Chapter V: Part 5

"Ay," put in Left Bower, "heaps, I reckon, boss," addressing himself to Mr Rawlings, who turned as pale at the receipt of the news as if he were going to faint. "We've struck the lode at last, mister, and run slick inter a bonanza if ever they were one; may I never see Frisco again, if we haven't!"

"Hooray!" shouted Seth, attempting to rise and wave his hat as he was wont to do in moments of triumph, but quickly quieting down again as the pain of his foot reminded him of having been wounded. "Didn't I say so--ask any a one in camp if I didn't--that we'd find the gold at last? Hooray!" he repeated aloud at the pitch of his voice, his cheer being taken up instantly by the main body of the miners, who were gossiping in front of Josh's caboose, with a heartiness that resounded through the valley and even made the hills echo again; while Jasper, who had been under a sort of cloud ever since his cowardly conduct on the prairie, joined Josh in an exciting pas a deux before the latter's culinary sanctum, and repeating ever and anon his jubilant song, "Golly, massa, um told yer so!"

"And you are not through the vein yet?" asked Ernest Wilton when he was able to speak calmly, he and Mr Rawlings hurrying towards the head of the new workings in company with Noah Webster and the first discoverers of the ore; the rest of the miners following after at a distance; eager to set to work again at once as soon as their leaders should give orders to that effect. Seth, seeing himself thus deserted, and not wishing to be "left out in the cold," therefore requisitioned the aid of the two darkeys, and made them carry him in the rear of the procession, which put a summary stop to their dancing, but delighted them equally as well, for they were thus enabled to learn all that was going on without the annoyance of having their ears perchance boxed for listening without permission: consequently there was a general move all round.

"No sign of the other wall," said Tom Cannon as spokesman, "we're nigh four feet in from the bottom of the shaft. The richest is that near the river."

"That is just what we expected from the statement of Mr Rawlings' original discoverer. He found it rich in the little shaft he sank there, and that is at the point where the two lodes run into each other. I expect we shall find it richer every foot we go in that direction. If so, it will be one of the richest finds we know of."

So saying, Ernest, full of eagerness and expectation, was lowered away into the mine by the men. He did not stop very long below the surface; and on his return his face seemed to glow with the goods news he brought.

"It's all right," he gasped out, almost before he got out of the shaft; "you've hit on the richest lode I ever saw in my experience. We ought to get tons of gold out of that quartz. We have just struck the centre of a pocket, I think, which must extend to the old workings of your cousin Ned. Mr Rawlings, I congratulate you; your luck has changed at last, and if all turns out as I expect, you'll be the wealthiest man in Dakota!"

"Hooray, b'ys!" shouted out Seth, almost choking poor Josh and Jasper by gripping their necks with his muscular arms in his excitement, the darkeys supporting him, as if in a chair with their hands clasped beneath him, on which he sat with his arms resting on their shoulders, although he now shifted his hold unwittingly to their necks. "Hooray! I sed the Britisher were the b'y for us; an' so he air!"

STORY ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY.

INDIAN ALARMS.

The men now worked with unflagging vigour. The cross-cut was first pushed across the vein, which was found to extend thirteen feet beyond the side of the shaft. It was not unbroken quartz, as here and there the rock came in, but seemed to consist of four separate veins, which sometimes joined together, sometimes were separated by partitions of rock. The richest portion of the vein was two feet from the farthest wall, and here the gold was everywhere thickly scattered through the quartz. Now, they drove right and left along the course of the lode, and found that in both directions the walls were coming closer together.

"It is only a pocket," Ernest Wilton said. "You will see that in about five fathoms either way the quartz will finish in to its usual width, and become poor. However, we must not mind that; if it holds for a few fathoms in depth there will be half a million pounds' worth at least. Twenty tons of quartz like this we see would suffice to make us all rich men, and we know that there is double that at least."

As the young engineer predicted, the lode fell away to its original width, and soon ceased to carry visible gold.

Then they began to sink deeper. Twenty feet lower the walls of the lode again began to approach each other, and there was now a possibility of calculating the amount of quartz in the "pocket."

"I am of opinion," Ernest Wilton said, "that there will be fifty tons of the richest stuff, and nearly two hundred of what I may call second class, but which is still exceedingly rich. But it is time now that we should carry out our plans. We must get up a small mill with five stamps, with a wheel to be worked by water from the mountain stream. It is likely enough that such a set could be got in one of the mining-camps, and I must make a short journey to Bismark and perhaps further west in search of gear. While I am away, the men will have to cut a leet to bring the water along the side of the hill from the torrent, and get all the quartz out of the mine."

All this time, however, even with the confident expectation of untold wealth being now almost within his grasp, not one of the party had forgotten the parting threat of Rising Cloud, and his warning that, ere many months were over, the camp at Minturne Creek would be assailed by the Sioux tribe in full force.

Indeed, if Mr Rawlings or Seth, or Noah especially, who had had such a long experience of the dangers of backwoods life away from the settlements, and thoroughly appreciated the old adage that "he who is forewarned is forearmed," were at all inclined to laugh at the Indian's declaration as an empty boast, many circumstances would have constrained them to alter their opinion, and make them be prepared for anything that might happen.

