.
“Aye, aye, it has got to be done,” Dave said. “Well, lads, will you take the watch to-day, one above and one at the mouth, and we will set to work at the water hole?”
“We will toss up which goes up the hill again, Dick. You spin. Heads; tails it is.”
“Then I will choose the mouth here. You go up to the mouth’s head.”
“Don’t you be walking about when you get to the top,” Dave said. “Find some place where you can get a clear view all round, and then lie down. Choose a bit of shade, if you can find it. When we knock off work and have had a bit of grub, I will come up and take your place.”
It was just getting dusk when Dave came up and relieved Dick.
“Are you going to stay here all night, Dick?”
“Yes, we have agreed I shall keep watch here to-night, Boston to-morrow night, and then I go on again. Zeke will take the watch below regular; he sleeps like a dog, and the least noise in the world will wake him, so he will do very well. Can you make out the Indian village across there from here?”
“Yes, quite plainly.”
“You have not been using your glass, I hope,” Dave said in alarm.
“No, I forgot to bring it up with me. But why shouldn’t I?”
“Because if the sun were to flash on the glass or brasswork, it would be sartin to catch the eye of someone in the village, and if it did you may be sure they would send up to see what it was. Still, if you can make out the village, it will save us the need for keeping watch in the daytime down below. It is from there we have got to expect an attack the most, and if you saw them moving out strong, you could shout down to us and we should be ready for them. At night, in course, we must watch both places, for there may be, for anything we know, a big village half a mile from here, and the attack might come from one way or the other. I expect you would rather work than watch, Dick; so you had better arrange to change places with Tom in the middle of the day, then you can each work half a day. You will find that plenty, I warrant.”
“Did you find water, Dave?”
“Yes, plenty of it, enough for the horses and the washing too.”
CHAPTER XI
Hard at Work
Tom took the first watch in the morning. Dick rendered all the assistance he could to the men, who cut down a couple of the trees that stood in the gorge, chopped them into eight-feet lengths, and then with wedges split them into boards, which they smoothed up with an adze. All were accustomed to the work, and by nightfall a deep trough was constructed, resting upon rockers like a cradle.
Next morning the work began; two men threw the gravel and sand into the cradle, the third kept it in motion, while whichever of the boys was off watch brought water in two of the pails from the hole.
The horses were no trouble, finding plenty of coarse grass among the rocks, and only requiring watering night and morning. Thrice a day the contents of the cradle were cleared entirely out, and the gold that had sunk to the bottom collected. Much, of it was in fine dust, but there was also a large number of nuggets, varying in size from a pea to a marble. Each clear-up they obtained on an average eight or nine pounds of gold.
The fourth day Tom had come down from above at twelve o’clock, and found that the men had only just finished the clear-up, and had sat down to have some food.
Having nothing to do, he strolled away to the spot where the Mexicans had been massacred, a short distance away, on some ground at the side of the valley. Some three or four feet above the ground level of the bottom he saw a charred stump of a pole sticking up; he went across to it.
“I suppose this is where the leader of the party had a tent or rough hut,” he said.
He was confirmed in the belief by a number of bits of charred wood lying round the pole.
“It was sort of arbor, I suppose,” he said to himself.
There were several relics lying about: two boots shriveled by fire, a tin cup flattened by some weight that had fallen on it, a pistol with its stock blackened by fire. He called the men to the spot.
“Yes, like enough it is as you say, Dick, but it is scarcely worth getting up to look at.”
“No, there is not much to look at, Dave, but you have been wondering ever since you came that you had not come upon any of the gold they must have gathered, and you