The Cave of Gold<br />A Tale of California in '49, Everett McNeil [best books for students to read .txt] 📗

once or twice turned his eyes on Pedro's excited face, with just a flicker of suspicion in them.

"Wal, I don't wonder he's some excited, seein' us so upset," he thought. "Still thar won't be no harm in keepin' as much as possible from him. I don't believe in trustin' a Mexican nohow, any more than you've got tew," and Ham lowered his own voice and cautioned the others to do likewise, when Pedro was near. "Jest tew be on the safe side," he explained.

"We must de doubly cautious now," warned Mr. Conroyal, when they made ready for bed, "and keep somebody on guard night and day all the time; for now that we have found the secret of Crooked Arm Gulch them devils are likely to be down upon us at the first unguarded moment. We will put four men on guard again to-night. Rex, you and Dill and Bud and his father can stand guard for the first half of the night; and you can call Ham and Frank and Thure and me to relieve you about one o'clock. Now, get to your stations and we will get to our blankets. Good night, everybody," and he began rolling himself up in his blanket.

An example that all except the guards followed very speedily.

CHAPTER XXV THE CAVE OF GOLD

There were no disturbances during the night; and the dawn of the next morning found everybody up and awaiting eagerly the moment when there would be sufficient light in the canyon to make the climbing of the Big Tree and the entrance into Crooked Arm Gulch safe. At last Mr. Conroyal declared that the great moment had come.

"But," and he glanced around the little group of eager faces, "Ham and I think, and I am sure you will all agree with us when you stop to consider the matter, that we ought to leave at least one man here to stand guard with Pedro. Now, under the circumstances, I had rather not say who that man shall be, but will ask for a volunteer. Who is willing to offer himself up as a sacrifice to the good of the public?" and Mr. Conroyal smiled.

For a moment all stood staring blankly into one another's faces. No one appeared to be in the least anxious to make this sacrifice. And no wonder! For, now at the very moment they were about to explore the mysteries of the dead miner's wonderful Cave of Gold, who would care to be left behind? Then, with a smile on his face, Frank Holt stepped forth.

"Reckon I'll stay and keep company with Pedro," he said. "I'm not as young as I once was, and crawling along that limb some twenty feet above the ground looks some dangerous to legs as old as mine. But I'd like to have one of you, if you find the cave all right, come and let me know," and the sparkle in his eyes told how great was his interest in the result.

"I'll come right back and relieve you, dad, just as soon as we find the cave and see what it is like," Rex Holt promised. "Then you can go and see for yourself. It was great of you to offer to stay. I'll be back soon. Good-by," and he hurried after the others, who were already climbing the Big Tree.

Pedro, all the morning, had been as feverish with excitement as had any of the others, and had watched their every movement, as a cat watches a caught mouse, and had tried to overhear every word uttered; but, at the first mention of a guard being left with him, he had muttered a Mexican oath and had turned angrily and sullenly away, all his excitement gone. Evidently he had counted a great deal on being left alone with the horses and the camp supplies, when the search for the Cave of Gold was made; and, consequently, the leaving of a guard with him had been a very great disappointment. But he was too cunning to allow this disappointment to be seen by his employers, and had turned quickly away to hide his feelings, until he was again his usual suave self; and so he did not hear the promise of Rex to hasten back as soon as the cave was found and relieve his father.

You may be sure that there were no laggards among the climbers up the Big Tree and along the limb and through the entrance into Crooked Arm Gulch; and soon all stood on the little shelf of rock, from which they had had their first view of the gulch the night before.

"Now, th' first thing tew dew is tew git down tew th' bottom," commented Ham, as the eyes of all eagerly searched the walls of the gulch.

"That looks easy! Right this way!" and Thure began excitedly clambering down the rocks.

The shelf of rock on which they stood was some fifty feet above the bottom of the gulch; and from it a series of shelves and jutting rocks made an easy pathway downward, for mountaineers as experienced as they were, and soon all our friends stood at the bottom of Crooked Arm Gulch.

"Now for the Golden Elbow!" shouted Thure. "I want to be the first one in the Cave of Gold," and he started up the gulch as fast as he could go, jumping and climbing over the rocks that nearly covered its bottom.

"Same here!" and, with a yell, Bud started after him.

In a moment all, even the gray-haired men, had joined madly in the race. Evidently Thure was not the only one who wished to be the first in the Cave of Gold.

The gulch was narrow, only about a couple of rods wide at the place where our friends had reached the bottom, and, some three hundred yards from here, it made a turn, like the crook in a man's bent arm. This was evidently the Golden Elbow, and the point for which all were racing.

