Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1916 — GOLD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOLD

By STEWART EDWARD WHITE

SYNOPSIS Talbot Ward’s challenge to Frank Munroe to a personal encounter to determine whether Munroe Is fit to make a trip to California In search of gold is accepted. Munroe gets a hammerlock on Ward and wins the bout. Arriving at Chagres, Talbot Ward’s knowledge of Spanish and his Ann treatment of the native boatmen help wonderfully. The party enters a tropical forest. They reach Gatun, and, after passing through several villages where Ward always diplomatically handles the natives, they arrive in Panama. Ward forces steamship agent to refund passage money because ship Isn’t available. Yank has provided accommodations for all on board a sailing ship. They anrive in San Francisco. Ward puts It up to each man to get 5220 In one day. Munroe makes $25 as a laborer. Johnny gambles and gets $220. Ward astounds the party by telling how, by shrewd business deals in one day tn the Golden City, he accumulated several thousand dollars. Ward decides that he will not go with the party to the mines, but will stay in San Francisco, w'here he thinss more gold is to be found. The party dig their first gold. They are not much encouraged when told that the value of their first pan is 12 Don Gaspar, a Spaniard, and his manservant Vasquez join forces with the trio and the gold is divided into five parts.

CHAPTER XV. The Strike. WE awoke the fourth morning to a bright day. The helmeted quail were calling. The bees w’ere just beginning a sun warmed hum among the bushes. A languorous warmth hung in the air and a Sunday stillness. It was as though we awakened to a new world, untrodden by men, which was, indeed, a good deal the case. . While we ate breakfast We discussed our plans. The first necessity, of course, was to find out about gold. To that end we agreed to separate for the day, prospecting far and wide. Bagsby kept camp and an eye on the horses. He displayed little interest in the gold proposition, but insisted strongly that we carry both our rilles and revolvers. It would be difficult to describe the thrill of anticipation with which I set off up the valley. The place was so new, so untouched, so absolutely unknown. The high ridges on either side frowned down austerely on the little meadows that smiled back quite unabashed. As I crossed the brown, dry meadow toward the river a Covey of quail whirred away before me, lit and paced off at a great rate. Two big .grouse roared from a thicket. The river was a beautiful, clear stream, with green wavery water whirling darkly in pools or breaking white among the stones. As my shadow fell upon it I caught a glimpse of a big trout scurrying into the darkness beneath a bowlder. Pickihg my way among the loose stones, I selected a likely place on the bar and struck home my pick. I have since repeated the sensations of that day—on a smaller scale, of course—in whipping untried trout waters, same early excitement and enthusiasm, same eager sustained persistence in face of failure, same Incredulous slowing down, same ultimate discouragement, disbelief and disgust All that day I shoveled and panned.

The early morning freshness soon dissipated. Between. the high mountain walls the heat reflected. All the quail stood beneath the shade of bushes, their beaks half open, as though panting. The birds that had sung so sweetly in the early morning had somewhere sought repose. I could occasionally catch glimpses of our horses dozing under trees. Even the chirping Insects were still. As far as I could make out I was the only living thing foolish enough to stay abroad and awake in that suffocating heat. The sweat dripped from me in streams. My eyes ached from the glare of the sun on the rocks and the bleached grasses. Toward the close of the afternoon I confessed sneakingly to myself that I was just a little glad I had found no gold and that I hoped the others had been equally unfortunate. The thought of working day after day in that furnace heat was too much for me. My hopes were fulfilled. All came in that night tired, hot. dirty and discour-

