To Win or to Die Part 24

"Dog," said Tregelly, "smelling after grub. The poor brutes seem half starved. Hasn't taken a bit out of either of you, has he? Good-night, my sons; I was dreaming I'd hit upon heaps of gold."

Dallas sank back with a sigh of relief, and dropped off into a restful sleep, which lasted till morning, when they were aroused by a terrific sound of cracking as of rifles, mingled with a peculiar roar, and a strange rus.h.i.+ng sound.

"What is it?" cried Abel, who was one of the first to spring up; "an earthquake?"

"Like enough, my son," said Tregelly. "I'm ready for anything here.

Sounds like the mountains playing at skittles."

"She's going at last," cried a voice outside. "By jingo! it's fine.

Come and look."

"It's the ice breaking up," cried Dallas excitedly.

"Then we will go and look," said Tregelly, "though that chap wasn't speaking to us." And, no dressing being necessary, all hurried out, to find that the fettered Yukon was completely changed, the ice being all in motion, splitting up, grinding, and crus.h.i.+ng, and with blocks being forced up one over the other till they toppled down with a roar, to help in breaking up those around.

The previous evening it would have been possible for a regiment to cross the river by climbing over and among the great blocks which were still frozen together, but now it would have been certain death for the most active man to attempt the first fifty yards.

Every one was out in the bright sunny morning watching the breaking up; and among the first they encountered were the judge, of the last night's episode, and their friend the gold-finder, both of whom shook hands heartily, but made no allusion to the trial. "Good job for every one,"

said the judge; "we shall soon be having boats up after this. We shall be clear here in a couple of days."

"So soon?" said Dallas.

"Oh, yes," replied his informant. "There's a tremendous body of water let loose up above, and it runs under the ice, lifts it, and makes the ice break up; and once it is set in motion it is always grinding smaller, till, long before it reaches the sea, it has become powder, and then water again."

"I say," cried the miner, "there's some one's dog out yonder. He's nipped by the legs, and it's about all over with him, I should say."

"Here, stop! What are you going to do?" cried the judge.

But Dallas did not hear him. He had been one of the first to see the perilous position of a great wolfish-looking hound some twenty yards from the sh.o.r.e, where it was struggling vainly, prisoned as it was, uttering a faint yelp every now and then, and gazing piteously at the spectators on the bank.

"The lad's mad," cried the judge, going closer to the ice.

But, mad or no, Dallas had, in his ignorance of the great danger of the act, run down, boldly leaped on the moving ice, and stepped from block to block till he reached the dog, which began to whine and bark loudly, as it made frantic efforts to free its hindquarters. In another minute it would have been drawn down farther, but for the coming of the young man, who, heedless of the rocking and gliding motion of the ice, strode the narrow opening between the two ma.s.ses which held the dog, stooping down at the same moment, and seizing the poor brute by the rough hair about its neck.

For a few moments his effort seemed vain, and a roar of voices reached him, as the spectators shouted to him to come back.

Then the two pieces swayed slightly, and gradually drew apart, and the dog was at liberty, but apparently with one leg crushed, for it lay down, howling dismally after an effort to limp back to the land.

There was a great strap round its neck, and this was joined to another just behind its shoulders, and, seizing this, Dallas flung the poor animal on its side and dragged it after him as he began to step cautiously back from block to block, now sinking down, now rising, and now narrowly escaping being caught between the moving pieces; but he kept on, conscious, though, that the bank seemed rising upward; while the crus.h.i.+ng and roar of the breaking ice prevented him from hearing the words of advice shouted by his friends.

He could not hear, but he could see Bel, who was forcing his way through the crowd to keep alongside, ready to help him when he came within reach, if ever he did, and it was from him that he afterwards learned that the advice shouted was to let the dog take his chance.

Twice over the set of the ice was off the sh.o.r.e, and matters looked bad for the young adventurer, but he stuck to the dog, and, just when the chance of reaching the sh.o.r.e seemed most hopeless, a couple of large flat floes rose up, and, making a dash, Dallas went boldly across them, reaching others that did not yield so much, and the next minute there was a cheer which he could hear, for he reached the sh.o.r.e with the dog, which looked up in his face and whined, and then limped off through the crowd.

"Life seems cheap your way, my fine fellow," said the judge. "Five minutes ago I wouldn't have given a grain of gold for yours. We don't do that sort of thing out here for the sake of a vicious, thieving dog."

"I could not stand by and see the poor brute die," said Dallas quietly.

"So it seems," said the judge. "Well, I congratulate you two young fellows on your escape last night. Those scoundrels have got away; and if they turn up again, lawyer though I am, I should advise you both to shoot on sight. If you are brought before me, I'll promise you I will bring it in justifiable homicide."

A couple of hours later they had parted from Tregelly and his companions, with a hearty shake of the hand and a promise to keep to their agreement about the gold.

"If we discover a good place."

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 quant.i.ties 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 refres.h.i.+ng 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 s.p.a.ce 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 rus.h.i.+ng 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 was.h.i.+ng away the thick muddy portion till nothing was left but sand and stones.

These latter were picked out and thrown away; more was.h.i.+ng 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 s.p.a.ce 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."