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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 21. Tregelly Seeks His Sons |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. TREGELLY SEEKS HIS SONS "Ahoy, there! What cheer, O!" rang out in a big bluff voice familiar to both. "Oh, I say, what curs we are!" cried Dallas. "It's old Tregelly." "Yes; don't let him know we were scared." Vain advice. The big Cornishman shouldered his rifle, bent forward, and dragged a sledge into sight, broke into a trot, and they met half-way. "Hullo, my sons! Did you take me for an Injun?" cried Tregelly. "We took you for that big, red-bearded ruffian," said Dallas huskily, as he shook hands. "Thankye, my son; on'y don't do it again. I don't like the compliment. But how are you?--how are you?" "Oh, middling. We were just thinking about you." "Were you, my sons?" cried the big Cornishman, smiling all over his broad face. "That's right. Well, I was thinking about you, and wondering whether I should find you, and here you are first go." "But how did you find us?" cried Dallas, after shaking hands warmly. "Went back to Yukon Town a fortni't ago, and the chap there at the hotel told me you were still up here, for one of you came down now and then to buy stores." "Did you see the judge?" "Oh, yes, he's there still." "Made his pile?" "No-o-o! Done pretty tidy, I believe." "And what about Redbeard and Company? Heard anything of that firm?" "Yes; heard that they'd been seen by somebody, my son. There'd been a poor fellow done for up the country, and some gold carried off. They got the credit of it; but give a dog a bad name and--you know the rest. I should say they're all dead by now." "But why didn't you send for us?" said Abel. "Why didn't you send for me?" "Well," said Dallas drily, "it was out of good fellowship. We were afraid it would be more than you could bear to get so rich. But where are your comrades?" "Gone home," said Tregelly, in a tone of voice that the two young men took to mean, "Don't ask questions!" "But you've found a lot?" said Dallas. "Well, yes, my sons; we managed to scrape a good deal together, some here and some there, for we changed about and travelled over a good deal of ground." "And you have sent it home?" "Nay-y-ay! I've got it here on the sledge." "Oh!" said Abel, looking at the shabby kit their visitor had left close to the door of the hut. "I've got a bit in a bag; but, you see, it costs all you can scrape together to live wherever I've been; so I thought I'd look you two up, as my mates had gone, so as to be company for a poor little lonely chap. Will you have me?" "Of course." "Any chance of picking up a decent claim here?" "Plenty, such as we have," replied Dallas. "You'll be able to do as well as we've done, and the others about here." "That means the lumps of gold are not too big to lift?" "That's it," said Dallas. "I've been thinking that if we were here next summer, we ought to get a lot of ants and train them to carry the grains for us." "Ah, I see, my sons. I say, one might almost have made as much by stopping at home, eh?" "Here, don't you come here to begin croaking," cried Dallas. "Abel here can do that enough for a dozen." "Can he?" cried Tregelly. "Oh, you mustn't do that, my son. There's plenty of gold if we can only find it. I saw a chap with a gashly lump as big as a baby's fist. We'll do it yet. So you haven't done much good, then?" "If we had we should have sent word for you to come." "And I should have sent or come for you, my sons. Look here, we'd better make a change, and explore higher up towards the mountains." "Too late this year," said Dallas decisively. "Oh, yes; too late this season, my sons. We mustn't get too far from the supplies. Means--you know what! famine and that sort o' thing." "Yes, we know," said Abel bitterly. "We'll do it when the days begin to lengthen again," continued Tregelly. "What we've got to do is to make as big a heap here as we can during the winter, wash it out in the spring, and if it's good enough, then stop here. If it aren't, go and find a better place." "Yes, that's right," said Dallas. "But about rations. There's nothing to be got here. Have you brought plenty?" "Much as ever I could pull, my sons, and I'll take it kindly if you'll let me camp with you to-night, so that I can leave my swag with you while I hunt out a claim." "Of course," cried Dallas; "we'll help you all we can." "There's that pitch down yonder, Dal," said Abel--"the one we said looked likely." "Of course; the place we tried, and which seemed fairly rich." "That sounds well," said Tregelly. What was more, it looked so well that the big fellow decided to stay there at once, and put in his pegs, the only drawback seeming to be its remoteness from the scattered claims of the others up the creek. But this did not trouble the big Cornishman in the least. With the help freely given by his two friends, pines were cut down, a hut knocked together, and many days had not elapsed before he was working away, and looking as much at home as if he had been there all the season, declaring when they met after working hours that it was much better than anything he and his companions had come across during their travels. _ |
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