aged. Not one of the eight of us-hafl raised a sign of color. “Well," said Bagsby philosophically, “that’s all right We’ve just- got to go higher. Tomorrow we’ll move upstream." Accordingly next day we turned at right angles to our former route and followed up the bed of the canyon ten or twelve miles toward the distant main ranges. About 4 o’clock we camped. The flat was green. Little clumps of cedar pushed out across it The oaks had given place to cottonwoods. We had now to make acquaintance with new birds. The following morning we went prospecting again. My Instructions were for the dry washes in the sides of the hills. Accordingly I scrambled up among the bowlders In the nearest V shaped ravine. I had hardly to look at all. Behind a large bowlder lay a little cuplike depression of stones in which evidently had stood a recently evaporated pool of water and which in consequence was free from the usual dusty rubble. Jn the interstices between the stones my eye caught a dull glitter. I fell on my knees, dug about with the point of my bowie knife and so unearthed small nuggets aggregating probably a half ounce in weight. Although mightily tempted to stay for more, I minded our agreement to report promptly the first discovery and started back to camp. Why I did not come a header in that fearful bowlder strewn wash I cannot tell you. Certainly I took no care of my going, but leaped recklessly from rock to rock like a goat. When I reached the flat I ran, whooping like an Indian. From the river I could see Johnny and Buck Barry running, too, and had sense enough to laugh as it occurred to me they must think us attacked by Indians. Far down the stream I could just make out figures I knew to be Yank and McNally. They, too, seamed to be coming to camp, though I could not imagine that my shouts had carried so far. • I burst in on Bagsby, who was smoking his pipe and leisurely washing the breakfast dishes, with a whoop, lifted him bodily by the whirled him around in a clumsy dance. He aimed a swipe at me with the wet dishclofh that caught me across the eyes. “You tarnation young grizzly b’ar!” said he. I wiped the water from my eyes. Johnny and Buck Barry ran up. Somehow they did not seem to be anticipating an Indian attack after all. Johnny ran up to thump me on the back. “Isn’t it great?" he cried, “Right off the reel! First pop! Bagsby, old sport, you’re a wonder!” He started for Bagsby, who promptly rushed for his long rifle. “I’m going to kill the first lunatic I see,” he announcedJohnny laughed excitedly and turned back to thump me again. “How did you guess what it was?” I asked. “Didn’t. Jfist blundered on it.” I “What!” I yelled. “Have you struck it too?" “First’ shovel,” said Johnny. “But you don’t mean”— I thrust my three nuggets under his eyes. “Say,” broke in Buck Barry, “if you fellows know where the whisky is hide it, and hide it quick. If I see it I’ll get drunk!” Yank and McNally at this moment strolled from around the bushes. We all burst out on them. “See your fool nuggets and ‘color’ and raise you this,” drawled Yank. And he hauled from his pocket the very largest chunk of virgin gold it has ever been my good fortune to behold. It was irregular in shape, pitted and scored, shaped a good deal like an egg and nearly its size. One pound and a tiny fraction that great nugget balanced when we got around to weighing it And then to crown the glorious day which the gods were brimming for us came Don Gaspar and Vasquez, trailed by that long and saturnine individual, Missouri Jones. The Spaniards were outwardly calm, but . their eyes snapped. As soon as they saw us they waved their hats. “Ah, also you have found the gold!” cried Don Gaspar, sensing immediately the significance of our presence. “We too. It is of good color, there above by the bend.” Ills eye widened as he saw what Yank held. “Madre de Dios!" he murmured. McNally, who had said and done nothing, suddenly uttered a resounding whoop ‘and stood on his hands. Missouri Jones, taking aim, spat carefully in the center of the fire, missing the dishpan by a calculated and accurate inch. “The country is just flowing with gold,” he pronounced. Then we blew up. We hugged each other, we pounded each other's backs, we emulated McNally’s wild Irish whoops, finally we joined hands and danced around and around the remains of the Are, kicking up our heels absurdly. Bagsby, a leathery grin on his face, stood off one side. He still held his long barreled rifle, which he presented at 'who ever neared him. “I’■tell you, look out!” he kept saying over and over. “I’m shdotln’ lunatics today, and apparently there’s plenty game to choose from.” Although we did not immediately run into the expected thousands, nor did the promise of that first glorious day of discovery quite fulfill itself, nevertheless our new diggings turned out ;to be very rich. We fell into routine, I and the days and weeks slipped by. ’ Bagsby and one companion went out every day to hunt or to fish. We took turns at a vacation in camp. Every night we “blew" our day’s collection 1 of sand, weighed the gold and packed it away. Our accumulations were getI ting to be very valuable. | For a month we lived this idyllic life aulte unmolested and had gradually

