19 The Dead River

When night came we were a long distance from the spot where we had passed the desperadoes in the darkness and we felt reasonably safe from any pursuit.

“Thar’s nobody in that lot that’s scout enough to trail us by our footsteps,” said Pike. “I guess they’ve swooped down on our old camp, an’ ez they didn’t fin’ we wuz thar, they’ve been scratchin’ thar heads an’ puzzlin’ thar brains ever since to find out whar we hev gone. I’d like to see some uv thar faces just now.”

Pike laughed long and heartily at the thought of the desperadoes’ disappointment.

“This will interrupt their air-castle building for a little while at least,” said Mr. Sheldon. “Meanwhile I think we ought to reach the second river that Pedro told about to-morrow or the day after at furthest, that is if we are on the right trail.”

“Oh, we’ll find it, never fear,” said Henry, whose sanguine temperament always made him optimistic. “Pike here says that everybody has both good and bad luck. We’ve had our bad luck, and our good luck is coming now.”

“You may be right about it,” said Mr. Sheldon, who seemed to be impressed by this view of the matter. “At any rate, a few days will disclose whether you are right or wrong.”

“Nevertheless we were a very cheerful company and hope possessed us all.”

Next morning we began a slow and careful descent along the river bank. It was slow and careful in order that we might watch the opposite shore, also for the tributary stream.

“If we are hurried and careless,” said Mr. Sheldon, “we might pass the mouth of one of these mountain streams without seeing it, for often they are almost completely hidden by a growth of trees and shrubs.”

Owing to this circumspection our progress was slow.

But the character of the country changed. It showed an increasing dryness. The mountains in the distance seemed almost bare, and, save along the banks of the river, all things were parched and brown. We were coming into a country which partook of the characteristics of the desert. But we were encouraged rather than discouraged by this circumstance. In a thirsty country such things as dry river-beds are most often to be found, and that was one of the signs for which we were looking.

When the sun was in the zenith we halted for food and water. Our mules grazed on the stubby grass, while we sat in the shade of a tree and munched the dried meat which we carried in our haversacks. I had just bitten off a big piece when I heard a hiss, accompanied by, a noise which sounded like the rattling of dry sticks together, and saw a large snake coiled near me. His head was thrust out from the centre of the coil and was swollen and ghastly with venom. I have a horror of snakes—an inborn repulsion. I was paralyzed by this feeling and sat quite still for a moment.

Mr. Sheldon, who was nearest me, seized his rifle and brought down the barrel heavily upon the coiled mass of venom. The serpent’s back was broken by the blow, but it writhed about in its fury and stung itself. We were watching it, when we heard again the sound like dry sticks rattling together, and Henry exclaimed, excitedly:

“We are attacked by an army of snakes! Look at them! look how they come!”

The sandy bank swarmed with the hideous reptiles. Imitating Mr. Sheldon’s example, we seized our guns and, holding them by the stock, killed the serpents or broke their backs as fast as they came. But the swarm seemed endless. The air was filled with their rattling and hissing, and the snaky smell made us sick. The slain were scattered everywhere, but there seemed to be no dimumtion in the number of the living.

“I don’t think it would be at all to our discredit to beat a masterly retreat,” said Mr. Sheldon. “I am of the opinion that we have infringed upon a corner of the snake territory, and we can well afford to abandon it.”

“Good ’nough!” said Pike. “This is hard work, an’ dangerous work, fur nuthin’. Grab the mules, in’ we’ll scoot. Darn all snakes, I say!”

We snatched up our things, seized the mules by their lariats, and away we ran. Some of the serpents followed us a short distance, but soon abandoned the pursuit and returned to their own territory.

“Thar’s a stretch uv broken, rocky ground down thar,” said Pike when we stood upon high land some distance away, “and the snakes probably live in it.”

“Zen zey are welcome uv eet,” said Bonneau. “I do not want to invade ze domain of ze great American rattlesnake any more.”

“The reptiles down there are bad enough,” said Mr. Sheldon, “but you should see the bloated rattlers of the Great Staked Plain. I was once down there on a hunting expedition with friendly Comanches and we saw some of those serpents seven or eight feet long and so swollen with venom that they were as large around as my ankle. I believe there was enough poison in one of those serpents to kill every man in California, if it were properly distributed.”

“Then a man going down there could get some fine snake stories to tell, could he not?” asked Henry.

“But mine’s a true story,” replied Mr. Sheldon, with a smile. “I may have exaggerated the amount of poison, but not the length and circumference of the serpents.”