In the first place, a stage used to run from Bismark to the Black Hills at stray intervals, when they first camped at Minturne Creek--although it did not come within some miles of their own valley--and continued running until the winter set in; but when the spring developed, and the roads got in working order again, no stage was to be met with; and rumour had it that it had been "frightened off the track by the Injuns."

In the early months of summer this rumour received additional confirmation by the arrival of some scouts from the settlements, with the news that the Sioux had declared war against the United States authorities, and that all the outlying settlers had been warned to withdraw into the townships, where they could join together and resist any attack made on them.

And, later still, a special messenger from one of the military stations on the Missouri, where "Uncle Sam's" troops were quartered, brought them word that intelligence had been received that Rising Cloud had published his intention of attacking the Minturne Creek miners especially, and that his band of warriors had already started on the war-path--although the commander of the detachment at Fort Warren assured them that he was following up the Indians, and would revenge them should they happen to get "wiped out" before he came up with the redskins!

This, naturally, was no very cheering intelligence; but the miners were not discouraged, although they took every wise precaution so that their wary foe should not catch them napping; and so, whether they were working in the mine or went hunting--as they did more frequently when the buffalo came northwards later on, led from the southern plains, which form their more common habitat throughout the year, by the rich blue grass, and other prairie delicacies which these bovine beasts loved, that flourished among the valleys of the Black Hills; or whether they were digging in the kitchen garden that Josh and Jasper had improvised at the back of the little hut where they all lived--every man went armed or had his arms handy. In addition to this, sentinels were posted through the day at the entrance of the Creek, to warn them of the approach of any suspicious strangers to the camp; while Seth caused as rigid a watch to be kept at night, taking the first and fourth turns himself, as if he were still a first mate with the responsibilities of a ship on his hands and walking the deck of the _Susan Jane_.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

THE WAR-WHOOP.

Having levelled the line for the watercourse, Ernest Wilton prepared for his journey.

The news of the Indian raids made travelling very dangerous, and Mr Rawlins's urged Ernest to let him go in his stead. But to this Ernest strongly objected, advancing all sorts of reasons but the right one against Mr Rawlings starting for Bismark, stating amongst other arguments that if the worthy leader of the party went, the miners might think he was running away from the Creek for fear of the Indians attacking them.

"No, no, my boy!" laughed Mr Rawlings; "you cannot wheedle me by using such an argument as that, Wilton! It is too absurd, for the miners know me too well for that, and so do you; besides, it is far more perilous to venture out into the open, as you are about to do, than to remain here, where, united together as we are in a phalanx of stout, able-bodied men, in an almost impregnable position, we could resist any formidable attack in force. No, no, my boy; you may tell that to the marines. But do inform me, Wilton, what is your real motive in wishing to go yourself? I consent certainly to your going, as you press the matter; but I should like to know your ulterior object, if only to satisfy my curiosity."

"Well," said Ernest, laughing too, "I didn't like to tell you at first for fear of wounding your sensibilities. To tell you the truth, I think I am more competent to get what I want than you are, as, if I do not see any of the things I require exactly, I may be able to pick up makeshifts that will answer my purpose as well, while you would be trying to procure impossibilities, perhaps, just because I mentioned them in the list of my requirements, and would be satisfied with nothing else."

"Very good, have your way," said Mr Rawlings, satisfied with the reason advanced, and handing the young engineer at the same time a roll of greenbacks that represented all his available capital. "But you must be economical in your purchases, my boy. This is all the money I can spare you for your expenses and everything. I think you had better take a few rich specimens with you, and should your funds run short they may give you credit if you tell them you have fifty tons of it ready for the mill."

"All right," said Ernest cheerfully, pocketing the parcel, and making an inward resolution the while to supply any deficiency in that respect from his own funds--which, indeed, was his true motive for undertaking the commission in person, although he concealed it from Mr Rawlings; for he was aware that the latter had got near the end of his resources, and would have been indignant if he had offered to be his temporary banker in order to buy all that was now needed for the mine, which he had made up his mind to be, whether he liked it or not, without his knowing it; and he chuckled to himself as he told Mr Rawlings that the money would do amply.

"I suppose, Wilton, you'll take the waggon and a team of mules with you to bring back the things, eh?" said Mr Rawlings presently, as the young engineer began making his preparations for starting.

"Yes," said Ernest, "and shall have to hire four or five others; but I need only have them with me as far as Fort Bennett on the Missouri, where, as I pointed out to you just now, I can get a passage in one of the river steamers right up to Bismark, and the same way back with all my purchases. Why, Mr Rawlings, you must have come here by almost as roundabout a route as I did from Oregon! You told me that you took a month getting to Minturne Creek with your mining plant and other goods, dragging them, I suppose, the whole distance from the railway depot across the plains, instead of taking advantage of the waterway as I am going to do now."

"That is very true," answered the other. "But Moose said it was the best way, and I allowed him to shape his own course."

"He'll have to shape mine now!" said Ernest dryly; and the same day he and the half-breed, with the valiant Josh in charge of the waggon and a ten-mule team, started for Fort Bennett, a distance of some hundred and forty miles from the camp, which they accomplished within three days, not meeting with any obstruction in the shape of Indians on the road.

