"Don't think--make sure," called Gabe. "Here, I'll do it for you."

He was almost as excited as the boys. The gold fever was on him again.

Taking Jed's pan, he let some more water run in it. Then with a gentle whirling motion he threw this water out by degrees, the fine sand and gravel going with it. Then there remained in the bottom of the pan a little heap of glittering yellow grains.

"Gold! It's gold!" murmured Gabe. "Boys, we've struck our first pay dirt!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Gold! It's gold!" murmured Gabe]

CHAPTER XVI

LOST

"Hurrah!" yelled Jed, capering about. "We're in luck! Gold, Will! What'd I tell you? I knew we'd find it!" and he began dancing about like an Indian, or a cowboy celebrating a holiday.

"Oh, it's not such an awful lot," replied Gabe, more calmly, as he scooped up the yellow grains. "You'll have to wash out a good many panfuls before you'll be rich at this rate. Let's see how Will's is going to pan out."

He repeated the operation, and got more of the gold. The eyes of the two brothers shone with excitement, nor was Gabe altogether free from excitement, though it was an old story to him.

"Come on, Will, let's clean up another panful," suggested Jed.

"Hold on!" called Gabe. "Help me get camp in shape first. It'll soon be dark. That pay dirt will keep. It's been there a good many hundred years, and it isn't going to run away in the night."

"Hadn't we better stake out a claim?" suggested Jed, who was rapidly becoming familiar with mining terms.

"We'll prospect a bit more first," replied Gabe. "It may not pay us to remain here. No use cleaning up a little bit like this, when we can get big nuggets a bit further on."

"But we're sure there's gold here," objected Jed, "and we don't know whether or not there's any further on."

"Go slow," advised the old miner. "Come on, now, help me fix up the tent."

The boys knew that Gabe's advice was good, and, though they felt a wild desire to remain digging gold, they realized that they must have a place to sleep, for it was getting cool at night, now that they were well up in the mountains.

The boys were up early the next morning, and each one had washed a pan of gravel before breakfast. They obtained about a quarter of an ounce of gold each.

"How much is it worth?" asked Jed eagerly.

"Well," replied Gabe critically, "you've made about ten dollars between you this morning."

"And last night?"

"A little more. Say twenty-five dollars altogether."

"Why, we'll soon be rich!" exclaimed Jed.

"Maybe, if this gravel holds out," admitted Gabe. "But don't be too sure. I think it's only a surface mine, the gold having been washed down from some place higher up. Now get your breakfast and then we'll do some mining, until I can see what sort of a place we've struck."

They washed several panfuls of dirt that morning. To Jed's disappointment on several occasions the result, after a careful washing and shaking, was only a few grains of the precious yellow stuff. Again they would get nearly half an ounce.

"I think I'll make a rocker," said Gabe, at length. "We can do it faster then, and find out if this is going to pay."

"What's a rocker?" asked Will.

"I'll show you."

From some pieces of a box, in which some of their camp stuff was packed, Gabe constructed a sort of rude cradle, on rockers. The bottom of the box, which was rather shallow, was covered with a number of cross sticks, nailed to it like the cleats on a gangplank.

The box was filled with gravel and water. The water ran out of the lower end, carrying most of the dirt and gravel with it. The gold, being heavier, settled to the bottom, and was prevented from flowing away by the cleats. After about two hours of this work or "rocking," so called because the cradle is rocked from side to side, Gabe gathered from the box nearly a handful of pure gold grains.

"There! What do you think of that?" exclaimed Jed. "Have we struck a bonanza or not?"

"I can't tell yet," replied Mr. Harrison cautiously. "It may peter out any minute, but it's good so far."

The miner's fears were realized. As the day wore on the result of the various "clean-ups" was less and less, until, after the cradle had been filled several times, the result was only a mere pinch of gold.

"Let's dig over a wider s.p.a.ce," suggested Jed.

"No," said the miner, "it's just as I thought, there was only a small deposit of gold there, and we've cleaned it up."

"Then there isn't any use in staying here?"

"Not unless we can find another deposit."

They hunted for it without success, remaining for several days in the place of their first strike. Then the miner decided they should continue on up into the mountains.

"The gold is above us," he said. "We've got to climb up to it."

They broke camp, packed their supplies on the backs of the horses, and started forward.

"Well, we made some money, anyhow," said Jed. "Our first attempt wasn't so bad."

"Yes, we cleaned up a few hundred dollars," admitted Gabe, "but that's hardly enough to pay our expenses for the time we spent. We'll have to have better luck than that, and I believe we will."

"I wish we could send word to dad," added Will.

"Better wait until we make a real strike," suggested Mr. Harrison. "No use raising false hopes."

They journeyed on for several days in a lonely part of the mountain, meeting no one. They had some luck, but not much, and the boys began to fear they would never reach a place where they could make a permanent camp, and dig gold in quant.i.ties sufficient to make it pay. But Gabe was not discouraged. He was too old a hand at the game of gold hunting.

"Boys," said the old miner one morning, as they were preparing to break camp, and travel on, "suppose you stay here for a few hours? I want to take a little side trip, and as it's rather dangerous I'd rather you'd stay here. I want to go up that mountain," pointing to one, off to one side, "and see if I can't see some new signs. I'll be back in a little while, so wait here for me."

Removing the pack from his horse, and with only his rifle, pick and pan, the old miner set off. The boys, for want of something better to do, dug up some gravel and washed it in their pans, but with no success. It served, however, to pa.s.s the time.

"Say, don't you think it's about time Gabe came back?" asked Will, as he looked up at the sun, and noted it was nearly noon.