Now the mountains, high and thickly timbered, clustered before and on either side, when, on the afternoon of the second day (for Mr. Adams traveled slowly on account of his lame4 leg), Mr. Grigsby, ahead, pointed5 and said:
"There's the saw-mill."
So it was—a large frame building, apparently6 not all completed, amidst a clearing of stumps7, on the edge of a ravine near the foot of a slope. Several log cabins and a number of tents stood near it; and shacks8 and tents dotted the gullies around. But, as Captain Sutter had said, the mill was not running; and as the red-whiskered man had alleged9, the locality was not bustling10.
"I expect the place has been all worked out, by the first rush," commented Mr. Grigsby, as he led on, up the well-marked trail.
"This is where the gold was discovered in Forty-eight, is it?" queried11 Charley's father, as on the edge of the clearing they paused, to take breath, and gaze about them.
"Yes, sir; and unless I'm much mistaken, there's Jim Marshall himself, in front of that cabin."
So saying, followed by his party the Frémonter crossed the clearing, as if making for one of the cabins before whose open door a man was sitting, on a stool. The man appeared scarcely to notice their approach, and barely turned his head when, halting, Mr. Grigsby addressed him.
"How are you, Jim? I met you down at Sutter's, after the war. My name's Grigsby."
"Yes, I remember your being 'round there," responded Mr. Marshall, in a soft, slow drawl, rising to shake hands. "The country wasn't so full, then."
He was a rather tall, well-built man, with long brown beard and slouch hat. He had wide brown eyes, with a sombre gaze in them. In fact, his whole countenance12 was sober and a bit sullen13.
"So you're still at the mill."
"I have been, but I'm going out. There's no place for me here. The man who discovered this gold ain't given an ounce of it," and Mr. Marshall's voice was bitter. "What did I get for all I did when I opened that mill-race? Nothing; not even gratitude14. It's Government land, they say, and so the people flock in and take it, and my only chance is to rustle15 like everybody else. Do you think that's fair? No, sir! If I had my percentage of all the gold being mined around here I'd be a rich man. Instead, they give me a hundred feet, and expect me to dig like the rest. Bah! I'll starve, first."
Although Mr. Marshall was trying to make this a tale of woe16, Charley, for one, could not quite see the reasonableness in it.
"Well, Jim," hastily soothed17 Mr. Grigsby, "this is a country of hustle18, and most of us have to look out for ourselves. You were here first, and I suppose people figured on your making the most of opportunity. Anyway, I wish you'd take us over to the mill-race and show these two partners of mine just where you discovered the gold. We aren't going to stay, but we'd like to see that much."
"Yes, I can do that," assented19 Mr. Marshall. "Leave your animal here, if you want to. There aren't many white people about" (and he spoke20 bitterly, again) "to steal it."
Charley tied the burro to the cabin. Mr. Marshall led the way over to the mill, which was abandoned and idle, and paused on the brink21 of a wide ravine that extended back to the mill wheel.
The ravine was ragged22 and torn, its bottom bare to the rocks and its sides gashed23 by countless24 holes. A number of Chinamen and Indians were working in it, scraping about and filling pans and wicker baskets with loose dirt, which they washed in the stream trickling25 through. But there were no white men.
"That was the tail-race," explained Mr. Marshall, "which led off the water after it had passed under the wheel. After we got the mill to going, about the middle of January, last year, we found the tail-race wasn't big enough to carry off the water fast and make a current that would turn the wheel. So I threw the wheel out of gear, one night, and lifted the head-gate of the race full open, to flow a hard stream through and wash the tail-race deeper. Next morning early, which was January 24, I went down with Weimer (you know Weimer, Mr. Grigsby; he served in the Frémont battalion26 during the conquest), who was helping27 me, to see what the water had done. We shut it off first, of course, above. Well, the tail-race certainly had been scoured28 a good bit, and we were looking in, as we walked, congratulating ourselves on the job, when I saw a sparkle of yellow on a flat bed-rock. I went down in and picked it up, and I was sure it was gold. I sent an Indian back to the men's cabin for a tin plate. I didn't want to say much about the find till I'd made certain that it wasn't copper29, but during the day Weimer and I searched about and found a little more. We tried it out with potash in Mrs. Weimer's soap kettle, and it didn't tarnish30. The other men got excited, and the next day started to poking31 about on their own account, in the rain. I took what I had down to the fort, and the captain and I locked ourselves in and tested it with nitric acid, weighed it, pounded it, did everything we could think of, and made dead certain that gold it was. Next day the captain himself came up to the mill, and we all found gold. It was everywhere. Of course that set us up in great shape, but the captain made us promise to keep the matter a secret for six weeks until he had finished a flour-mill that he was building at the fort, or else he wouldn't be able to get anybody to work for him at wages. But some of the men showed their dust down at the store at the fort, buying goods, and the cat was out of the bag. Everybody deserted32 the old captain, his grist-mill hasn't been finished to this day, his crops weren't reaped, his saw-mill property was overrun with a regular army, some of the people tried to save a bed of gravel33 for him, but that's gone now, neither his rights or mine are respected, I don't own an ounce of gold and am busted34, and he'll be busted soon. There's no gratitude in this country," and Mr. Marshall turned gloomily away.
"There doesn't seem to be much show here for mining; the whole country's been turned over," commented Mr. Adams, as they gazed about. "But I'm glad to have seen the spot where the first gold was found in California."
"By the way, Jim," spoke the Frémonter, "are there any quartz35 workings around here? Never heard of a claim called the Golden West, did you?"
Mr. Marshall shook his head, in his gloomy fashion.