At this station Ernest left Moose with the waggon and mules, while he took passage for himself and Josh in one of the steam-boats which ply along the rolling waters of the Missouri to the large town on its banks above, that may now be called the capital of Dakota.

At Bismark he was fortunate enough to hear of some machinery which would exactly suit him; it had been sent west for a mine, which before it arrived had proved so poor that it was abandoned, and the wheel and stamps were now for sale. He also laid in some stores, besides a quantity of gunpowder, and lead for bullets, which he thought would come in handy for the Indians should they lay siege to Minturne Creek.

When he knew the weight of the goods, he sent word down the river to Moose at Fort Bennett, and the latter hired five additional waggons and teams, which were all in readiness when he arrived by steamer with the machinery. Everything was soon packed up, and the little party tracked back to the camp, having been but twenty days away altogether.

"You air smart!" said Seth, who was the first to welcome Ernest on his arrival, the ex-mate having now quite recovered from his wounds, and "hopping about on his pins," as he expressed it, "as merrily as ever," himself again in every particular. "You air smart, mister! I guess you're the slickest coon I ever seed for makin' tracks--Jerusalem, you air!"

"You would have made haste too, friend Seth," said Ernest, laughing-- there never was such a fellow to laugh as he was--"if you had heard what I have about those blessed Indians, and our old acquaintance, Rising Cloud."

"What is that?" asked Mr Rawlings anxiously, who had just come up in time to catch the last observation of the young engineer--"what have you heard about Rising Cloud?"

"Only," said Ernest, and he spoke gravely enough now--"that he is spreading murder and havoc all along the banks of the Missouri, and may be soon here upon us with the miscreant gang he leads. I heard terrible tales of him in the steamer I came down the river in. The captain of the little craft told me that the Indians had burnt every outlying settlement in Southern Dakota, massacring all the white inhabitants, and were making their way northwards, so we'd better look out. Why, he said they'd even attacked his boat when it was at one of the landings; and if he hadn't put on steam he and his vessel would have been settled, with all on board."

"Ah," said Mr Rawlings, "that corroborates the warning we got from the commander of the United States troops at Fort Warren when you were away. We certainly must keep a careful look now, for it would not do to repeat all of my poor Cousin Ned's experiences, and have the result of our toil snatched from our grasp by those relentless fiends of the prairie when it was just within our reach, as it was in his, poor fellow!"

Mr Rawlings then went on to tell Ernest what they had heard, and give an account of what had transpired during his absence at the settlements; after which the whole party proceeded to examine their defences in detail, the young engineer suggesting that they should entrench the camp in a systematic way, and also the machinery which would be erected on the river's bank.

There were but two directions from which they could be attacked; for the precipitous range of the Black Hills, standing behind Minturne Creek with its semicircular rampart, protected their rear and sides, so that they had only their front face to guard, along the course of the stream, following the gulch.

The same safeguards which they had adopted before were redoubled in the face of the second warning they received by the account Ernest Wilton brought back with him of the Indian savages in their neighbourhood, their day and night watch being maintained with the strictest regularity.

The teams were soon unloaded and started on their return journey, and with the exception of the men engaged in clearing out the quartz from the mine, all hands set to to erect the water-wheel and stamps, which operation, as all the pieces of timber were fitted and numbered, was an easy and rapid one.

In three weeks afterwards all was ready for a start. Five hundredweight of quartz was then weighed out and carried down to the stamps, the gear which connected the machinery with the great wheel which was revolving in the river was connected, and the stamps began to rise and fall with a heavy regular rhythm.

The quartz was thrown in beneath the stamps shovelful by shovelful, and in an hour and a half the last fragment was used up. For another half hour the stamps rose and fell, then the water running through them was no longer milk-white, and the stamps were stopped. Then the blankets spread upon the ways by which the mud-charged gold had flowed were taken up and washed, the quicksilver was taken out of the concentrators and passed through wash-leather bags, in which great rolls of amalgam remained. These were placed in large crucibles to drive off the quicksilver, and then removed from the furnace and the gold placed in the scale. To this was added the fine gold from the blankets. Ernest Wilton added the weights, and around him stood Mr Rawlings and all the miners off duty.

"Just a hundred ounces," he said, "five hundred ounces to the ton; speaking roughly, 1800 pounds a ton."

"Hurrah!" shouted Seth Allport, his ringing voice making itself heard above the sound of the rushing water and the echoing chorus of the men's cheers; but, an instant after, his exclamation of delight was changed to one of dismay, as a flight of arrows and the ping of rifle bullets whistled around the party, while the dread war-whoop of their Indian assailants burst forth in all its shrill discordancy.

"Who--ah--ah--ah--ah--oop!"

STORY ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

A FIGHT FOR LIFE!

In the excitement of starting the stamps, the usual precautions which had been previously practised, of posting sentinels and keeping their arms ready, were for the moment forgotten; but after the first startle of surprise at being so unexpectedly attacked passed over, there was a general rush to cover of all the members of the party, behind the breastwork of earth that the young engineer had caused to be thrown up round the spot facing the river all along its right bank, the men catching up their rifles and cartridge-pouches--which lay here and there about as they had dropped them in their expectancy while waiting the result of the weighing--as they ran to shelter themselves and prepared to return the fire of their foes.