Thure, owing to his start and his long legs, was the first to reach this spot, but Bud was not six feet behind him. Then came Rex and Dill and the others, with Dickson and his wife pantingly bringing up the rear. All had stopped directly in front of the point of the turn, and now stood staring excitedly around them, looking for the entrance to the Cave of Gold and looking in vain.

In front of them the wall of the gulch had been hollowed out into a great overhanging arch, seventy-five or more feet in height and some fifteen feet deep.

Could this be the miner's Cave of Gold?

Surely not; for there was no need of torch here, and the bottom certainly was not covered with gold nuggets, but with hundreds of pieces of broken rock, some of them as large as two strong men could lift.

"Wal, I swun, if it don't look as if we was up ag'in it ag'in," and Ham stared excitedly around. "But, if thar is any cave here, it must be right in thar. Come, git busy," and he began clambering over the rocks toward the back wall of the arch. "I'll bet a coonskin that I can find it first."

"Take you!" shouted Thure and Bud, both clambering swiftly after him.

In a minute more all were searching excitedly for the hidden entrance to the cave, along the entire back wall of the arch; but the rocks of the bottom seemed to meet a solid wall of rock at the back.

"Say, but isn't it enough to make even a Job swear to be held up like this, right at the most exciting moment!" and Thure stopped in front of a large flat rock, that had fallen so that it stood nearly on edge, leaning against the back wall of the arch. "Come, give me a hand; and let's see what is behind this rock," and he turned to Bud, who stood near him. "It looks almost as if it might have been stood up there on purpose."

In a moment the strong arms of the two boys were tugging at the huge slab of rock; and, at last, with a mighty effort, they pulled it away from the wall and toppled it over backward, and it fell, with a crash, on the rocks between them, revealing a black opening in the solid rock.

"Hurrah!" yelled Bud.

"Found!" shouted Thure; and both excited boys made a dive for the hole, with the result that their bodies stuck tightly in the opening, the hole not being large enough to accommodate the entrance of both of them at the same time.

Ham and Mr. Conroyal pulled them out; and then Ham thrust his big body into the opening—he could just squeeze in—and began cautiously working his way forward. It was not a venture for an excited boy to make, the entrance into that black hole without a light.

In about five minutes Ham came backing hurriedly out.

"Who's got th' candles?" he cried excitedly. "Thar sart'in is a cave in thar; but it is as dark as the bottomless pit. We must have lights before we can enter. Give me a candle."

"Here, here they are!" and Mr. Conroyal who in the excitement of the moment had forgotten the package of a couple of dozen candles he had tied up and slung over his back just before climbing the tree that morning, quickly swung the package down on a rock in front of him and cut the strings.

Ham caught up one of the candles, and, hurriedly lighting it, again crawled into the hole, holding the candle out in front of him.

Thure and Bud both caught up candles and lighting them, looked imploringly at their fathers.

Both men nodded, and the boys dove into the hole; but this time separately.

"The rest of us had better wait outside until we hear from Ham and the boys," Mr. Conroyal said, staring anxiously into the hole.

For perhaps ten minutes, although to the anxious and excited watchers outside it seemed more like an hour, not a sound came from the hole into whose black depths the three men had vanished. Even the lights of their candles had disappeared. Then, suddenly, the excited voice of Thure was heard, booming out through the hole.

"It's the cave, the Cave of Gold!" he cried exultantly, his voice trembling with excitement. "Come in, all of you. There is room for all. I will hold my candle so that you can see."

"Here, Dickson, you go first, and, Mollie, you follow right behind him," and Mr. Conroyal pushed Mr. and Mrs. Dickson excitedly toward the cave opening, and motioned Rex and Dill and Mr. Randolph to follow them, he himself entering last.

The hole slanted downward for some ten feet, then, enlarging a little, turned to the right and ran straight ahead for some thirty feet, still slanting quite steeply downward, when it suddenly opened out into a large chamber, worn by the action of water, apparently, out of the solid rock.

In five minutes all our excited friends stood in this chamber or cave and were staring wonderingly around them. They found themselves in a room, some thirty feet long by twenty feet wide at the widest, with an oval slanting roof, shaped something like the inverted quarter of an egg-shell. The bottom of the cave was level and composed of a very coarse gravel, mixed with little rounded chunks of a yellowish metal, that glowed in the light of the candles like thousands of dull yellow coals of fire.

In an instant everybody was down on their knees examining these chunks of metal. For a couple of minutes no one spoke. Then Ham lifted his head and looked slowly around him, as if he were trying to convince himself that he was really awake.

"Gosh!" he said, in a voice hardly above a whisper. "It is gold!"

"It is gold!" and Mr. Conroyal looked up, his face white and his eyes shining. "It is gold; and enough of it to make us all rich beyond our fondest dreams. No wonder the miner called it the Cave of Gold."