This aroused Starboard Sam, who began to tell some wondrous tales of snakes he had seen in the East Indies, but just when he was in the middle of an adventure bigger than any other that was ever heard of, Pike, who nad been examining the horizon, interrupted him, exclaiming:

“Boys, ez I live I believe that’s the little river over thar fur which we’re lookin’. Ef my eyes ain’t playin’ me false jest under the horizon on the same side of the river that we’re on thar’s another stream runnin’ into this one.”

Our eyes followed his long forefinger and we saw the faint line of blue and silver that he indicated. It would have escaped the observation of all except Pike had it not been pointed out to us, but even to our amateur eyes it looked like water.

We were agog with excitement on the instant, but Pike told us not to hurry.

“Ef it’s the river,” he said, “it won’t run away. An’ then ag’in, it might be one river an’ not the right river. Best not build your hopes too high, an’ then you’ll be saved a lot uv disapp’intment ef things turn out wrong.”

But though the cautious hunter wanted to restrain our hopes from rising too high, I could see that he, too, believed we had found the right stream.

We descended the hill and moved swiftly across the plain. I had recovered my strength so rapidly that I was now quite able to walk most of the time, and with the gold fever rising, again I forgot that I had ever been sick. On the lower level we were unable to see that welcome blue and silver streak, but we knew the direction, and we travelled steadily until the falling dusk, when we came to the banks of what we believed to be the second river, and which proved to be such. It was a small stream, just large enough to be called a river, and had rather high banks. It answered in every respect to Pedro’s description, and we had no doubt it was the stream he had designated.

All of us, except Pike and Mr. Sheldon, were for pushing on up the stream that night, but they would not allow us to go. They said we needed a good night’s rest, and it would be better to travel by daylight than in the darkness. So we were forced to content ourselves as best we could and wait. But the gold fever was still rising, and it was late before I could close my eyes in sleep.

Daylight was just breaking over the mountains when we finished our frugal breakfast and started up the new river.

“Whether we’re on a false scent or not is an important p’int, an’ it’ll soon be settled,” said Pike. “Half a day’s journey”, Pedro said, “an’ then we’d come to a rocky hill. Just beyond that wuz the dry bed of a river, up which we wuz to go half a mile, an’ then we’d strike the gold.”

“That’s it,” said Henry, “and the gold’s there and we’ll get it, never fear.”

We were all in a stew of anticipation as we plodded along the banks of that little river. Even the mules, usually so stolid and dull seemed by some mysterious influence to catch sparks of our excitement. They pricked up their ears and pranced along at a great rate. Finally Napoleon opened his mouth and gave utterance to an extremely loud and prolonged bray.

“He scents zee gold!” exclaimed Bonneau. “Napoleon ees one great mule, and he lead us on to zee grand triumph.”

Everybody laughed, but we did not cease to press on in high humor. I frequently looked up at the sun. Pedro had said a half day’s journey up the river. When the sun reached the zenith we ought to come in sight of the hill. Bearing in mind the words that he had said, I paid more attention to the sun than to the ground we were travelling over.

Up went the great round ball, sailing along the arch of the sky. Higher and higher it soared, until at last it hung directly over us and the noon hour had come. I looked eagerly ahead, but nothing that resembled a dry riverbed broke my line of sight. I felt a chill of apprehension. What if we had gone wrong, after all? But I said nothing, for the others, in their eagerness and anticipation, had forgotten that the appointed time had passed.

An hour further on and the river made a turn. We had passed the curve when Starboard Sam, who was in advance, put his hands to his mouth in speaking-trumpet fashion, and shouted:

“Land, ho! Yonder’s our port, boys, or I’m a Dutchman!”

Sure enough, about two hundred yards further on was a brown ribbon across the plain. It was a sunken bed of sand, and even the most inexperienced of us knew it was a dry riverbed. If we had doubted before, all such apprehensions disappeared now. Everything had fallen out so perfectly in accordance with Pedro’s instructions that no room was left for doubt.

In a short time we came to the junction of the dry bed with the stream, and turned and followed the former. The plain at this point was narrow and less than a half a mile brought us into rolling ground, where our progress was slower. From the summit of one of the swells we saw a black wall of mountain rising in front of us about ten miles away.

“Winter snows melting on those mountains fill this riverbed sometimes, I have no doubt,” said Mr. Sheldon.

We were too intent on the chase—for such it was—to dispute with him or to agree with him in words.

A few minutes further and we uttered a simultaneous shout of joy, for straight ahead of us, not a half mile distant, rose a conical, precipitous hill.