All the miners rushed to the breastwork save one, and that was Seth.

At the instant he turned, like his comrades, to seek the protection of the rampart, towards which the others hastened, an arrow struck Sailor Bill slanting-wise across his forehead, and, tossing up his hands, the poor boy, who was standing on the timber which led to the wheel, tumbled over into the foaming water below that was seething like a whirlpool.

Uttering a frenzied ejaculation of anguish and grief, Seth plunged into the flood, and an instant after dragged forth Sailor Bill's body, heedless of the arrows and bullets of the Indians, the former of which darkened the air in their passage around him, while the latter whistled through his garments.

The intrepid fellow seemed to bear a charmed life, for not a shot nor a barbed head of the savages' feathered missiles reached him as he pulled the poor boy's apparently lifeless body from the water, Seth not being content until he had hauled it up beneath the breastwork; when with a shout of vengeance he seized his rifle and set to work to aid the others in dealing death on those who had, as he thought, killed his protege.

It was a terrific fight whilst it lasted.

Mingled with the war-whoop of the Sioux, which was repeated ever and anon, as if to excite them anew to the carnage, came the fierce exclamations of the miners, and the calm word of command from Mr Rawlings occasionally, to restrain the men from getting too flurried.-- He certainly showed himself worthy of the post of leader then!

"Steady, boys! Don't waste your fire. Aim low; and don't shoot too quickly!"

"Ping! ping!" flew the bullets through the smoky medium with which they were surrounded, while an occasional "thud" evinced the fact that one of their assailants had fallen:--"ping, ping, ping!" it was a regular fusillade;--and the miners delivered their fire like trained soldiers from behind the breastwork that had so providentially been erected in time!

Presently there was a rush of the redskins, and the besieged party could hear the voice of Rising Cloud encouraging his warriors, and taunting those he attacked.

"Dogs of palefaces!" cried the chief, "your bones shall whiten the prairie, and your blood colour the buffalo grass, for your treatment of Rising Cloud in the morn of the melting of the snow! I said I would come before the scarlet sumach should spring again on the plains; and Rising Cloud and his warriors are here!"

Then came the fearful war-whoop again, with that terrible iteration at its end "Who--ah--ah--ah--ah--oop!" like the howl of a laughing hyaena.

The river alone interposed between the whites and their enemy, and gave them a spell of breathing time, but in spite of this protection, the odds were heavy against them; for what could even sixteen resolute men, as the party now numbered--for one had been mortally wounded by a chance shot, and although Josh the negro cook could tight bravely and did, Jasper was not of much use--do in a hand-to-hand struggle with hundreds of red-skinned human devils thirsting for their blood?

The river, however, was a great help, especially now that it had been converted into a mill-race, and flooded beyond its usual proportions; for, when the Indians rushed into the water to wade across and assault the camp at close quarters, as the shallowness of the stream at that season of the year would previously have easily enabled them to have done, they found, to their astonishment, first that the current, which they did not expect to be more than a foot deep, rose above their waist-belts, then above their armpits, and finally above their heads, as, pushed onwards by their companions behind, they were submerged in the flood; while the miners, still sheltered by Ernest Wilton's trenched rampart above, rained down a pitiless hail of bullets into the half-drowned mob, whose very strength now proved their principal weakness.

"Give it 'em, b'ys: remember poor Sailor Bill!" shouted Seth, his blood up to fever heat with passion, and the murderous spirit of revenge strong in his heart. "Give 'em goss, an' let nary a one go back to tell the story!"

"Steady, men, and fire low!" repeated Mr Rawlings.

And the miners mowed the redskins down by the score with regular volleys from their repeating rifles, although twenty fresh Indians seemed to spring up in the place of every one killed.

The fight was too severe to last long, and soon a diversion came.

As Rising Cloud, raising his tomahawk on high, and, leading the van of his warriors, was bringing them on for a decisive charge, several sharp discharges, as if from platoon firing, were heard in the rear of the Indians.

Just then, a bullet from Ernest Wilton's rifle penetrated the chief's brain, and he fell dead right across the earth rampart in front of the young engineer. The platoon firing in the rear of the savages was again repeated; the United States troops had evidently arrived to the rescue; and, taken now between two fires, and disheartened by the fall of Rising Cloud, the Sioux broke, and fled in a tumultuous mass towards the gorge by which they had entered the valley of Minturne Creek.

The struggle over, the miners had time to count casualties, and see who amongst their number had fallen in the fray.

Thanks to Ernest Wilton's breastwork, their losses had not been very heavy.

Noah Webster was slightly wounded, and Black Harry badly; while the only one killed outright was Tom Cannon, the whilom keen-sighted topman of the _Susan Jane_, who would never sight wreck or sail more, for Sailor Bill was only wounded, and not dead, after all.

