The Pike's Peak Rush Part 22

"Well, Oi'll see yez ag'in, boys," promised Pat, grasping his spade to refill his pan. "Who knows but in a few days we'll all be rich together?"

"All right, Pat," laughed Harry. So they left Pat engaged with his spade, hoping to strike it with the next pan full.

They toiled along, eyes alert for a camping spot. A tent bore the sign: "Groceries for Sail." Another was announced as "Miners' Hotel"--although where it slept its guests was a problem. Another tent, through the flaps of which might be glimpsed a woman, stated: "Back East Biscuits."

Dinner of course was a hurried affair. Other gold-seekers were still descending the hill and spreading out wherever they could. So no time was to be lost. They each slung on a gold-pan by means of a thong tied through a hole in the rim; and with pick and spade (Shep staying to mount guard) they sallied forth.

"I reckon," mused Harry, "we'll have to do like the rest do: scout about and whenever we see a goldish-looking spot, try it out."

"Dad showed us how to work a gold pan. I don't suppose we've forgotten,"

panted Terry, as they hustled.

"Yes, but he didn't show us how to find the gold," reminded Harry. "We ought to locate near water."

For an hour they trudged up and down, and never sunk a spade or tried a pan. All the creek and all the side streams seemed occupied. Once they halted and were just about to dig, when a voice bawled: "Get off my ground!"

"Excuse me," apologized Harry. The owner of the voice was some distance away. "Is this your claim?"

"You bet you! The best claim in the diggin's."

"How big is a claim?" demanded Harry.

"Well, a hundred feet by fifty and as much more as I can get. Now vamoose."

They "vamoosed."

"Two thousand people, claiming a hundred feet and as much more as they can get, doesn't leave much room for the rest of us," sighed Harry.

"h.e.l.lo, there!" hailed another voice, more cheery. It was the "Root Hog or Die" professor. He also was equipped for mining, but he appeared to be a wanderer like themselves.

"Have you struck anything?" asked Terry, as soon as they had shaken hands.

"Not a sign. Have you?"

"No. Can't find a place to dig in, even."

"This prospecting is more of a science than I had thought," confessed the professor. He looked tired out. "I've been at it since morning. I had an idea the gold would show on the surface."

"So did we," admitted Terry. "But the ground all looks alike--just common dirt!"

"Yes, even where they're actually washing gold out," said the professor.

"I've seen some gold, though. I saw one miner with a pan that gave about a dollar and a half, and I saw a clean-up in a sluice that netted eight dollars."

"What's a sluice? One of those wooden troughs?"

"Yes; but lumber for them is hand-sawed and costs a dollar a yard, and people are asking as high as a thousand dollars for a claim. I believe it's cheapest to hire somebody to locate a good claim for a fellow. The Russells and Gregory and some others who have had experience are hiring themselves out at $100 a day, I understand. There goes Green Russell now."

"A hundred dollars a day! Whew!" gasped Terry.

Captain Green Russell halted in pa.s.sing.

"Got here, did you?" he greeted, in friendly fashion. "Made your fortune yet?"

"We may be standing on it, for all we know," answered Harry.

"For all you know, you may," drawled Mr. Russell. "That's the trouble.

The people come in here, like they do at Cherry Creek, and think the gold shows at gra.s.s-roots. But Gregory didn't find his lode by any pure luck, and the rest of us old-timers are here to teach the folks how, if they want to learn."

"Could you put me on a good claim?" inquired the professor, eagerly.

"Yes, sir; I'll prospect for you at $100 a day. You'd save time and probably money."

"All right. I'll go with you and we'll talk it over." And on strode the professor and his instructor.

"Hum!" remarked Harry. "The secret of making money is to have something the other fellow will pay for: sometimes that's goods, and again it's knowledge."

The gulch really was a fascinating place. Such a hive of industry--saw and hammer at work, as well as pick and spade; but amidst it all there seemed to be no place for the Extra Limited. A general disappointment was in the air, with so many persons working hard and as yet getting nothing.

"We'll travel 'round to Pat," quoth Harry, after a time. "He may have struck something by this."

As they approached Pat, he suddenly uttered a loud whoop, and danced a jig. His neighbors dropped their tools and rushed for him.

"Sure, Oi'm rich!" cheered Pat. "There's gold in my pan! Hooray! Rich Oi am. Half o' yez can look at a time till yez all are done, an' the other halves kape away so yez won't carry off me gold on yez feet."

Yes, in the bottom of Pat's pan was a trace of yellow, not to speak of a pebble about the size of a pea which he proclaimed to be gold also.

Scarcely hearing the congratulations, Pat fell to work again.

"Jiminy!" protested Terry. "We've got to stake out a claim somewhere, and have a mine ready for dad and George. Let's go clear up the gulch."

Pat's success was encouraging, at least. But as up the gulch they went, the crowd was no thinner, and presently Harry stopped.

"This pick and shovel weigh a ton," he said. "And so do my feet. I vote we knock off work, quit locating gold and try to locate supper. First thing we know it'll be dark and we can't find even Jenny and Shep."

"W-well," agreed Terry. "And tomorrow we'll start out again early. Wish I knew just what kind of dirt had the gold in it."

"That," quoth Harry, "evidently is the secret."

Scarcely had they turned to retrace their steps when another call hailed them. Somebody was running for them, from the other side of the gulch.

He was a slim, muddy figure, in boots and trousers much too large for him, with long hair flapping on his bared head.

They paused and stared.

"Aren't you the Pike's Peak Limited fellows?" panted the boy.

"Why, Archie Smith! h.e.l.lo, Archie!"

"I thought it was you, but I wasn't sure." Archie was completely out of breath, and very red in his thin cheeks. He panted and coughed. "What are you doing? Prospecting? Have you struck anything? Do you want a claim?"