Part 11 (1/2)
”'Commander of an Expedition, reached this place, 1750'
”All this, so that the subjects of Spain ed to His Majesty
”We journeyed back to Santa Fe after many days of hardshi+ps and we found a new Viceroy had been appointed and he deive up, and after selling it to a trader for the coin of the real well not to go south for the new Viceroy would pursue us and take the gold
”We journeyed along the banks of a considerable river by night and hid ourselves by day We saw , and when they ran the noise was like thunder and it made us afraid We crossed many rivers and finally came to a country of wooded hills where the Barbarians were thick and ferocious
”The Barbarians pursued us and we hid our gold and records in a cave and rolled a stone over the hole and fled They killed nearly all of our expedition and our mules Baptiste was sorely wounded in the breast with an arrow and notwithstanding we bled hiiven us by the Barbarians irritated us exceedingly and we fell upon thereat numbers
”We came to a river whose waters were red, like unto the color of the tiles on the houses of Seville, and after journeying along its banks for hts, we came unto the River of the Holy Ghost, which DeSoto discovered and here we found safety
”While all these things were new in ht take another expedition to the rew rich from the spoils of office and would trouble us no more But he did write unto the people of Spain that I would be hanged uponBeing extreht my fortune in Peru, until such time when he should be called to heaven, which call even now, in e, has not yet been rieved”
Accore de Christo range, the Spanish Peaks, the River, Valley and flat cliff on edge, plainly marked The distance from Santa Fe and the mountain passes was clearly indicated
A month later Buchan was transferred on a run out of Santa Fe where the hand of Fate and Chance again took part He received a letter fro party and had fallen ill at Saguache The letter implored him to come, if he ever expected to see him alive True to his old ti his bedside Mr Robinson lingered a feeeks and died This was more sad news for Hattie in her far-away home, amid the Santa Lucia one to Arequipa with fond hopes for the future beneath those sunny skies
I, the writer, had been with Carson a few days before prospecting in the Sangre de Christobeside the peculiar shaped cliff I noticed that Carson was interested in the surroundings, but I thought nothing of it at the time The formation of the cliff appealed to my fancy, and I chanced to mention it to Buchan one day when he becaether with Carson we visited the spot Being an old prospector, I soon discovered formations that looked like pay ore My years of experience in these ain nothing, and again froht develop a mine worth a uine over our prospects, too
I located the clai and when I istration papers, I said: ”Gentlemen, what shall we call the mine?”
”Name it the Maldonado,” said Carson
”What!” exclai an ashen paleness
”The Major Do somewhat abashed
”Name it the Aberdeen,” said Buchan ”I like to hear that name spoken, it was my old home in Scotland”
XXIII
THE TWO OLD BLACK CROWS
Amos sat in the little back roolistened beneath his beetle brows A pleased expression shone on his thin face, drawn in wrinkles like stained parchment Rayder was out, but had left instructions for hiht of so on Rayder's desk The door was closed and he was alone He leaned forward and took up some slips of paper for closer inspection They were certificates of assay from Pendleton The pleased look vanished as he noted Amos No 1, Amos No 2, Amos No 3, and so on for a dozen or more slips Rayder did not trust him, and had had the sample of ore assayed by Pendleton for corroboration
”He does not even believe in honesty a thieves,” he mused, as he carefully replaced the papers Then the pleased look caht ”He will deal now and it is my time to strike before the iron cools”