Jasper, who had been hiding beneath the embankment beside the boy's supposed lifeless body, had perceived signs of returning animation in it, to which he immediately called the attention of Seth and also Mr Rawlings, and the three were bending over the figure in a moment. Just almost a year before they were bending over Sailor Bill in precisely the same way in the cabin of the _Susan Jane_. The Indian's arrow had ploughed under the skin of the boy's forehead nearly at the same place that bore the scar of his former wound when he had been picked up at sea, and could not have inflicted any dangerous injury; it was evidently the shock of falling into the foaming torrent from the tunnel, as it rushed into the river, that had rendered Sailor Bill senseless for the time being.

He was now coming back to himself, for his limbs twitched convulsively, and there was a faint tremor about the eyelids.

Just then Ernest Wilton came up and stood by the side of Mr Rawlings, while Seth was rubbing the boy's bared chest vigorously with his brawny hand to hasten the restoration of the circulation; and at that moment Sailor Bill opened his eyes--eyes that were expressionless no longer, but with the light of reason in their hidden intelligence--and fixed his gaze on the young engineer as if he recognised him at once.

"Ernest!" the boy exclaimed wonderingly, "what brings you here? Why, where am I?"

And he looked from one to the other of the group around him in a half-puzzled way, "Jerusalem!" ejaculated Seth, jumping to his feet and turning to the young engineer. "He knows you, mister. Ken you rec'lect him?"

"By Jove!" said Ernest, "I do believe it's my cousin, Frank Lester, now I hear his voice. Frank!"

"Yes, Ernest," answered the boy, heaving a sigh of relief. "Then it is you after all. I thought I was dreaming."

And he sank back into a calm sleep as if he were in bed.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

AFTER THE BATTLE.

"Now didn't I say so, Rawlings?" said Seth triumphantly, turning to that gentleman. "I leave it to any one if I didn't diagnose the boy's symptoms correctly! I said ef he can meet with a similar shock to that which cost him his reason, he'd get it back again. I told you that from the first on board the _Susan Jane_."

"You certainly did," replied Mr Rawlings. "It's the most curious case I ever heard or read of! Do you think, Seth, when he wakes up he'll be still all right here?" tapping his forehead expressively.

"Sartain as thaar's snakes in Virginny!" said the ex-mate, returning for a moment to his vernacular mode of speech; although, his medical instincts asserting themselves again presently, he spoke more formally and in professional style in continuation of his reply to Mr Rawlings. "He is still in a semi-comatose condition, as that somnolent fit assures us; but he will sleep it off, and rouse up by and by in the proper possession of his faculties, a glimpse of which we observed just now."

"I'm right glad to hear it," said Mr Rawlings. "What a difference that look of intelligence in his eyes made in him! I declare I would hardly have known him to be the same boy!"

"You're right there," said Seth. "I've read in some book of the eyes bein' called `the windows of the soul;' an' I believe it's pretty near the mark."

"Golly, massa Rawlings," put in Jasper at this juncture--the darkey had been dying to speak for a long time--"p'raps him turn out to be gran' fine genelmun, for sure, 'sides bein' massa Willerton's cuzzing, hey?"

"P'raps I'll souse you in the river if you don't make tracks and bring down somethin' as we can take poor Sailor Bill up to the hut in," said Seth, speaking again in his customary way and in a manner that Jasper plainly understood, for he disappeared at once, returning shortly in company with Josh, the two bearing a mattress between them, on which the boy was placed, still asleep, and carried up to the house, where he was softly put down on Mr Rawlings' bed and left, with Seth watching by his side until he should wake up, as the latter expected, in his proper senses.

The camp was in a state of tremendous excitement, as may be supposed, for no less than three thrilling episodes of interest had occurred all in one day, any one of which would have been sensational enough in itself to have afforded matter for gossip for a month.

The starting of the stamps--the attack and repulse of the long-dreaded Indian band--the fact of Sailor Bill recovering his lost senses--all happening at once, all coming together!

It was too much for even the most apathetic of the miners to contemplate calmly. And when, after the final departure of the American soldiery-- whose commander returned, after pursuing the Sioux for some distance amongst the Black Hills, to report that no further attack need be feared from the band, which was now thoroughly dispersed and incapable of assailing the camp a second time, that year at least--Minturne Creek resumed its normal quietude, and seemed duller than ever after such stirring events as had recently been witnessed, the excited gold-diggers gathered together in twos and threes, thinking over and talking about what had happened.

Beyond the stirring events that had happened they had also to mourn the loss of two of their number, as gallant comrades as men ever had--for, ere long, Black Harry had followed the smart foretopman to the silent land, succumbing to the dangerous wound he had received towards the end of the struggle from an Indian tomahawk wielded by a powerful arm, which had almost cleft the poor fellow's skull in twain; and, after so many months of close companionship, the death of the two sailors was keenly felt.

The best way to banish painful thoughts, however, as Mr Rawlings knew from sad experience, was to engage in active employment; so he did not allow the men to remain idle, although he gave them ample time for a rest after the fight was over.

Summoning to his aid Noah Webster, who, like some of the others who had received trivial wounds, made light of the bullet hole through his arm, he mustered the hands late in the afternoon of the eventful day, and delivered a short practical address to them before resuming operations-- a speech which, being to the point, had the desired effect of making the men go back to their work with a will.

