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To Win or to Die: A Tale of the Klondike Gold Craze, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 20. Norton's Idea Of A Good Spot |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY. NORTON'S IDEA OF A GOOD SPOT It was a long, weary tramp up by the higher waters of the huge Yukon River towards its sources in the neighbourhood of the Pelly Lakes, where sharp rapids and torrents were succeeded by small, shallow lakes; and wherever they halted, shovel and pan were set to work, and, as their guide Norton termed it, the granite and sand were tasted, and gold in exceedingly small quantities was found. "It's so 'most everywhere," said Norton; "and I don't say but what you might find a rich spot at any time; but if you take my advice you'll come straight on with me to where a few of us are settled down. It's regularly into the wilds. I don't suppose even an Indian has been there before; but we chaps went up." "But there are Indians about, I suppose?" said Abel. "Mebbe, but I haven't seen any." The end of their journey was reached at last, high up the creek they had followed, and, save here and there in sheltered rifts, the snow was gone; the brief summer was at hand, and clothing the stones with flowers and verdure that were most refreshing after the wintry rigours through which they had forced their way. "Nice and free and open, eh?" said Norton, smiling. "I may as well show you to the comrades up here, and then I'll help you pick out a decent claim, and you can set to work. There's only about a dozen of us here yet, and so you won't be mobbed." "Very well," said Dallas; "but we'll try in that open space where the trees are so young." Norton nodded, and, armed with a shovel and pan, the young men stepped to a spot about fifty feet from the edge of the rushing stream, cleared away the green growth among the young pines, and Dallas tried to drive down his shovel through the loose, gravelly soil; but the tool did not penetrate four inches. "Why, it's stone underneath." "Ice," said Norton, smiling. "It hasn't had time to thaw down far yet; but you skin off some of the gravelly top, and try it." Dallas filled the pan, and they went together to a shallow place by the side of the creek, bent down, and, with the pan just beneath the surface, agitated and stirred it, the water washing away the thick muddy portion till nothing was left but sand and stones. These latter were picked out and thrown away; more washing followed, more little stones were thrown out, and at last there was nothing but a deposit of sand at the bottom, in which gleamed brightly some specks and scales of bright yellow gold. Norton finished his pipe, and then led the way farther up the stream, to stop at last by a rough pine-wood shed thatched with boughs. "This is my mansion," he said. "Leave the sledges here, and we'll go and see the rest." The stream turned and twisted about here in a wonderful way, doubling back upon itself, and spreading about over a space of three or four miles along the winding valley where the tiny mining settlement had been pitched--only some six or seven huts among the dwarfed pine-trees in all, the places being marked by fallen trees and stumps protruding from the ground. They were all made on the same pattern, of stout young pine-trees with ridge-pole and rafters to support a dense thatching of boughs, and mostly with a hole left in the centre of the roof for the smoke of the fire burned within to escape. The two strangers were received in a friendly enough way, the rough settlers chatting freely about the new-comers' prospects, showing specimens of the gold they had found, and making suggestions about the likeliest spot for marking out a claim along the bank. The result was that before the day ended, acting a good deal under Norton's advice, the young men had marked out a double claim and settled where their hut should be set up, so as to form a fresh addition to the camp. "You ought to do well here," said Norton. "There's gold worth millions of money in this district for certain; but the question is, can you strike it rich or only poor? If I thought I could do better somewhere else I should go, but I'm going to try it fairly here." "We'll do the same," said Dallas; and, the weather being brilliant and the air exhilarating to a degree, they set to work cutting pegs for driving down to make out their claim, Norton reminding them that they would have certain applications to make afterwards to the government agency, and then began to cut down small trees for building their shanty. To their surprise and delight, four of the neighbours came, axe-armed, to help, so that the task was made comparatively easy. At the end of a week a rough, strong, habitable home was made, door, window, shutter and bars included, two of their helpers having come provided with a pit-saw for cutting the bigger pine-trunks up into rough boards, which were to be paid for out of the first gold winnings the young men made. Within another week they were out of debt, for, to their intense delight, the claim promised well, the shaft they had commenced and the banks of the little river yielding enough gold to set them working every minute they could see. But the reality did not come up to the dazzling dream in which they had indulged, either in their case or that of the men they encountered. There was the gold, and they won it from the soil; but it was only by hard labour and in small quantities, which were stored up in a leathern bag and placed in the bank--this being a hole formed under Abel's bed, covered first with a few short pieces of plank, and then with dry earth. The store increased as the time went on, but then it decreased when an expedition had to be made to the settlement below to fetch more provisions, the country around supplying them with plenty of fuel and clear drinking water, but little else. Now and then there was the rumour of a moose being seen, and a party would turn out and shoot it, when there was feasting while it lasted; but these days were few. Occasionally, too, either Dallas or Abel would stroll round with his gun and get a few ptarmigan or willow grouse. On lucky days, too, a brace of wild ducks would fall to their shot; but these excursions were rare, for there was the one great thirst to satisfy--that for the gold; and for the most part their existence during the brief summer was filled up by hard toil, digging and cradling the gold-bearing gravel, while they lived upon coarse bacon, beans, and ill-made cakey bread, tormented horribly the while by the mosquitoes, which increased by myriads in the sunny time. Then came the days when the wretched little insect pests began to grow rarer. "We shall not be able to work as late as this much longer," said Dallas. "No," replied Abel; "the days are getting horribly short, and the nights terribly long. The dark winter will be upon us directly, and we seem to get no farther." "We may turn up trumps at any moment, old fellow," said Dallas cheerily. "Yes, we may," said Abel gloomily. "Don't take it like that," cried Dallas. "Here we are in the gold region, and every day we find nuggets." "Weighing two or three grains apiece." "Exactly; but at any moment we might at a turn of the shovel lay them bare weighing ounces or even pounds." "Pigs might fly," said Abel. "Bah! Where's your pluck? Work away." "Oh, yes, I'll work," said Abel; "but with the dreary winter coming on one can't help feeling a bit depressed. I say, I'm very glad we never sent a message to old Tregelly and his mates to come and join us." "Well, it would have turned out rather crusty," said Dallas, who was shovelling gravel into the cradle, while Abel stood over his ankle in the stream, rocking away and stopping from time to time to pick out some tiny speck of gold. "We shall never make our fortunes at this," he said. "Bah! Don't be in a hurry. At all events, we are in safety. No fear of dangerous visitors, and--Here, quick--the hut--your rifle, man! Run!" Abel sprang to the shore, to be seized by the arm, and they ran for their weapons and shelter. None too soon, for a big burly figure had come into sight from among the pines, stopped short, and brought down his rifle, as he stood shading his eyes and scanning the retreating pair. _ |
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