come to feel that we were so f*r out of the world that nothing would ever disturb us. The days seemed all alike, clear, sparkling, cloudless. It was my first experience with the California climate, and these things were a perpetual wonder to my New England mind. fhen one day when I was camp keeper at the upper end of our long meadow a number of men emerged from the willows and hesitated uncertainly. They were too far way to be plainly distinguishable, but I believed in taking no chances, so I fired my revolver to attract the attention of my companions. They looked up from their labor, saw the men and promptly came into camp. The group still hesitated at the edge of the thicket. Then one of them

waveu sumeoung wmw. we wavea in return, whereupon they advanced alowly in our direction. As they neared we saw them to be Indians. Their leader held before him a stick to which had been tied a number of white feathers. As they approached us they began to leap and dance to the accompaniment of a weird rising and falling chant They certainly did not look very formidable with their heterogeneous mixture of clothing, their round, black, stupid faces and their straight hair. Most of them were armfti simply with bows and arrows, but three carried specimens of the long Spanish musket The Indians said they wanted to trade. ' We replied that we saw nothing they might trade with us. In return they produced some roots and several small bags of pine nuts. We then explained that we were reduced in ammunition and had little food. Don Gaspar here interpolated hastily, saying that In his judgment it would be absolutely necessary that we made some sort of a present to avoid the apnearance of intending an affront. Buck Barry and Jones seemed Instantly to accept this necessity. “Give them two or three of the saddle blankets,” suggested Barry after a moment’s thought. “We will have several light bosses going out, and if we have to pad the saddles we can git along with skins or something." We gave our visitors the blankets therefore. They seemed well pleased, arose and shortly made a primitive sort of a camp a short distance outside our stockade. We did no more washing that day. About 5 o’clock our hunters came in with the best meat of a deer. Bagsby listened attentively to our account of the interview. Then he took a hind quarter of the newly killed buck and departed for the Indians’ camp, where he stayed for an hour. “I don’t think they are out for meanness,” he announced when he returned. “They tell me ttyls yere is on a sort of short cut from some of the Truckee lakes down to their villages.

But we got to keep a sharp eye on our horses, and we got to stand guard tonight" Very early in the morning, when we were just up, several of the elders came over to tell us that some of the young men would stay to work for us, if we so desired. We replied that we had no goods with which to pay for work. Shortly after the whole tribe vanished down river. A week passed, and we had almost forgotten our chance visitors. One day the two Spaniards, Buck Barry and I were at the cradle. Bagsby, Yank and McNally were the hunters for the day. Johnny and Missouri Jones kept camp. We had had a most successful morning and W’ere just stacking our tools preparatory to returning to camp for dinner. Buck Barry was standing near some small sage bushes at the upper end of the diggings. He was just in the act of lighting a freshly filled pipe when he stopped as though petrified, the burning match suspended above the bowl of his pipe. Then he turned quickly toward the sage brush, and as he did so a bow tw’anged, and an arrow sang past his head, so close as actually to draw blood from the lobe of his ear.- With a roar of anger Buck Barry raised his pickax and charged into the bush. We saw a figure rise from the ground, dash away, stumble fiat Before the man could get up again Buck Barry was upon him, and the pickax descended. At the same instant w’e heard a series of whoops and two shots in rapid succession from the direction of camp. Buck Barry came bounding out of the sage brush and seized his rifle from under the bush where we had kept them. “Come on!” he panted., “Let’s get out of this!” We ran as hard as wp could for a hundred yards, or until we had reached the flat of the river bottom. Then we paused, uncertain as to Just what next to do. "Wait a minute," said I. “I'll just take a look," and hurried up a little spur knoll to the right. From that elevation I instantly caught sight of a crowd of Indians coming up the valley

it full speed. Most of them were Mf' horseback, but a number loped a tang on foot, keeping up with the animals. One look was enough. I raced down to my companions again, and we hastily took refuge in the only cover near enough to conceal us—a little clump of willows In a small damp watercourse. There we crouched, rifles ready. (To be continued.) The artichoke is a variety of the -thistle and grows spontaneously all along the African shore of the Mediterranean.

All That Day I Shoveled and Panned.

“Isn’t it great?" he said. “Right off the reel! First pop!”