"Now, lads," said he, "we must be up and going. Sitting there talking will not bring back the poor fellows that have gone. I mourn our comrades just as much as you do, for they worked steadfastly, like the honest, true-hearted men they were, through the hard time of toil and trouble we had till recently, and at the last fought and died bravely in the defence of the camp. But, crying over them won't help them now; all we can do is to bury them where they so nobly fell, and then turn our hands to carry on our work to the end that is now so near in view, just as they would have insisted on doing if they had been alive still and with us!"

There was no more lethargy after Mr Rawlings' exhortation: as Solomon says,--"A word in season, how good it is!"

The men sprang up with alacrity to set about what he had suggested rather than ordered; and, as soon as graves had been dug in the shelter trench of the rampart that Tom Cannon and Black Harry had held so courageously against the Indians, and their bodies interred with all proper solemnity, Mr Rawlings himself reading the burial service over their remains, the miners grasped their picks and shovels with one hand as they wiped away a tear with the other, and went back to the mine, some of them possibly with the reflection that, all things considered, their slain mates were perhaps after all now better off than themselves!

STORY ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

SAILOR BILL'S STORY.

After the sad ceremony which he had just performed, Mr Rawlings did not feel much inclined for gold-seeking or any worldly affairs, although he went towards the mine as a matter of duty; and when he reached the stamps he found Ernest Wilton already standing there, but looking pale and perturbed, as if anxious about something.

"What is the matter?" said Mr Rawlings. "You seem out of sorts, beyond what the loss of these poor fellows would have affected you?"

"Yes, I am," replied the other. "I can't help thinking of that cousin of mine, and why I did not recognise him when I first saw him; but then he was quite a little boy at school, and who would have dreamt of your picking him up at sea?"

"Strange things do happen sometimes," said Mr Rawlings. "When was it that you last saw him in England?"

"Four years ago last Christmas, if I recollect aright. He was then a little schoolboy not half his present size. How on earth did he manage to get to sea? my aunt had a perfect horror of a sailor's life, and would never have let him go willingly. But, there, it only serves me right for my selfish neglect! As you told me before, I ought to have kept up my communication with my family, and then I should have known all about it. I can't help now fancying all sorts of queer things that may have occurred. My poor aunt, who used to be so fond of me, may be dead; and my uncle, who was of a roving nature kindred to mine, may--"

"Nonsense!" said Mr Rawlings, good-naturedly, interrupting him. "If you go on like that, you'll imagine you're the man in the moon, or something else! Sailor Bill, or rather your cousin Frank, as we must now call him, will wake up presently and enlighten us as to how he came to be in his present position--or rather in the Bay of Biscay, where we picked him up; for we all know his subsequent history; and then you'll learn what you are now puzzling your brains about, without any bother. I confess I am curious in the matter too, for I wish to know the secret of that mysterious packet round his neck; but we must both wait with patience, and dismiss the subject for the present from our minds. Come along with me now, my boy," he added, as the body of the miners hastened up after paying their last tribute of respect at their comrades' graves. "I'm just going to have a look at your sluices, and see whether the stuff is coming out as rich as before."

This invitation at once caused the young engineer to brighten up, as the idea of action had aroused the miners from dwelling on what had happened.

The yield upon being examined proved fully as rich as before the first experiment.

"You see, Mr Rawlings," said Ernest, cordially holding out his hand for a friendly grip, "the lead has turned out just as I fancied it would do, and my efforts to open it out proved successful. You are now, as I told you would be the case, the richest man in this State, or in Montana either, for that matter, with all their talk of Bonanza Kings there."

"You bet," chimed in Noah Webster, who felt equally proud and delighted with the young engineer at the result of their joint operations; but Mr Rawlings could say little.

The Indian attack had hitherto prevented his realising this sudden change of fortune, and now that he was fully conscious of it, all he could do was to silently shake Ernest Wilton's hand first, and then Noah Webster's; and after that each of those of the miners who pressed near him for the purpose, full of sympathy with "the good luck of the boss," and forgetting already the fate of their lost comrades in the sight of the glittering metal before them--their natural good spirits being perfectly restored a little later on, when Mr Rawlings assured them, on his recovering his speech, that he fully intended now keeping to the promise he had given when the venture was first undertaken, and would divide half the proceeds of the mine, share and share alike, among the men, in addition to paying them the wages he had engaged to do.

The ringing hurrahs with which the jubilant miners gave vent to their gladness on the reiteration of Mr Rawlings' promise, were so loud that they reached the ears of Seth, who was watching by the sleeping boy, and the latter woke up immediately with a frightened air, as if suffering from the keenest terror.

"It's all right, my b'y, all right," said Seth soothingly; and at the same time Wolf, who had entered the house and crept up by the side of the bed, leapt up on the boy and licked his face.

"Where am I, Sam?" he said to Seth, the dog's greeting having apparently calmed him down as well as the ex-mate's kindly manner; "are they after me still, Sam?"

"You are here with us," saith Seth, puzzled at the boy's addressing him so familiarly; "but my name arn't Sam, leastways, not as I knows on."

The boy looked in his face, and seemed disappointed.