“That’s the last landmark Pedro told about,” said Pike exultantly, “an’ nothin’ can throw us off the trail now.” We quickly traversed the half mile between us and the hill. As Pike said: “We jest et up the ground.” There was no path between the riverbed and the base of the hill, but the bed itself, which had been baked hard by the summer sun, made a good enough road for us. We led the mules down into it and found that it curved around the hill just as Pedro had described it. The plain beyond narrowed very much, and there was a rapid ascent towards the mountain chain, which lay directly in front of us and only a few miles away.

We followed the riverbed until we had gone a half mile, as nearly as we could calculate. There we halted.

“’Less Pedro was yarnin’, the gold is in the groun’ right here,” said Pike. “Maybe we’re standin’ over it this very minute.”

“Of course we are,” cried the enthusiastic Henry. “Here it is—millions of it just waiting and pleading for us to dig it up.”

“Get a pick,” said Starboard Sam, “an’ let’s see.”

The sailor would have gone to work as soon as he could get a pick from the baggage, but Pike stopped him.

“It’ll soon be night,” said the cautious hunter, “an’ I think we’d better be arrangin’ our camp. We’re expectin’ to stay here some time, an’ we must make ourselves tolably comf’table. Besides; thar’s the danger uv Halftrigger droppin’ down on us, an’ we must hev some kind uv defense ready. Let the gold be fur the present, an’ we’ll settle ourselves.”

The valley where we stood was not over a half mile broad, and was bare and sunburnt. It sloped back towards hills of considerable height, on the summits of which the trees grew in abundance.

“I’m thinkin’,” said Pike, “that we’ll hev to build a hut up thar. The mules will hev to hev pasturage, which they kin fin’ on the hillside, and we’ll hev to fin’ water fur drink an’ washin’ out the gold.”

We recognized at once the importance of these conditions, which had slipped our minds in our eagerness until Pike reminded us of them. Leaving Henry, the sailor and the Frenchman with the mules in the valley, Pike, Mr. Sheldon and I ascended the western slope, and our delight was unmeasured when we found a fine spring gushing out of the side of the hill. It flowed into the dry riverbed further up, and the water sank in the sand there.

“When we speak of good or bad fortune,” said Mr. Sheldon, “we must remember we could have no better fortune than this. We’ll need water in washing out our gold, and we can easily build a flume which will carry this stream to whatever point we desire.”

I carried the gratifying news back to the others, and they were soon at the spring slaking their thirst. We spent the night there, and the next morning began to look around us. Pike thought we ought to build a hut, and as we had axes and timber was abundant, he took Bonneau and Sam and went to work. Mr. Sheldon, Henry and I shouldered our picks and went down to the river bed to look for gold.

All of us except Mr. Sheldon were utterly ignorant of gold mining, and even he knew but little.

“I suppose I have picked up one or two stray bits of information on the subject since I have been in California,” he said, “but I do not know whether I can put those bits together in such a shape that I can make use of them. I think we are after pocket gold. In ages past it has probably been washed down from the mountains by this river in the wet season and buried here under the drifts of sand. I know nothing about indications, and I suppose we had better dig down in the river bed right here.”

Choosing what we thought to be a likely spot, we sank our picks deep in the bed of sand and dug industriously for more than two hours, skipping about from place to place. The only hard substances our picks struck were occasional stones, and besides these we turned up nothing but sand.

“I didn’t expect to strike a chunk of gold the first blow of the pick,” said Henry, “but if we are not turning up Pedro’s nuggets before to-morrow night I’m no prophet.”

We pecked in the sand all day and succeeded only in making ourselves hot, tired and dusty. When the evening came we shouldered our tools and went back to the crest of the hill, where the housebuilders were toiling.

“Shell out your gold,” said Pike, “fur I know you’ve got your pockets full, an’ you’ve got to divide fair.”

“You may have all the gold we’ve found to-day,” I replied. “We wont claim any of it on our account.”

“I knowed that,” said Pike. “I could tell from your faces that you hadn’t had any luck, an’ I didn’t think you’d hev any. You couldn’t expect to drop down on that gold the fust time you sunk your pick in the sand. But it’s thar, it’s safe, waitin’ fur us, an’ don’t you furgit it.”

But if we had accomplished nothing, Pike and his two assistants had done enough for us all. They had been wielding the axe with great vigor, and the ground was covered with stout poles cut in measured lengths.

“Why! are you going to build a town?” asked Mr. Sheldon in surprise.

“No,” replied Pike, with a satisfied grin, “but I propose to set this party up fur housekeepin’ an’ also fur keepin’ an enemy at arm’s length in case sech an enemy comes. This is to be our fort ez well ez our risydence.”

