The Golden Canyon Read online

  "All right; don't you talk any more. We will get your friends here in notime."

  But when Mr. Allen came ashore Dick was again unconscious. The matefetched two more surgeons, who, after conferring with the first, wereall of opinion that although he might possibly recover from his wounds,weeks would elapse before he would be convalescent. Before night feverhad set in, and it was a fortnight before he was again conscious of whatwas passing round him. He looked feebly round the room. One of thered-shirted men was attending to a pot over a charcoal fire. Turning hishead he saw, standing looking out of the window, his friend Tom Haldane.

  "Halloa, Tom," he said, in a whisper, which, however, reached themidshipman's ears. He turned sharply round, and hurried to the bedside.

  "Thank God, Dick, you are conscious again. Don't try to talk, oldfellow; drink this lemonade, and then shut your eyes again."

  Dick tried to raise his hand to take the glass, but, to his surprise,found he was unable to do so. Tom, however, put it to his lips andpoured it down his throat. It was cool and pleasant, and with a sigh ofrelief he again closed his eyes, and went off into a quiet sleep.

  When he awoke it was evening; the window was open, and the fresh aircame in, making the lamp on the table flicker.

  "How do you feel now, old man?" Tom asked.

  "I feel all right," he said, "but I am wonderfully weak. I suppose Imust have lost a lot of blood. Has the skipper given you leave to stopwith me for the night?"

  Tom nodded. "I will tell you all about it in the morning, Dick. There issome chicken broth Dave has been cooking for you. You must try and drinka bowl of it, and then by to-morrow morning you will be feeling like agiant."

  Dick laughed feebly. "It will be some time before there is much of agiant about me. Tom; but I feel as if I could drink some broth."

  The next morning Dick woke feeling decidedly stronger. "Raise me up andput some pillows behind me, Tom. It is horrid being fed from a spoon,lying on one's back."

  The man called Dave, and Tom, lifted him up as he wished, and then thelatter fed him with the broth, in which some bread had been crumbled.

  "Now, then," Dick said, when he had finished; "let us hear what the oldman said. I suppose he was in a tremendous rage?"

  "That he was! a brute!"

  "Why, there is my chest. What has he sent that ashore for? I shouldthink I could be taken on board again to-day."

  "You won't be taken on board the _Northampton,_" Tom said, "for by thistime she is down somewhere near Cape Horn."

  "Eh!" Dick exclaimed in astonishment. "Why, how long have I been here?"

  "A fortnight to-day, Dick."

  Dick was too surprised to make any remark for some time.

  "But if the _Northampton_ has gone, how is it that you are here, Tom?"

  "Simply because she has gone without me, Dick. The old man was in afurious rage when he heard in the morning what had happened to you. Ofcourse, we were in a great stew--I mean the third mate and myself--whenAllen came off at twelve o'clock without you, after waiting an hour anda half at the wharf for you to turn up. We all felt sure that somethingmust have happened, or you would never have been all that time late.There was a row between Allen and the skipper the first thing in themorning. Allen wanted to go ashore to make inquiries about you, and theold man would not let him, and said that no doubt you had deserted, butthat if you came on board again he would have you put in irons.

  "Well, there was a regular row going on when a boat came off with a manin a red shirt, who I know now is one of Dave's partners, and said thatyou were desperately wounded, and that the Spanish doctor they hadcalled in thought that you would die. So then the old man couldn't helpAllen's going ashore. Of course, he could do nothing, as you wereinsensible, but he got two other surgeons. Their opinion was that youwould not get over it, but that if you did it would be a long timefirst. When Allen got back there was another row. He wanted to have youbrought on board. The captain said that as you had chosen to mixyourself up in a row on shore, you might die on shore for anything hecared. Then I asked for leave to stay with you when the vessel sailed,and got sworn at for my pains. In the afternoon I filled up your chestchockfull with as many of my things as I could get into it, and sent itashore. By the next night we had got all the cargo on board, and were tosail by the next morning, and I lowered myself down and swam ashore.