"No, you are not Sam, though you are like him. Oh, now I recollect all?" and he hid his face in his hands and burst into a passionate fit of crying, as if his heart would break.

"There, there," said Seth, patting him on the back, "it's all right, I tell you, my b'y; an' when Seth says so I guess he means it!"

But the boy would not stop weeping; and Seth, thinking that some harm might result to his newly-awakened reason if he went on like that, strode to the door and summoned help, with a stentorian hail that rang through the valley as loudly as the cheer of the miners had done one instant before.

"Ahoy there, all hands on deck!" he shouted, hardly knowing what he was saying, adding a moment afterwards, "Wilton, you're wanted! Look sharp."

"Here I am," cried Wilton, hurrying up, with Mr Rawlings after him. "What is the matter now, Seth?"

"I can't make him do nothing" said that worthy hopelessly. "He takes me to be some coon or other called Sam, an' then when I speaks he turns on the water-power and goes on dreadful, that I'm afeard he'll do himself harm. Can't you quiet him, Wilton; he kinder knowed you jest now?"

"I'll try," said Ernest; and kneeling by the boy's side, he drew his hands away from his face and gently spoke to him.

"Frank! look at me: don't you know me?"

"Ye-e-es," sobbed he, "you--_you_ are Ernest. But how did you come here? you weren't on board the ship. Oh, father! where are you, and all the rest?"

And the boy burst out crying again, in an agony of grief which was quite painful to witness.

Presently, however, he grew more composed; and, in a broken way, Ernest managed to get his story from him--a terrible tale of mutiny, and robbery, and murder on the high seas.

This was his story, as far as could be gathered from his disconnected details.

Frank Lester, much against his mother's wishes, had persuaded his father to take him with him in the early part of the previous year to the diamond fields in South Africa, whither Mr Lester was going for the purpose of purchasing some of the best stones he could get for a large firm who intrusted him with the commission. The object of the journey had been safely accomplished, and Mr Lester and Frank reached Cape Town, where they took their return passage to England in a vessel called the _Dragon King_.

Seth nudged Mr Rawlings at this point.

"Didn't I say that was the name of the desarted ship?" he asked in a whisper.

And Mr Rawlings nodded his assent.

The _Dragon King_--to continue Frank's, or Sailor Bill's story--was commanded by a rough sort of captain, who was continually swearing at the men and ill-treating them; and, in the middle of the voyage a mutiny broke out on board, started originally by some of the hands who wished merely to deprive the captain of his authority, and put the first mate, who was much liked by the men, in his place; but the outbreak was taken advantage of by a parcel of desperadoes and ne'er-do-weels, who were returning home empty handed from the diamond diggings, and were glad of the opportunity of plundering the ship and passengers--whence the mutiny, from being first of an almost peaceful character, degenerated into a scene of bloodshed and violence which it made Frank shudder to speak about.

His father, fearing what was about to happen, and that, as he was known as having been up the country and in the possession of jewels of great value, the desperadoes would attempt to rob him first, placed round Frank's neck, in the original parchment-covered parcel in which he had received them from the bank at the diamond fields, the precious stones he had bought, with all his own available capital as well as his employers' money, thinking that that would be the last place where the thieves would search for them.

"And now they are lost," added the boy with another stifled sob, "and poor mother will be penniless."

"Nary a bit," said Seth; and pulling out the little packet by the silken string attached round his neck--which the poor boy had not thought of feeling for even, he was so confident of his loss--he disclosed it to his gaze. "Is that the consarn, my b'y?" he asked.

"Oh!" exclaimed Frank in delighted surprise. "It is, with the bank seal still unbroken, I declare!"

And opening the parchment cover he showed Ernest and the rest some diamonds of the first water, that must have been worth several thousand pounds.

After his father had given the parcel into his care, Frank went on to say, events transpired exactly as he had anticipated. Most of the passengers were robbed, and those that objected to being despoiled tranquilly, murdered. Amongst these were his father, whom the ruffians killed more out of spite from not finding the valuables they expected on him. He, Frank, escaped through the kindness of one of the sailors, who took a fancy to him, and hid him up aloft in the ship's foretop when the men who had possession of the ship would have killed him.

"This sailor," said Frank, "was just like that gentleman there," pointing to Seth.

"Waal neow, that's curious," said Seth. "Was his name Sam?"

"It was," said the boy.

"This is curious," said Seth, looking round at the rest; "it is really. I wouldn't be at all surprised as how that's my brother Sam I haven't heerd on for this many a year, or seed, although he's a seafarin' man like myself, an' I oughter to 'ave run across his jib afore now. Depend on it, Rawlings, that the reason the boy stuck to me so when he hadn't got his wits, and came for to rescue me aboard the _Susan Jane_, and arterwards, was on account of my likeness to Sam."

And as nobody could say him nay, it may be mentioned here that that was Seth's fervent belief ever after.

The last recollection that Frank had of the ship and the mutineers was of an orgie on board the _Dragon King_ in the height of a storm, and of one of the murderous villains finding out his retreat in the foretop, where the sailor who protected him lashed him to the rigging, so that he could not tumble on deck if he should fall asleep. He remembered a man with gleaming eyes and great white teeth swearing at him, and making a cut at him with a drawn sword. After that, all was a complete blank to him till he had just now opened his eyes and recognised Ernest.

