Part 27 (1/2)
For answer, the young man threw himself from his pony and began to ascend the cliff. It was very steep, but he chose his way cautiously, seizing each point of vantage in the way of a crevice or projection. He had almost reached the nest when he paused, looked away to the southward, and began rapidly to descend. ”There is a band of Utes coming over the divide,” he said; ”I think it would be as well for us to go a little further up the valley.” He hurriedly collected his herd, and drove them before him through a pa.s.s into a long, shady gorge. Mr.
Armstrong followed with the team. ”This is the place!” he exclaimed, excitedly, as they entered the ravine. ”It was in this little canon that I found the silver. A vein cropped right out to the surface, and I filled my pockets with the ore. I set up a buffalo skull to mark the spot. There it is--at the foot of that pine. It must have rolled down, for I placed it higher. Hold the reins, Jim, while I scramble up the bank and see if I see any signs of the vein.” With the agility of a younger man, Mr. Armstrong climbed the steep bank, and came down with his hands filled with crumbled ore. ”It is there, fast enough,” he said, triumphantly; ”if it were not on the Indian reservation I would be the owner of that mine now. They cannot hold the lands long, and when they are opened to settlement this canon shall be ours, Jim. You say you would like to live a western life. If your mother, of whom you seem so fond, is of the same opinion, you shall pre-empt a claim here, and I will take one just beside you, and between us we will own the mine. You don't understand it, my boy; but I have taken a fancy to you, and I mean to make your fortune.”
”And will this ravine be my very own?” Jim asked--”mother's and mine?”
”Yes, my boy; and I am curious to see what you will make of it, and what you will make of yourself while you are waiting to come into your possessions. I mean to put you in the way of getting a good practical education, which shall be of use to you out here.”
”And can I learn surveying?”
”Yes; and mining engineering and a.s.saying and mechanics, and all that.”
”That is what Lovey Dimple would like to learn too. Can he come with me?
He'd invent a machine right off to dig the silver just as easy.”
”We will see, Jim. I would like to give him a good turn for his father's sake; but don't take too many into our company, or we shall have to water the stock too freely.”
They had nearly reached the head of the gorge, and they found that Charles Sumner had paused, and had corraled his cows in a little natural amphitheatre, where they were resting contentedly.
”I must watch them pretty sharply,” the Indian explained, ”for the corn I told you about is in the next valley, and if they should get into that, they would be as bad as our relations. Just walk to the top of the hill, Mr. Armstrong, and see what a nice field of it I have over there.”
Mr. Armstrong returned bringing an armful of fine roasting ears, but Charles Sumner thought it best not to build a fire until the party of Utes had pa.s.sed, and they sat down to a cold supper of canned baked beans. After supper Jim had a long talk with Charles Sumner, and ascertained that the young man had fixed his heart upon making this particular section his home farm as soon as the reservation should be divided in severalty among the Indians, which he hoped would happen before many years.
”Then,” said Jim, ”you think that the white people will never have a chance to come in here and take up land?”
”Do you think they ought to be allowed to do so, when the land is ours?”
Charles Sumner asked.
”No, I don't,” Jim replied, promptly. ”I think it is really yours, and you ought to keep it; and I'll just tell you a secret about this canon.
It is worth a great deal more than you know. There is a silver mine in it, and I'll show you where, and you had just better go back East and study the best way to mine silver, and then when you get your claim you will know how to work it. I wish you would take me in as your partner, for Mr. Armstrong is going to have me taught all about mining. He thought he might pre-empt this mine for me, but, of course, when he sees that it really belongs to you, he will not want to, unless, perhaps, you would like to sell out your right in it.”
Jim had spoken so rapidly that he did not notice that Mr. Armstrong had approached, and was listening with an astonished expression to what he was saying.
”Jim, are you crazy?” Mr. Armstrong exclaimed, as soon as he could recover himself. ”Don't you see that you are throwing away your chances?”
”Oh no,” Jim replied, with a smile, ”I hadn't any chance at all. You didn't know, but it all belongs to Charles Sumner.”
Their conversation was interrupted by a whoop in the valley below. The band of Utes had discovered the traces of their last camp, and had followed their trail into the canon.
”Drive over into the next ravine!” said Charles Sumner; ”they will camp here when they find my cows. Wait for me just below the corn-field, and I will join you as soon as I can. They will not hurt you if they find you, but they will beg and steal everything.”
Mr. Armstrong hurriedly followed Charles Sumner's advice, and was joined about midnight by the young Indian, who drove before him three cows, all he had been able to rescue from a herd of twelve.
The young man wiped his brow with a despairing gesture. ”They were ugly,” he said. ”Some Durango cow-boys have been pasturing their cattle on the reservation, and they insisted that my cows were a part of the herd, and that the owners were somewhere near. If they had found you, they might have treated you roughly. I think we had better get away while they are feasting.”
It occurred to Mr. Armstrong that it looked very much as if Charles Sumner had saved their lives at the sacrifice of his property, and a feeling of grat.i.tude and liking sprang up in his heart for the young man.
”I don't know what I shall do,” the Indian continued, dejectedly. ”It doesn't seem to be any use to try to be civilized in this country.”
”No, my poor fellow!” replied Mr. Armstrong, ”it really does not. In your place, I think I should go back to the blanket and be a savage with the rest. I will tell you what to do: come East again with your mother and sister. I will let you try farming on a piece of land which I have taken a fancy to in Ma.s.sachusetts, where you will not have these discouragements. When the land question is settled, you and Jim shall come back here and form a partners.h.i.+p. If it is divided in severalty to the Utes, then I will establish your right to the canon, and you shall take Jim in as your partner; and if it is opened to the whites for settlement, he will take up the land and give you a share in it.”
This proposition was accepted by Charles Sumner and his sister, the mother preferring to remain with her husband. After establis.h.i.+ng the young Indians in Ma.s.sachusetts, Mr. Armstrong brought Jim with him to Narragansett Pier.