"Not on the South Branch of the American, either fork. It's all placer work yet. That's the quickest. Lodes don't pay; they need machinery36, and nobody wants to wait for machinery. But I've heard they're beginning to find lodes over in the Nevada country, beyond the upper North Branch. Several parties on their way to the dry diggin's of Rough and Ready spoke about quartz outcrops over yonder somewhere on the North Branch."
"Yes, we thought we'd go over that way ourselves," answered Mr. Grigsby.
"Whereabouts is Rough and Ready, Mr. Marshall?" asked Charley's father—much to Charley's relief, who wanted to know, himself.
"It's a dry diggin's camp, near to the Nevada dry diggin's, in Grass Valley between the Bear and the Yuba. That's all I know," responded Mr. Marshall, as if to imply that it was all he cared, too!
The directions seemed very indefinite, in such a big country, but Mr. Grigsby appeared to be impressed by something or other in Mr. Marshall's words, for he was plunged37 into a brown study until the party had left Mr. Marshall sitting gloomily as before and were resuming the march. Then, out of earshot of the cabins and mill, he suddenly slapped his buckskin thigh38 and uttered an exclamation39.
"By jings!" he said. "I have it—and those three fellows had it, too. We've overrun 'em. They've turned off, below, and I'll wager40 they're making for that smudge! Remember that smudge on the map—what looked to be another 'G. H.,' in capital letters? Well, sir, if that sign isn't 'G. W.' instead of 'G. H.' I'll miss my guess. 'G. W.'—'Golden West'! How does that strike you? It's yonder in the new quartz country, you see."
Charley stared, agape. The idea was stupendous. Oh, if only they had that map, again, so as to re-examine it.
"Why—I shouldn't wonder if you were right, Grigsby," agreed his father, weighing the matter. "Then we ought to get over there as quick as we can."
"I know I'm right," asserted the Frémonter. "Feel it in my bones. And away we go, as straight as we can travel."
A long, long tramp across a wild country it was, now, upon which the tall Frémonter piloted the way. He seemed to know where he was going and what he was doing; and Charley and his father could only trust in his guidance. Up hill and down, through timber and brush, sometimes on a trail and sometimes not, ever making northward41, on they went, with the burro the nimblest of all, and Mr. Adams having hard work, occasionally, with his lame leg. But wherever they passed, no matter how rough and high the country, they encountered miners like themselves, digging and washing and searching, in camp or on the march.
But not a word more, of the Jacobs party, or of the Golden West mine.
Mr. Grigsby appeared to be looking for certain landmarks42, ahead. It was at the end of two weeks of travel and camp when they three, following a pack trail across a timbered ridge43, suddenly emerged into a beautiful vista44 of valley and snowy range, to the north and east; the course of a rushing river, and the tents of another mining camp.
"There she is!" cheered the Frémonter, swinging his hat. "There's the trail where Frémont and we fellows came in, the second time, winter of Forty-five. Yon river's the North Branch of the American. I remember that gap, there. What that camp is I don't know; but we'll find out."
"It'll be the main emigrant trail, or I'm much mistaken."
"I don't see any emigrants46, though," puffed47 Charley, as down they hastened, for the camp. He was wondering about Billy Walker.
"No; there haven't many passed yet, that's certain," answered the Frémonter. "But the rush must be about due."
"What camp's this?" he hailed, as they passed a party of miners delving48 and washing in a little ravine.
"This is the Shirt-tail Diggin's, stranger, where everybody's happy and the goose hangs high."
Shirt-tail Diggin's consisted of a collection of tents and of lean-to shacks made of boughs49 and canvas, three or four log cabins, and a store, scattered50 along the side of the valley, amidst great trees. To the east showed the bluish gap, of which Mr. Grigsby had spoken, in the hills, and beyond the hills was the snowy range. Through the valley coursed the river—the North Branch of the American, according to Mr. Grigsby; and in the river shallows and along the banks and in ravines and ditches on both sides, up the slopes themselves, with pick and spade and pan and cradle were working the miners.
As with his father and Mr. Grigsby and the burro he drew near, Charley was surprised to hear a cheer—and another, and another, as if in greeting. Why was that? Was it a joke? But see! Arms were pointing, hats were waving, and shout joined with shout:
"Emigrants in sight! Here they come—the overlanders! Tumble out, boys!"
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1
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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diverged
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| 分开( diverge的过去式和过去分词 )； 偏离； 分歧； 分道扬镳 | |
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gulch
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| n.深谷，峡谷 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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shacks
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| n.窝棚，简陋的小屋( shack的名词复数 ) | |
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alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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bustling
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| adj.喧闹的 | |
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queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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hustle
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| v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌) | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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gashed
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| v.划伤，割破( gash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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scoured
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| 走遍（某地）搜寻（人或物）( scour的过去式和过去分词 )； （用力）刷； 擦净； 擦亮 | |
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copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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tarnish
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| n.晦暗，污点；vt.使失去光泽；玷污 | |
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poking
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| n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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busted
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| adj. 破产了的，失败了的，被降级的，被逮捕的，被抓到的 动词bust的过去式和过去分词 | |
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quartz
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| n.石英 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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42
landmarks
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| n.陆标( landmark的名词复数 )；目标；（标志重要阶段的）里程碑 ~ (in sth)；有历史意义的建筑物（或遗址） | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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45
emigrant
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| adj.移居的，移民的；n.移居外国的人，移民 | |
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emigrants
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| n.（从本国移往他国的）移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
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47
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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48
delving
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| v.深入探究，钻研( delve的现在分词 ) | |
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49
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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50
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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