It Is Never Too Late to Mend Part 120

They ran back. They saw two dark figures melting into the night on the other side the tent. They darted in--they felt for the bag. Gone!

They felt convulsively all round the tent. Gone! With trembling hands Robinson struck a light. Gone--the work of months in a moment---the hope of a life s.n.a.t.c.hed out of a lover's very hand, and held out a mile off again!

The poor fellows rushed wildly out into the night. They saw nothing but the wretched decoy vanis.h.i.+ng behind the nearest tents. They came into the tent again. They sat down and bowed to the blow in silence, and looked at one another, and their lips quivered, and they feared to speak lest they should break into unmanly rage or sorrow. So they sat like stone till daybreak.

And when the first streak of twilight came in, George said in a firm whisper:

"Take my hand, Tom, before we go to work."

So the two friends sat hand in hand a minute or two; and that hard grip of two workingmen's hands, though it was not gently eloquent like beauty's soft, expressive palm, did yet say many things good for the heart in this bitter hour.

It said: "A great calamity has fallen; but we do not blame each other, as some turn to directly and do. It is not your fault, George. It is not your fault, Tom."

It said: "We were lucky together; now we are unlucky together--all the more friends. We wrought together; now we have been wronged together--all the more friends." With this the sun rose, and for the first time they crept to their work instead of springing to it.

They still found gold in it, but not quite so abundant or so large. They had raised the cream of it for the thieves. Moreover, a rush had been made to the hole, claims measured off actually touching them; so they could not follow the gold-bearing strata horizontally--it belonged to their neighbors. They worked in silence, they ate their meal in silence.

But as they rose to work again, Robinson said, very gravely, even solemnly:

"George, now I know what an honest man feels when he is robbed of the fruits of his work and his self-denial and his sobriety. If I had known it fifteen years ago, I should never have been a--what I have been."

For two months the friends worked stoutly with leaden hearts, but did little more than pay their expenses. The bag lay between them light as a feather. One morning Tom said to George:

"George, this won't do. I am going prospecting. Moore will lend me his horse for a day."

That day George worked alone. Robinson rode all over the country with a tin pan at his back, and tested all the places that seemed likely to his experienced eye. At night he returned to their tent. George was just lying down.

"No sleep to-night, George," said he, instinctively lowering his voice to a whisper; "I have found surface gold ten miles to the southward."

"Well, we will go to it to-morrow."

"What, by daylight, watched as we are? We, the two lucky ones," said Robinson bitterly. "No. Wait till the coast is clear--then strike tent and away."

At midnight they stole out of the camp. By peep of day they were in a little dell with a brook running at the bottom of it.

"Now, George, listen to me. Here is ten thousand pounds if we could keep this gully and the creek a fortnight to ourselves."

"Oh, Tom! and we will. n.o.body will find us here, it is like a box."

Robinson smiled sadly. The men drove their spades in close to the little hole which Robinson had made prospecting yesterday, and the very first cradleful yielded an ounce of gold-dust extremely small and pure. They found it diffused with wonderful regularity within a few inches of the surface. Here for the first time George saw gold-dust so plentiful as to be visible. When a spadeful of the clay was turned up it glittered all over. When they tore up the gra.s.s, which was green as an emerald, specks of bright gold came up clinging to the roots. They fell like spaded tigers on the prey.

"What are you doing, George?"

"Going to light a fire for dinner. We must eat, I suppose, though I do grudge the time."

"We must eat, but not hot."

"Why not?"

"Because, if you light a fire, the smoke will be seen miles off, and half the diggings will be down upon us. I have brought three days' cold meat---here it is."

"Will this be enough?" asked George, simply, his mouth full.

"Yes, it will be enough," replied the other, bitterly. "Do you hear that bird, George? They call him a leather-head. What is he singing?"

George laughed. "Seems to me he is saying, 'Off we go!' 'Off we go!'

'Off we go!'"

"That is it. And look now, off he is gone; and, what is more, he has gone to tell all the world he saw two men pick up gold like beans."

"Work!" cried George.

That night the little bag felt twice as heavy as last night, and Susan seemed nearer than for many a day. These two worked for their lives.

They counted each minute, and George was a Goliath; the soil flew round him like the dust about a wmnnowing-machine. He was working for Susan.

Robinson wasted two seconds admiring him.

"Well," said he, "gold puts us all on our mettle, but you beat all I ever saw. You are a man."

It was the morning of the third day, and the friends were filling the little bag fast; and at breakfast George quizzed Robinson's late fears.

"The leather-head didn't tell anybody, for here we are all alone."

Robinson laughed.

"But we should not have been, if I had let you light a fire. However, I really begin to hope now they will let us alone till we have cleared out the gully. Hallo!"

"What is the matter?"

"Look there, George."

"What is it? Smoke rising--down the valley?"

"We are done! Didn't I tell you?"

"Don't say so, Tom. Why, it is only smoke, and five miles off."

"What signifies what it is or where it is? It is on the road to us."

"I hope better."

"What is the use of hoping nonsense? Was it there yesterday? Well, then."

"Don't you be faint-hearted," said George. "We are not caught yet. I wonder whether Susan would say it was a sin to try and mislead them?"

"A sin! I wish I knew how, I'd soon see. That was a good notion. This place is five hundred pound a day to us. We must keep it to-day by hook or by crook. Come with me, quick. Bring your tools and the bag."

George followed Robinson in utter ignorance of his design; that worthy made his way as fast as he could toward the smoke. When they got within a mile of it the valley widened and the smoke was seen rising from the side of the stream. Concealing themselves, they saw two men beating the ground on each side like pointers. Robinson drew back. "They are hunting up the stream," said he, "it is there we must put the stopper on them."

They made eastward for the stream which they had left.