  "Allen had told me exactly where you were lying, so I came here at onceand told Dave who I was, and why I had come ashore, and as soon as itwas light he took me round to the room the other two had. The captaincame ashore in the morning and stormed and raved at the Consul's, but hehad better have kept on board. I told our friends here all about it, andas he went back to the boat again one of them pitched into him, and gavehim such a tremendous licking that I hear he had to be carried on board.As soon as he got on board the _Northampton_ sailed, so you see here weboth are. I have written off to your father and mine, giving them a fullaccount of the whole affair, and saying what a brute Collet had been onthe whole voyage. They will be sure to lay the letters before the firm,and as Allen and Smith will, when they are questioned, speak out prettystraight, you may be sure the old man and his friend, the first mate,will have to look for a berth somewhere else."

  "It is awfully good of you to have come ashore to nurse me, Tom."

  "Bosh! Why, I have got away from the _Northampton_. I found, too, thatas far as nursing was concerned I might as well have stayed on board,for Dave here and his two mates have, one or other of them, been withyou night and day, and they could not have taken more care of you ifthey had been women. Still I have been very glad to be here, though tillthree days ago there seemed very little hope of your pulling through it.Now you have talked enough, or rather, I have talked enough, Dick; andyou had better turn over and get another sleep."

  Chapter III.--The Gold-Seekers.

  Two days later the lad was able to sit up in bed and to enter upon adiscussion as to the future with Tom and the miner. It was begun by thelatter.

  "I suppose you will be taking the first ship back as soon as you arestrong enough?" he said.

  "I don't know, Dave; now I am here I should certainly like a run ashorefor a few weeks and to see something of the country. We have got twentypounds between us; that will last for some time. I should think we couldget a passage back without having to pay on this side for it, and ifthere was any difficulty about it, we could work our way back; but Tomagrees with me, we should like to see something of the country first.

  "I suppose in another fortnight I shall be all right again; but there isthe doctor to pay. I don't know what their charges are here, but Iexpect his bill will be a pretty long one. You had better tell himto-day that we have not got a great deal of cash between us, and that asI only want building up now, he need not come again."

  "Don't you trouble yourself about that," Dave growled. "You don'tsuppose that when you have got yourself cut and sliced about in helpingme you are going to have any trouble about doctors? We have got a tidylot at present amongst us, and what is ours is yourn. We were goingto set off among the hills a day or two after the time we hadthat trouble; only, of course, that stopped it all."

  "Please don't stop on my account," Dick said. "I shall get on very wellnow, and I was saying to Tom, as soon as I can get about we will go offsomewhere among the hills; for one might just as well be lying in anoven as here. If you will tell us where you and your mates are working,we might find our way there, and get a job. We are both pretty strong,you know--that is to say, when we are well--and we have often said thatwe should like to try our luck gold-mining."

  "We aint agoing till you are strong enough to get about," Dave said; "soit is no use saying any more about that. Then, if you want to do somemining, we will put you in the way of it; but we are going on a longexpedition, which may last months, and from which, as like as not, weshall never come back again. However, we can easy enough take you withus for a bit and drop you at one of the mining camps, and stop therewith you till you get ac
customed to it, or work for a few months withyou if you like. Time is not of much consequence to us."

  "That is awfully good of you, Dave," Tom said, "but as you have lostmore than a fortnight at present, and I suppose it will be anotherfortnight before Dick is strong enough to travel, it isn't fair on you;and perhaps you might be able to introduce us to some men going up tothe hills--that is, if you think that we could not go with you on thisexpedition you talk of."

  "That won't be a job for young hands," Dave said. "It will be a mightylong journey over a terrible rough country, where one's life will bealways in one's hands, where one's eyes will always be on the lookoutfor an enemy, and one will know that any moment, night or day, one mayhear the war yell of the Indians. We are going into the heart ofArizona, to places where not half-a-dozen white men, even countingMexicans as white men, have ever set foot; at least, where nothalf-a-dozen have ever come back alive from, though maybe there arehundreds who have tried."

