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diff --git a/old/10690-h.zip b/old/10690-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..db64464 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10690-h.zip diff --git a/old/10690-h/10690-h.htm b/old/10690-h/10690-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..755bc84 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10690-h/10690-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4628 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" + content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of + A Desperate Chance: or, The Wizard Tramp's Revelation, + by Old Sleuth. +</title> +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body { margin-left: 4%; margin-right: 4%; } + * { font-family: Times;} + P { text-indent: 2em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 12pt; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; + margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; } + H1,H2 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; } + PRE { font-family: Courier, monospaced; } + .figure + {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; + text-align: center; } + .figure img + {border: none;} + // --> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's A Desperate Chance, by Old Sleuth (Harlan P. Halsey) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Desperate Chance + The Wizard Tramp's Revelation, A Thrilling Narrative + +Author: Old Sleuth (Harlan P. Halsey) + +Release Date: January 12, 2004 [EBook #10690] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DESPERATE CHANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h1>A DESPERATE CHANCE:</h1> +<h2> +OR +</h2> +<h2> +THE WIZARD TRAMP'S REVELATION, +</h2> +<h3> +A Thrilling Narrative. +</h3> +<h2> +<b>By OLD SLEUTH. </b> +</h2> + +<p class="figure"> +<a href="sleuth.png"> +<img width="70%" src="sleuth.png" +alt="'He Placed the Ladder of Saplings Across the Abyss.'" /></a><br /> +<b>"He Placed the Ladder of Saplings Across the Abyss."</b> +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>1897</h3> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h2> + CHAPTER I. +</h2> + +<h3> +THE CAMPFIRE IN THE GULCH—AN ALARM—THE SOLITARY +FIGURE—UNDER COVER—A WHITE MAN—"HAIL, +FRIEND!"—A CORDIAL MEETING—A SECOND STRANGE +CHARACTER. +</h3> +<p> </p> +<p> +"Well, Desmond, we've taken a desperate chance, and so far appear to be +losers." +</p> +<p> +The circumstances under which the words above quoted were spoken were +weird and strange. A man and a mere youth were sitting by a campfire +that was blazing and crackling in a narrow gulch far away in the Rocky +Mountains, days and days travel from civilization. +</p> +<p> +The circumstances that had brought them there were also very strange and +unusual. Desmond Dare was the son of a widow who owned a small farm in +New York State. There had been a mortgage on this farm which was about +to be foreclosed when Desmond, a brave, vigorous lad, sold his only +possession, a valuable colt, and determined to enter a walking match for +the prize. He was on his way to the city where the match was to take +place when in a belt of woods he heard a cry for help. He ran in the +direction whence the cry came and found three tramps assailing a fourth +man. The vigorous youth sprang to the rescue and drove the three tramps +off, and was later persuaded by the man he had rescued to go with him to +a rock cavern. There the lad beheld a very beautiful girl of about +fourteen whose history was enveloped in a dark mystery; he also learned +that the man he had rescued was known as the wizard tramp. The latter +was a very strange and peculiar character, a victim of the rum habit, +which had brought him away down until he became a tramp of the most +pronounced type. This man, however, was really a very shrewd fellow, +well educated, not only in book learning, but in the ways of the world, +and seeing that Desmond had resolved to take a desperate chance, the +tramp volunteered to land him a winner; he succeeded in so doing. The +champion of the walking match carried his money to his mother, the tramp +went upon an extended spree and spent his share. Afterward the tramp and +Desmond Dare started on the road together. The girl had been placed with +Mrs. Dare on the farm, and the man and boy proceeded West afoot, +determined to locate a gold mine. The former discovered each day some +new quality, and held forth to Desmond that some day he would make a +very startling revelation. The youth had no idea as to the character of +the revelation, but knowing that the tramp, named Brooks, was a very +remarkable man, he anticipated a very startling denouement. After many +very strange and exciting adventures Brooks, the tramp, and Desmond Dare +arrived in the Rockies, and