Beadle's Dime Novels, No. 91: The Lost Cache — page 44: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

46 THE LOST CACHE. being governed by a white man—and a mean white man, at that—and that they had no intention of submitting to all his whims, humors and caprices. Adams was so annoyed by their conduct, that he cursed old Mus- ‘to-qua for placing upon his head a “ fruitless crown.” The Indians were right, according to their customs and tra- ditions, for the man who had been left to them asa leader by the will of thex ehfel appeared to overlook their interests entirely, and to busy himself, in thought and action, about - something with which they had nothing to do. He neither planned nor proposed any expeditions, he led out no war- parties, he neither hunted nor fished, no fresh scalps were dry- ing in the lodges, and the arms and bows of his savage allies grew stiff from want of use. . The fact was, that Burt Adams was thinking more of the concealed treasure of which Mus-to-qua had told him, than of the charge that had been committed to him. Scalps were one of his failings, it is true, but money was another; and money, just at that time, was more in favor than scalps. He had be- come tired of his barbarous life, and longed for variety. He wanted to see the settlements again, to mingle in such semi- civilized society as he had been accustomed to, to dance the gay fandango in Mexico, to flourish among his wild associates in California, to exhibit himself and scatter his cash at the bar-rooms of $t. Louis. Gold was the one thing needful to enable him to accomplish his objects ; with his pockets full of gold | he could laugh to scorn the men who endeavored to out- law: him, he could go where he was not known, he could pass himself. off as a returned Californian of immense wealth, he could be received among the greatest and the best, and his j ig- norance, his coarseness, his brutality, would be regarded only as amusing eccentricities ; with gold he could—oh, he could do every thing, thought Burt Adams, and perhaps he was not far wrong. It was. necessary to find the hidden treasure ; he had made up his mind to that, and he was fully prepared, when he found it, to break his promise to Mus-to-qua, and leave his: Indian allies in the lurch. .He wanted to go and search for it imme- diately, but felt that he could not desert the tribe until he was certain of the gold. ‘When he proposed to the Indians’ to Comiclookxs.conn