We understood Pike’s precaution. He expected the Halftrigger party to find us eventually, and that we would have to fight. Though the remainder of us would have preferred to hurry on the gold hunt, his judgment was so sound that no contrary voice was raised. Bonneau had supper ready for us, and as we ate Pike outlined a plan of procedure which he submitted for our approval. His idea in brief was to build a hut by raising bullet-proof logs to the height of about seven feet and then to cover it over with canvas which he had brought along in the expectation of making into tents. This, he said,, should be erected at the very verge of the fountain, in order that we might not be cut off from a water supply in case we were besieged. Three days, said Pike, would be sufficient in which to raise the walls of the hut, and we could equip the interior at our leisure.

“But I want to take a day off myself,” said Pike, “an’ I wuz intending to do it to-morrow. Sam an’ Bonneau know how to go ahead with the work on our cabin, so I’ve been reckonin’ on spendin’ a day scoutin’ about to see ef our enemies are anywhar near. What do you say, boys?”

Of course we agreed with him, for we had superlative confidence in his judgment, and very early the next morning he shouldered his rifle and departed. The remainder of us, letting the gold hunt be for the day, worked on the house. We elected Mr. Sheldon superintendent of the building department, in the absence of Pike, and we toiled with a right good will. A bit before dusk Pike returned and said he had discovered no evidence that we had neighbors. Two days later he went on another such expedition and returned with a similar report.

Five days after it was begun our cabin was completed, and Mr. Sheldon proudly said it was “a triumph of the art of the builder and architect.” It was roomy enough for all of us, and we stored in it all our provisions and spare tools, arms and ammunition. It was arranged also that while the others were seeking gold one man should always keep watch on the crest of the ridge. From that lookout station one could see for many miles in every direction.

Our arrangements for habitation and defense being completed, we set to work in earnest to hunt gold.

“We will turn up ze whole river bed from eend to eend, if necessaire, to have zat gold,” said Bonneau.

That was the way all of us felt about it.

We had not neglected the gold hunt altogether while we were building the house, but this was our first thorough attempt to discover Pedro’s hidden store of gold. We went up and then down the water course and delved first here and then there, as if we were bent upon fulfilling Bonneau’s sanguine assertion. For a week we pried into the secrets of the riverbed. We dug in spots all the way back to the hill, and up and down, covering a distance of more than a mile, but we found nothing resembling gold to cheer us or lighten our labors. Day after day we worked in the hot sun, with sweating faces and blistered hands and declining hopes. Nobody would make any complaint, but we read plainly enough in each other’s faces the sickening fear that our gold hunt had been somehow a great mistake.

I think it was on the evening of the ninth day of our unrewarded labors, a more than usually warm and weary day, that Pike threw down his pick, uttered a singeing oath and exclaimed:

“Fellers, it looks after all ez ef that Pedro wuz lyin’, jest made it all out uv his head!”

We maintained a glum silence, for such was our fear, though we disliked to admit it. Pike shook his head slowly for some time and then brightened up a bit.

“I guess I ought to take that back, boys. I reckon I hev done Pedro a wrong. He’s dead, now, poor feller. He didn’t look like a lyin’ sort uv chap, an’ he stuck to the tale with his last breath. The gold wuz about the last thing he spoke uv. No, boys, Pedro wuz in hard earnest.”

“He could not have made up the story,” said Henry, ever ready to catch any shred of hope, “and the gold must be near here somewhere. I’m sure it is.”

“Then ef you’re so sartin shore,” growled Starboard Sam, “I wish you’d show us whar it is.”

“I still believe that Pedro spoke the truth,” said Mr. Sheldon, “though he might have been mistaken about distances or something else that has misled us. We are disappointed and in a bad humor now, but there is not much occasion for it. The gold is hereabouts, and we will find it eventually. We ought to rest awhile and let our courage come back to us. Now our supply of provisions is getting low. I propose that we spend some days in hunting, and then when we have accumulated a plentiful supply of meat we can come back to this task with fresh zest.”

This suggestion pleased us all. We stored our tools and prepared for a hunting expedition. Although we had failed to find gold we were not in a bad plight. We had a good house, plenty of ammunition, pleasant weather and no ties calling us back to civilization. We were vigorous with health and strength, and life had its pleasures.

When we reflected over these things we were able to swallow, some of our chagrin and started on the hunting expedition in fairly cheerful spirits.

“We have hunt ze gold and find nozzing,” said Bonneau. “Now we will hunt ze game and see eef we cannot find something.”

Then we laughed and felt better.

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