in due time started in to find their gold +mine. The previous history of these two remarkable characters can be +read in Nos. 90 and 91 of "OLD SLEUTH'S OWN." +</p> +<p> +At the time we introduce the tramp and Desmond Dare to our readers in +this narrative, they had been knocking around the mountains in search of +their mine and had met with failures on every side, and at length one +night they camped in the gulch as described in our opening paragraphs, +and Brooks spoke the words with which we open our narrative. +</p> +<p> +They were sitting beside their fire; both were partly attired as hunters +and mountaineers, and both were well armed. Brooks, who had practically +been a bloat had lived a temperate life, had enjoyed plenty of exercise +in the open air, and had experienced to a certain extent a return of his +original physical strength and vigor. At the time the whilom tramp made +the disconsolate remark quoted, Desmond asked: +</p> +<p> +"What do you propose to do—give it up?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know just what to do, lad." +</p> +<p> +"We've scraped together a little gold dust; possibly we may have money +enough to engage in some legitimate business, and what we can't get by +the discovery of a mine, we may acquire in time in speculation. You are +shrewd and level-headed." +</p> +<p> +"That would be a good scheme for you, lad, but not for me. I am too far +advanced in life to earn money by slow labor now. What I propose is that +you go back, take all the gold we have, and enter into trade; you are +bright and energetic and may succeed." +</p> +<p> +"And what will you do?" +</p> +<p> +"I shall continue my search for a mine, and some day I may strike it." +</p> +<p> +Brooks was a college graduate, a civil engineer, and a mineralogist, and +believed he had great advantages in searching for a mine, but, as has +been indicated, thus far their tramp and search had been a dead failure. +</p> +<p> +"I'll stick with you," said Desmond. +</p> +<p> +"No, lad, you must go back." +</p> +<p> +"I swear I will not; I like this life, and remember, we have gathered +some wash dust and we may gather more. I don't know the value of what we +have gathered from the bottom of that stream we struck, but I do know +that it would take a long time to accumulate as much money in trade. +Remember, we have been in the mountains only six weeks." +</p> +<p> +"That is all right, but we might stay here six years and not make a +find." +</p> +<p> +At that instant there came a sound which caused Brooks and Desmond to +bend their ears and listen. Some of the Indians were on the warpath; a +band of bucks had been making a raid and had been pursued by the United +States cavalry into the mountains. Indians, as a rule, do not take to +the mountains, but sometimes when pursued hotly they will separate into +small bands and scatter through the hills; these fellows are dangerous. +They would have murdered any white men they might meet for their arms +alone, without considering the spirit of wantonness or revenge that +might animate them. +</p> +<p> +Brooks and Desmond rose from their seats beside the fire and moved +slowly away. At any moment an arrow or even a rifle shot might come and +end the life of one or both. +</p> +<p> +Desmond had become a very expert woodsman; he and Brooks had been +chased by Indians several times and had exchanged shots with one band. +They knew a cover in a crevice in the wall of rock which ran up abruptly +each side of the gulch; from this spot they could survey and also make a +good fight in an emergency. They had good weapons, plenty of ammunition, +and what was more, coolness, skill, and courage. Desmond, especially, +was a very cool-headed chap in times of danger; the use of firearms was +not new to him, nor was the woodsman life altogether a novelty, for he +had been raised in a very wild and desolate mountain region. +</p> +<p> +Quickly they stole to cover, although they believed it possible that +they might have been seen, for they had absolute proof, well known to +woodsmen, that if there were foes in the vicinity they had been +discovered. Once in their covert they lay low, and a few moments passed, +when they beheld a solitary figure advancing slowly and very cautiously +up the gulch, and as the figure came in the light of the fire Desmond, +whose eyesight was very keen, said: +</p> +<p> +"It's a white man; he looks like a hunter; we will wait a moment or two, +but I guess it is all right." +</p> +<p> +The figure, meantime, with rifle poised, advanced very slowly and +finally stood fully revealed close to the fire, and indeed he was a +white man of strong and vigorous frame. +</p> +<p> +"I'll go and meet him," said Desmond; "you lay low here, rifle in hand +ready to shoot in case he proves an enemy." +</p> +<p> +"All right, lad, go ahead." +</p> +<p> +Desmond stepped from his hiding-place and advanced toward the fire. The +stranger saw him, still held his position ready for offense or defense, +and permitted Desmond to approach, and soon he discerned that the lad +was a white man and he called: +</p> +<p> +"Hail, friend!" +</p> +<p> +"Hail, to you," replied the lad. +</p> +<p> +The two men approached and shook hands. The hunter was a splendid +specimen of physical manhood, and his face indicated honesty and +good-nature. +</p> +<p> +"Are you alone here, lad?