  "Then I suppose you are going to look for some very rich mine, Dave?"

  "That is so; I will tell you how it came about, and queerly enough, itwur pretty well the same way as your friend and me came together. Mymates and me were coming down from the hills when we heard a shot firedin a wood ahead of us. It wasn't none of our business, but we went on ata trot, thinking as how some white men had been attacked by greasers."

  "What are greasers?" Tom asked.

  Dave laughed.

  "A greaser is just a Mexican. Why they call them so I don't know; butthat has been their name always as long as I came in the country. Well,we ran down and came sudden upon two greasers who were kneeling by a manlying in the road, and seemed to be searching his pockets. We let flywith our Colts; one of them was knocked over, and the other bolted. Thenwe went to look at the man in the road; he wur a greaser too. He hadbeen shot dead. 'I wonder what they shot him for?' says I. 'Maybe it isa private quarrel; maybe he had struck it rich, and has got a lot ofgold in his belt. We may as well look; it is no use leaving it for thatskunk that bolted to come back for.' He had got about twenty ounces inhis belt, and we shifted it into our bag, and were just going on when'Zekel--that is one of my mates--said, 'I know this cuss, Dave; it's thechap that lived in that village close to where we were working sixmonths ago; they said he had been fossicking all over Arizona, and thathe was the only one who ever came back out of a party who went to locatea wonderful rich spot it was said he knew of.

  "'He tried over and over again to get up another party, but no one wouldtry after that first failure. We may just as well search him all over;it may be he has got a plan of the place somewhere about him, and it islike enough those fellows have killed him on the chance of finding it.'

  "So we searched him pretty thorough, and at last we found a paper sewnup in the collar of his jacket. Sure enough it was a plan. We did notexamine it then, for someone might have come along, and we might havebeen accused of the chap's murder; so I shoved it into the inside pocketof my shirt, and we went on. We looked at it that night; there wasseveral marks on it and names, one of which we had heard of, though wehad never been so far in the Indian country. Well, as you may guess, wehad some big talks over it, and at last we reckoned we would have a tryto find it.

  "We had been lucky, and had struck it rich at the last place we had beenat, and we agreed, instead of spending our money in a spree or at themonte tables, we would fit out an expedition and try it. Now I believethat attack was made on me to try and get that piece of paper. The chapwho bolted may like enough have hid himself and watched us, and may haveseen us find it and me take charge of it. We thought more than oncesince we came down here that we were being dogged by a greaser, but wenever thought about the paper. That evening I had been out by myself,which I did not often do, for we in general went about together, and wasgoing back along that street, and was pretty nigh home, when someonesaid in Spanish, 'That is the fellow,' and then five men jumped out withknives in their hands. I had just time to whip out my six-shooter andfire once. One fellow went down, but at the same moment I got a clipacross my wrist with a knife, and down went the pistol. Then I got aslice across the head, and another on the shoulder, and down I went. Twoof them threw themselves on me, and I shammed dead, knowing that if Imoved it was all over with me. One of them shoved his hand in mytrousers pockets, and the other tore my shirt open. I heard a suddenrow, a blow, and the fall of a body; then one of them came tumbling downon the top of us and knocked the two fellows over, then they jumped up,and I heard your pistol crack twice and two falls, and as I got up on tomy feet to lend a hand I saw one of the fellows bolting down the street,running off in another direction. That was the one, I think, that camedown on the top of us.

  "I have been wondering since then how it was that that fellow fell, foryou did not fire till they jumped up."

  Dick explained that he had felled one with a blow from the stick, andnot having time to strike with it again, had sent the second staggeringover the group with a blow of his fist; "those are the two that gotaway, I expect," he said.

  "I expect so; there were four bodies on the ground--yours, the twofellows you shot, and the one I wiped out to begin with."

  "Has there been any row about it?" Dick asked.

  "No; they take these things quietly. If it had been one of my mates andme who had killed three Mexicans, our story that we had been attackedmight not have been believed, but as it was certain a young ship'sofficer would not have joined me in falling foul of three natives, theyjust took and buried them, and there was an end of it."

