Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 517 — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

« , * — nt 5) promised that if he took hold of a thing, he would put it through with a rush. At Jimson Bend there were three partners who had the reputation of having made one series of lucky strikes from the time they had passed the Golden Gate. They were all ignorant men, who had reached middle life, working as common laborers. They now dreamed of dying bonanza kings. The were running the best-paying mine in the camp. Three days after striking the place, Jakey had bought an eighth interest in the mine, and by his fluent tongue had impressed his new pards with the belief that he was aman with the breadth of ideas which would aid them in ex- tending their enterprises to a scale justified by their wealth. They discussed the matter among themselves. They would keep the business in their own hands, but would let him in just enough to profit by his shrewdness, They were not tae first men who have entered upon this game of wits, with an apparently ‘** dead sure thing.” For a week these men lived in a fairy-land, in which Jakey possessed a magic wand. His head teemed with enterprises, the success of which he proved to a demonstration. y the end of the week he had the three ‘‘ in his pocket.” He was their good genius. They only waited for him to decide among the abund- ance of good things that offered. Then Banty returned to the camp alone. He had come for provisions, he said, and he bought the simplest, figuring to eke out his scant store of gold dust. He wore a very long face, talked but little but that little to the effect that he and his pard were still pulling against the stream. ile he was making his purchases, Jakey entered the general store. ‘* Don’t I see you before, my frient?” he asked, bowing and smiling as Banty turned to see who addressed him. Banty stared at him without a sign of recog- nition. ‘* No!” he replied, with a frown. And without more ado he gathered up his scant provisions and left the store, The smile of Jakey’s face merged into a look of intense keenness. His lips fell apart; his eyes contracted; he thrust his head forward like a hound scenting something in the air; as he stared after the departing Banty. Then he cast a quick look about on the men among whom was one of his pards. An instan his gaze lingered upon this man’s eyes with an intensity that was asignal. Then he too passed out of the store, without a further word. ** What d’ye make o’ that?” asked one of the loungers. ‘*He has seen him. You bet yer pile on that.” ** Whar?’ ‘*How should I know? All I say is, Banty didn’t want to know him.” “Why not?” **Do ye think I'ma walkin’ bureau of infor- mation? You'd better ask see i ‘*How’s that, Mallory?’—addressing Jakey’s pard. ‘Faith! it’s by me. Pitch the thrump yer- self. But, come, b’ys!—we’ll clinch the nail, and then it’s mesilf as’ll be goin’,” Having drank a final good-luck, he lounged out, and sought his pards, He found them and J akey in astate of high excitement, ‘**Come in! come in!” cried the latter, almost dragging him into the shanty. ‘‘Ve haf nota minute to lose! There may be millions in it!” CHAPTER VI. A SEURET POCKET, It was during one of those seasons of mania when any man, breakfasting with his pick and pan, a week’s provisions, and enough gold-dust to assure him of sustenance for another week or two, would have refused to sell at any price his chance of making a ten-thousand-dollar strike before supper. A rumor of a lucky find in any spot, was enough to cause a general stampede for the new digging for fifty miles round, nder these circumstances Mallory found him- self fairly dragged in among his excited pards, who gathered about him like flies about a molas- ses hogshead. ** Who vas dot fellow?’ asked Jakey, holding on to his pard as if he feared that he would get away without telling him. * o was it, Mallory? Any one we know?” u the other two. That poor divil, Banty,” replied Mallory, Jim Gladden’s Deputy. ‘* Poor tefile!” cried Jakey, scornfully. ‘‘Say rich teffle! He is fooling usall. Vatforis he sneaking about, buying a little here. a little there? 5 saw him ten days ago at Cinnamon Bar, laying in supplies ina sly vay dot put me on to him. But he gave me the slip. Don’t you see how he run away ven I challenged him? Now, [I propose dot two of us trail him down. If he is as poor as he vould haf us believe, all right—ve know it den!” ‘*Tim Buckley’s the man fur ye, me boy!” cried Mallory, slapping one of his pards on the shoulder. Fume as they might, it was plain that both Cale and Bantv suw that they were taken at a disadvantage. They wisely refrained from drawing their weapons. ‘*Shust listen to reason,” said Jakey. ‘‘ You have got a good t’ing, and kept it quiet as long as possible. Dot vas all right. Nobody blame you for dot. Ve drop to your little racket. Dot vas our privilege. ‘* Now. maybe you’d like to plant us, and say not’ing more about it. You can’t do dot little ting, my frients! Ve haf lefta plain trail be- After an animated discussion, it was decided | hind us, so dot, in case of an accident, if ve that Tim and Jakey should find out whether |; don’t turn up in two or t’ree days, our pards vill there was.really anything mysterious about Banty’s movements, while Mallory and Reddy Scully remained at work at home. The first thing that Jakey directed Tim’s at- tention to, was the undeniable fact that Banty | was moving about with a covert watchfulness, | ain’t nothin’ in this hand. It’s your blasted as if to discover whether he was being ‘‘ spot- | keerlessness, ted.” ‘‘If he drops to us, ve’re gone!” said Jakey, hastily drawing his companion behind a shanty, where they could see without being seen. Then began a series of maneuvers by which the Hebrew seemed to prove his detective abili- ty. He seemed to elude Banty’s observation, at the same time keeping track of him, When Banty left the camp, the spies were cn his trail. About noon on the following day he reached his destination, in the depths of a ravine which looked as if it had never before been visited by man. He announced his approach by a shout, which was responded