The Golden Dream, Robert Michael Ballantyne [e books free to read .TXT] 📗

since we came here. More be token he didn't know we were goin' to leave, and we wint off in a hurry, for my poor brother was impatient, and thought the change would do him good."

"Take this, you will be the better of it."

The stranger thrust a quantity of silver into Kate's hand, and sprang upon his horse.

"I don't need it, thank 'ee," said Kate, hurriedly.

"But you _may_ need it; at any rate, _he_ does. Stay, what was the name of the man who used to visit you?"

"O'Neil, sir--Larry O'Neil."

"Indeed! he is one of my mates. My name is Sinton--Edward Sinton; you shall hear from me again ere long."

Ned put spurs to his horse as he spoke, and in another moment was out of sight.


CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.


NED DECIDES ON VISITING SAN FRANCISCO--LARRY PAYS A VISIT, AND RECEIVES A SEVERE DISAPPOINTMENT--THE ROAD AND THE CITY--UNEXPECTED NEWS.

Few joys in this life are altogether without alloy. The delight experienced by Larry O'Neil and Captain Bunting, when they heard the hearty tones of Ned Sinton's voice, and the satisfaction with which they beheld his face, when, in their anxiety to prevent his falling headlong into "the hole," they both sprang out of the tent and rushed into his arms, were somewhat damped on their observing that Tom Collins was not with him. But their anxieties were speedily relieved on learning that Tom was at Sacramento City, and, it was to be hoped, doing well.

As Ned had eaten nothing on the day of his arrival since early morning, the first care of his friends was to cook some food for him; and Larry took special care to brew for him, as soon as possible, a stiff tumbler of hot brandy and water, which, as he was wet and weary, was particularly acceptable.

While enjoying this over the fire in front of the tent, Ned related the adventures of himself and Tom Collins circumstantially; in the course of which narration he explained, what the reader does not yet know, how that, after Tom had recovered from his illness sufficiently to ride, he had conducted him by easy stages to the banks of the great San Joaquin river, down which they had proceeded by boat until they reached Sacramento.

Here Ned saw him comfortably settled in the best room of the best hotel in the town, and then, purchasing the largest and strongest horse he could find, he set off, in spite of the rains, to let his comrades know that they were both safe, and, in Ned's case at least, sound.

"And, now, with reference to that letter."

"Ay, that letter," echoed the captain; "that's what I've bin wantin' you to come to. What can it mean?"

"I am as ignorant of that as yourself," answered Ned; "if it had only been you who were mentioned in the letter, I could have supposed that your old ship had been relaunched and refitted, and had made a successful voyage to China during your absence; but, as I left no property of any kind in San Francisco, and had no speculations afloat, I cannot conceive what it can be."

"Maybe," suggested Larry, "they've heard o' our remarkable talents up here in the diggin's, and they've been successful in gittin' us app'inted to respansible sitivations in the new government I've heared they're sottin' up down there. I wouldn't object to be prime minister meself av they'd only allow me enough clarks to do the work."

"And did you say you were all ready for a start to-morrow, captain?" inquired Ned.

"Quite. We've disposed of the claims and tools for fifteen hundred dollars, an' we sold Ah-wow along with the lot; that's to say, he remains a fixture at the same wage; and the little we meant to take with us is stowed away in our saddle-bags. Ye see, I couldn't foresee that you'd plump down on us in this fashion, and I felt that the letter was urgent, and ought to be acted on at once."

"You did quite right," returned Ned. "What a pity I missed seeing Bill Jones at Sacramento; but the city has grown so much, and become so populous, in a few months, that two friends might spend a week in it, unknown to each other, without chancing to meet. And now as to the gold. Have you been successful since I left?"

"Ay," broke in Larry, "that have we. It's a great country intirely for men whose bones and muscles are made o' iron. We've dug forty thousand dollars--eight thousand pounds--out o' that same hole in the tint; forby sprainin' the ankles, and well-nigh breakin' the legs, o' eight or tin miners. It's sorry I'll be to lave it. But, afther all, it's a sickly place, so I'm contint to go."

"By the way, Larry, that reminds me I met a friend o' yours at the other end of the settlement."

"I belave ye," answered Larry; "ivery man in the Creek's my fri'nd. They'd die for me, they would, av I only axed them."

"Ay, but a particular friend, named Kate, who--"

"Och! ye don't mane it!" cried the Irishman, starting up with an anxious look. "Sure they lived up in the dark glen there; and they wint off wan fine day, an' I've niver been able to hear o' them since."

"They are not very far off," continued Ned, detailing his interview with the brother and sister, and expressing a conviction that the former could not now be in life.

"I'll go down to-night," said Larry, drawing on his heavy boots.