  Chapter IV.--More Plans.

  "I suppose this is Dave's room?" Dick Said when he and his friend werealone.

  "Yes, from what he said they lodged here together, but the other twowent somewhere else the day after you were brought in, so that the placeshould be quiet, but they come in by turns to sit up with you at night.I wish they would take us with them on this expedition, Dick."

  "I wish they would; it would be a splendid adventure, and we might comeback with no end of gold. At any rate, after being four months underCollet, I think we have a right to a holiday. I expect they will let usgo with them if you make a strong point of it, Dick."

  "It shan't be for want of trying, Tom, anyhow."

  The lads had their way. As soon as the three men saw that theywere really bent upon accompanying them, they raised no furtherobjections.

  "We shall be glad enough to have you with us," Dave said, "and thoughthe work will be toilsome and hard, there is nothing in it that twoactive young chaps like you need be afraid of. It is just theInjuns--they are the worst kind, and have always set themselves againstgold-seekers. That is natural enough, for they know that if gold mineswere once opened in their country, the whites would pour in, and theywould soon be wiped out. Anyhow, everyone who goes prospecting in thatpart of Arizona knows well enough that he takes his life in his hands.

  "All along the country by the Gila River is the stronghold of theApaches, the terror of Northern Mexico. Many parties of miners have setout, but very few have ever come back again; but those that have tell ofgold richer by a hundred times than ever was seen in California, andhave brought with them sacks of nuggets to prove it. These are men whohave had the luck to get in and out without ever having been seen by theInjuns; the large parties have never succeeded. So you see, youngfellows, the odds are strongly agin you. Still, if you like to go withus, you are welcome; but if the time comes when the redskins have got usshut up in some place we can never get out of alive, remember that youare there on your own choice, and that we had no hand in getting youinto the scrape."

  "We will never blame you, whatever comes of it, Dave. If the risk is nottoo great for you and your comrades, it is not too great for us. Thereis nothing in the world we should like so much as such an adventure."

  "Well, that is settled then, and no more words about it. We shall beglad to have two more with us, and we intended to go alone only becauseit is not everyone that can be trusted."

  "What do we take with us?"
/>
  "We shall each take a horse, and a Mexican pony to carry our food andtraps. If everything goes right and we find a bonanza, we can load themup on the way back. Twenty dollars will buy a pony here. Then you willwant a critter each to ride. We are not going to get first-rate ones,for if the Indians come on us it is fighting that we shall have to do,not riding. Among those mountains no shod horse of the plains has achance with those Indian ponies, which can climb like goats and go at agallop along places where a horse from the plains wouldn't dare move.Then you will want rifles and six-shooters. That is about all; I amafraid our stock of money will hardly run to it, and I think we hadbetter work for a while in one of the diggings to make up what we shallwant."

  "We have twenty pounds between us," Dick said, "and we can draw on ourfathers for twenty-five pounds each. The Consul here has, of course,heard of my being wounded and left behind, and I expect he won't mindcashing our draft."

  "There will be more than we want," the miner said. "Still, it is as wellto be on the right side. If we don't find any gold up there, we shallwant a little when we get back to keep us going until something turnsup."

  Three days later Dick was strong enough to go with his friend to theConsul's; they found that Mr. Allen had spoken about Dick, and told himthat should he recover from his wounds, he could cash a draft for himwithout any fear. Therefore in half an hour the lads returned to theirlodgings with three hundred and fifty dollars, having changed theirEnglish gold into the currency of the country.

  "You have not got your horses yet, I suppose, Dave?"

  "No, we shall go up the river about a hundred and twenty miles. There weshall buy horses cheaper than we can get them here. We have got riflesand colts; they are things one can't very well do without in knockingabout among the hills. I will go round the town, and I have no doubt Ishall be able to pick you up what you want cheap. There are so many menget rubbed out one way or the other that such things are pretty oftenfor sale."