to; and a moment later Cale Burchard made his appearance, running and waving bis hat about his head, while he cheered in a way that was too familiar in the mountain region to need interpretation. ‘He’s made a strike!” cried Jakey. ‘I'll bet you dot vas a nugget! Look! look!” Cale was evidently showing his companion something over which he seemed greatly excited and delighted. He capered about, and slapped Banty on the back, and pointed in the direction whence he had come. Then Banty began to talk, while Cale sobered down. Soon he showed evidence of intense rage. He drew his revolver and flourished it about menacingly, while he looked back over Banty’s trail. ‘*Vat you make of dot, eh?” cried Jakey, a «Ar ge to his companion. ‘* Well, [m allowin’ that min don’t show so much fight over an impty hole!” said Tim, sen- tentiously. His eyes began to glow with greed, and his jaw took a pugnacious set. -He looked like a man who had made up his mind to use what- ever force was necessary to maintain his rigbts. ‘* Will we goin an’ stake out a claim undher their noses?” he asked. ‘*'Ve’ll see whether it’s worth while first,” said the Israelite. ‘‘ I ain’t throwing tirne away without knowing whether there’s money in it. Keep at my elbow, and ve’ll gif ’em a surprise- party!” Cale and Banty went to a brush wickiup built directly under a cliff. Jakey and Tim moved forward, so as to pre- sent themselves at the opening of the rude struc- ture before they were discovered. ‘*Good-day, shentlemen!” said Jakey, with a grin of triumph. With startled oaths both the inmates whirled round to confront the intruders. But they were too late, if secrecy was their purpose; for there in plain sight, so that the eyes of both the men looking in at the door fastened upon the spectacle with a gaze of greedy delight, was a hoard of gold-dust and nuggets displayed on a flat stone, which the prospectors evidently used as a table, for eating and playing cards upon, ‘* Blast yer eyes! What're ye doin’ hyar?” cried Cale, whipping his hand round to his hip. ‘* That infernal sheeny !” fairly howled Banty, following the lead of his partner. But Jakey took matters quite coolly. ‘Hold on, shentlemen!” he said. ‘‘ You vill not be so foolish as to oferlook de fact dot I haf de drop on both of you. Ve come here in peace, ve go avay in peace. But ve don’t stand still vile you blow the top of our heads off.” ‘** ‘You spied on me at Jimson Bend, an’ you’ve tracked me hyar!” cried Banty. ‘* A fool would know dot,” admitted Jakey. ‘* But dis is a free country—don’t it?” ‘“*Tll free ye, blast yer eyes!” ‘It’s a game that two can play at, me b’y!” said Tim, now “‘ taking a hand.” | drop in on you, and ask you vat you know about it! How you like dot?” Cale and Banty growled roundly; but the He- brew’s shrewd arguments were unanswerable, ‘*Cheese it!” cried Cale, presently. ‘‘ Thar l’ll bet my pile that you’ve been on a fool drunk, an’ give the thing away! I might ’a’ knowed it ’u’d turn out so!” Then followed a very natural quarrel between the discomfited pards. Banty maintained his innocence stoutly: but Cale remained sullenly incredulous, even after Jakey confirmed Banty’s statement. ‘‘ Waal, what do you propose to do about it?” asked Cale, sweeping their hoard of treasure into a buckskin bag, ‘*Vat is chenerally done in such circum- stances,” said Jakey. ‘‘ Ve vant a finger in de ie. pi I reckon, now,” said Cale, with a malignant scowl, ‘“‘that you'll blow the thing; an’ we'll have the hull State a-tumblin’ in hyar inside of a week.” ‘Ve are not such fools as dot,” said Jakey. ** Ve take a little look around; and if ve like it maybe ve come here on de quiet—my pards and me. It vas shust so vell you take dot comfort- ably. You don’t vant de whole vorit.” On examination, it appeanes that Cale and Banty had possession of a very peculiar spot, the conformation of which Jakcy pointed out to his companion, discoursing upon ‘' indications ” and the ‘‘ outcrop” and “‘ strike” of rocks with great gio, oy Ln There had been a waterfall just at this point, which had drained a quite extensive valley, fall- ing into a sort of bowl scooped out in the rock by the mighty forces of nature. In the still waters of the pool thus formed, the gold washed down from above had oppor- tunity to settle to the bottom. It was now filled with surface dirt from the amphitheater of sur- rounding cliffs, into which Cale and Banty had sunk a deep prospect hole, nearly to hard-pan, where they seemed to have found pay-dirt of un- usual richness, There was room for perhaps a dozen more promising claims in the pocket, though, as Jakey said, the original discoverers bad far the best of it. They staked out all that the mining regula- tions would allow them toclaim, bought a shovel of Cale and Banty at an extravagant price to leave upon it, in token of ownership, and then departed to fetch their pards to the spot. akey talked to Tim on their way back until he completely turned his head. Then he left him to i map iar on their wonderful luck to his rds. The three pards had rather ‘“‘ taken Jakey in” in two serses. He had bought into a failing mine. It therefore now required little per- suasion to induce them to sell the mine at Jim- son Bend, which they were able to do to advant- age. “Then they hied them to the new diggings, congratulating themselves on their lucky turn. They found the place fairly swarming with men! Cale, it appeared, had gone to Cinnamon Bar, got on a drunk, and ‘‘ blown” everything. Worse yet, their claims had been jumped by men who had the resolution to hold onto them. In vain did they urge their prior claim. As if out of revenge, Cale and Banty pretended that they knew nothing of any such claim; and those in possession declared that there had been no signs of anything of the kind when they en- tered upon the land. Twelve stern-faced men stood around Cale and Banty, with looks which showed plainl their determination to hold out against comers, Having left Jimson Bend without ‘ giving the thing away,” Jakey and his pards had no friends pon them. Ay hich they t was a game of freeze out, in whic had got nipped. They drew apart for consultation. JNA & 2 JOOKS ic co com