"You'd better wait till to-morrow," suggested the captain. "The poor thing will be in no humour to see any one to-night, and we can make a halt near the hut for an hour or so."

Larry, with some reluctance, agreed to this delay, and the rest of the evening was spent by the little party in making preparations for a start on the following day; but difficulties arose in the way of settling with the purchasers of their claims, so that another day passed ere they got fairly off on their journey towards Sacramento.

On reaching the mouth of the Little Creek, Larry O'Neil galloped ahead of his companions, and turned aside at the little hut, the locality of which Sinton had described to him minutely. Springing off his horse, he threw the reins over a bush and crossed the threshold. It is easier to conceive than to describe his amazement and consternation on finding the place empty. Dashing out, he vaulted into the saddle, and almost galloped through the doorway of the nearest hut in his anxiety to learn what had become of his friends.

"Halloo! stranger," shouted a voice from within, "no thoroughfare this way; an' I wouldn't advise ye for to go an' try for to make one."

"Ho! countryman, where's the sick Irishman and his sister gone, that lived close to ye here?"

"Wall, I ain't a countryman o' yourn, I guess; but I can answer a civil question. They're gone. The man's dead, an' the gal took him away in a cart day b'fore yisterday."

"Gone! took him away in a cart!" echoed Larry, while he looked aghast at the man. "Are ye sure?"

"Wall, I couldn't be surer. I made the coffin for 'em, and helped to lift it into the cart."

"But where have they gone to?"

"To Sacramento, I guess. I advised her not to go, but she mumbled something about not havin' him buried in sich a wild place, an' layin' him in a churchyard; so I gave her the loan o' fifty dollars--it was all I could spare--for she hadn't a rap. She borrowed the horse and cart from a countryman, who was goin' to Sacramento at any rate."

"You're a trump, you are!" cried Larry, with energy; "give us your hand, me boy! Ah! thin yer parents were Irish, I'll be bound; now, here's your fifty dollars back again, with compound interest to boot--though I don't know exactly what that is--"

"I didn't ax ye for the fifty dollars," said the man, somewhat angrily. "Who are you that offers 'em!"

"I'm her--her--friend," answered Larry, in some confusion; "her intimate friend; I might almost say a sort o' distant relation--only not quite that."

"Wall, if that's all, I guess I'm as much a friend as you," said the man, re-entering his cabin, and shutting the door with a bang.

Larry sighed, dropped the fifty dollars into his leather purse, and galloped away.

The journey down to Sacramento, owing to the flooded state of the country, was not an easy one. It took the party several days' hard riding to accomplish it, and during all that time Larry kept a vigilant look-out for Kate Morgan and the cart, but neither of them did he see. Each day he felt certain he would overtake them, but each evening found him trying to console himself with the reflection that a "stern chase" is proverbially a long one, and that _next_ day would do it. Thus they struggled on, and finally arrived at the city of Sacramento, without having set eyes on the wanderer. Poor Larry little knew that, having gone with a man who knew the road thoroughly, Kate, although she travelled slowly, had arrived there the day before him; while Ned had lengthened the road by unwittingly making a considerable and unnecessary detour. Still less did he know that, at the very hour he arrived in the city, Kate, with her sad charge, embarked on board a small river steamer, and was now on her way to San Francisco.

As it was, Larry proposed to start back again, supposing they must have passed them; but, on second thoughts, he decided to remain where he was and make inquiries. So the three friends pushed forward to the City Hotel to make inquiries after Tom Collins.

"Mr Collins?" said the waiter, bowing to Sinton--"he's gone, sir, about a week ago."

"_Gone_!" exclaimed Ned, turning pale.

"Yes, sir; gone down to San Francisco. He saw some advertisement or other in the newspaper, and started off by the next steamer."

Ned's heart beat freely again. "Was he well when he left?"

"Yes, sir, pretty well. He would have been the better of a longer rest, but he was quite fit to travel, sir."

Captain Bunting, who, during this colloquy, had been standing with his legs apart, and his eyes glaring at the waiter, as if he had been mad, gave a prolonged whistle, but made no further remark. At this moment Larry, who had been conversing with one of the under-waiters, came rushing in with a look of desperation on his countenance.

"Would ye belave it," he cried, throwing himself down on a splendid crimson sofa, that seemed very much out of keeping with the dress of the rough miners whom it was meant to accommodate--"would ye belave it, they're gone!"

"Who are gone, and where to!" inquired Ned.

"Kate an'--an' the caffin. Off to San Francisco, be all that's onlucky; an' only wint little more nor an hour ago."

The three friends looked at each other.

"Waiter," said Captain Bunting, in a solemn voice, "bear-chops for three, pipes and baccy for six, an' a brandy-smash for one; an', d'ye hear, let it be stiff!"

"Yes, sir."

A loud