"An' yer don't recollect being picked up at sea an' taken aboard the _Susan Jane_, and brought here, nor nuthin'?" inquired Seth.

"Nothing whatever," said Frank, who showed himself to be a remarkably intelligent boy now that he had recovered his senses. "I don't remember anything that happened in the interval."

"Waal, that is curious," observed Seth.

That was all the story that Frank Lester could tell of the mutiny on board the _Dragon King_, and his wonderful preservation.

All the mutineers, and some of their victims too most probably, met their final doom shortly afterwards in the storm that had dismasted the ship, leaving it to float derelict over the surface of the ocean; all but the three whose corpses the visiting party from the _Susan Jane_ had noticed on the submerged deck. These must have survived the tempest only to perish finally from each other's murderous passions, after having lingered on in a state of semi-starvation possibly--although Frank said that the desperadoes from the diamond fields, who were the ringleaders on board, were originally the most attenuated, starved-looking mortals he had ever seen in his life.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

HOMEWARD-BOUND.

The work at the mine went on steadily. The "pocket" was cleared of the quartz it contained, and the whole, amounting to two hundred and fifty tons, passed through the stamp.

The soldiers, on their return from their victory over the Sioux, had spread the news of the wonderful find of gold at Minturne Creek, and miners had flocked up in hundreds. When the pocket was emptied, a debate arose whether a heading should be driven along the course of the lode to the spot where Mr Rawlings' cousin had struck gold, and where it was probable that another pocket existed. It was, however, decided to accept the offer of a body of wealthy speculators, who offered 100,000 pounds for the set. This was indeed far less than they would have gleaned from it had the second pocket turned out as rich as the first, for the gold, when all the quartz was crushed, amounted in value to 350,000 pounds. Half of the total amount was divided by Mr Rawlings, according to his promise, among the miners. Seth receiving three shares, Noah Webster two, and the men one each. To Ernest Wilton he gave one-fourth of his own share of the proceeds.

Then, starting from the spot where they had toiled so hard, the little band set out for the haunts of civilisation once more, leaving behind, where they had found a solitary valley, a place dotted with huts and alive with busy men.

At Bismark the men separated, some to proceed back to their beloved California, to star it among their fellows with their newly acquired wealth, others to dissipate it in riotous living in the nearest frontier towns, while others again, struck with the greed of gold, thought that they had not yet got enough, and proceeded rapidly to gamble away what they had.

Mr Rawlings went eastwards towards Boston, intending to take steamer thence to England, which he resolved never to leave again in the pursuit of adventure now that fortune had so generously befriended him; and with him came Ernest Wilton, taking charge of his recovered cousin; and Seth, who could not bear to lose sight of his former protege.

Josh and Jasper had been left behind, the two darkeys sinking their mutual jealousy, and determining to start a coloured hotel on the Missouri, for the benefit of travelling gentlemen of their own persuasion; so too had Noah Webster, who said he liked hunting better than civilisation, and intended to pass the remainder of his days out west in the company of Moose, who was as eager after game as he was himself and as fearless of the Indians, should they again trouble them, after their Minturne Creek experiences.

Wolf, however, was one of the homeward-bound party. He certainly could not be abandoned after all his faithful services, and the wonderful instinct he had displayed, more than his master had done, in recognising Frank, whom he had not seen since puppyhood, when Ernest Wilton's aunt, Frank's mother, gave him to the young engineer.

As luck would have it, on the arrival of Mr Rawlings and his party at Boston whom should they meet accidentally at the railway depot but Captain Blowser, of the _Susan Jane_, as hearty and jolly as of yore, and delighted to see them! His ship he "guessed" was just going to Europe, and he would be only too glad of their taking passage in her.

Need it be mentioned that the captain's offer was accepted; and that, long before Frank Lester--the "Sailor Bill" whom Seth loved, and the crew of the _Susan Jane_ and the gold-miners of Minturne Creek had regarded with such affection--had arrived in England to gladden his mother's heart by his restoration, as if from the dead, when he had long been given up for lost, together with his father's property which he carried with him, he had learnt every detail, as if he had been in his right senses at the time, of how he had been "Picked up at Sea?"

STORY TWO, CHAPTER ONE.

GREEK PIRATES AND TURKISH BRIGANDS. A TALE OF ADVENTURE BY SEA AND LAND.

IN BEYROUT HARBOUR.

"It's a thundering shame our sticking here so long; and I'm sick of the beastly old place," said Tom Aldridge in a grumbling tone, as he leant over the bulwarks listlessly, crumbling bits of biscuit into the sea to attract the fish, which would not be attracted, and gazing in an idle way at the roof of the pacha's palace, that glittered under the rays of the bright Syrian sun. "I'm sick of the place, Charley!" he repeated, more venomously than before.

"So am I, Tom," said Charley Onslow, his fellow-midshipman on board the _Muscadine_, an English barque of some seven or eight hundred tons, that lay, along with several foreign vessels of different rig, in the bay of Beyrout--as pretty a harbour as could be picked out in a score of voyages, and about the busiest port in the whole of the Levant.