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"Where's your comrade?" +</p> +<p> +Desmond made a sign, and Brooks stepped forth from the crevice and +approached the fire. +</p> +<p> +"Hail, friend," said the stranger hunter. +</p> +<p> +Brooks answered the salutation, the two men shook hands and the stranger +said; +</p> +<p> +"What may be your business out here?" +</p> +<p> +"We'll talk of that later on; but, stranger, you took great chances." +</p> +<p> +"I did?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"How?" +</p> +<p> +"In approaching the fire you were exposed; suppose the fire had been +kindled by Indians?" +</p> +<p> +The woodsman laughed, and said: +</p> +<p> +"I knew it was not an Indian's fire." +</p> +<p> +"You did?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"How is that?" +</p> +<p> +"They don't create such a big blaze. I knew white men were around, and +men whom I need not fear, but I was on my guard all the same." +</p> +<p> +"We could have dropped you off." +</p> +<p> +"Well, yes, but out here we have to take chances, and it was necessary +for me to do so." +</p> +<p> +"It was?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"How so?" +</p> +<p> +"I need food; I have not struck any game lately. The fact is, I've been +up in the peaks where there is no game. I hope you have a cold snack +here, my friends, and some tobacco, for I have not had a regular tobacco +smoke or chew for over a month." +</p> +<p> +"We were just about to prepare some coffee and make a meal." +</p> +<p> +"Good enough; did you say coffee? Well, I have struck Elysium; I haven't +tasted a cup of coffee in a year. You see I was snowbound away up in the +mountains; fortunately I had plenty of dried meat, and I was compelled +to wait until I was thawed out." +</p> +<p> +Brooks commenced making the coffee, and while doing so the woodsman +asked: +</p> +<p> +"Are you regular hunters?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"Ever in the mountains before?" +</p> +<p> +"Never." +</p> +<p> +"You've been taking great chances." +</p> +<p> +"We have?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"How so?" +</p> +<p> +"The mountains are full of bad Indian fugitives, and they are very ugly. +Some are parts of a raiding gang of bucks, and others are rascals who +have made a kick out at the reservation. I've met twenty of them in the +last ten days; they are in squads of twos and threes, and they are full +of fight." +</p> +<p> +"We have met some of them." +</p> +<p> +"And you managed to escape?" +</p> +<p> +"We had a fight with one party." +</p> +<p> +"You did?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"How did you come out?" +</p> +<p> +"Ahead, I reckon, or we would not be here." +</p> +<p> +The conversation was between the woodsman and Desmond. +</p> +<p> +"What brought you into the mountains—are you tourists?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"On business?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Surveyors?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"I thought not; no use to survey out this way. I suppose you are looking +for a lost mine." +</p> +<p> +"Well, we might take in a lost mine or find a new one, it don't matter." +</p> +<p> +"Ah! I see; well, so far you've been lucky, but you've been taking +desperate chances." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! that's a way we have." +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h2> + CHAPTER II. +</h2> + +<h3> +A RECOGNITION—THE WOODSMAN'S DISCLOSURES—A +CHANCE AFTER ALL—THE BIVOUAC—DESMOND'S +DISCOVERY—SAVAGES GALORE. +</h3><p> </p> +<p> +The coffee was soon prepared and Brooks produced some dried meat and a +few crackers, and the three men, so strangely met, sat down to enjoy +their meal. The woodsman was offered the first cup of coffee, and as he +drank it down, all hot and steaming, he smacked his lips and exclaimed: +</p> +<p> +"Well, that was good; that cup of coffee makes us friends. I may do you +a good turn." +</p> +<p> +"Good enough; we are ready for a good turn. We've had rather hard luck +so far." +</p> +<p> +"So you are after a mine, eh?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"You are regular prospectors?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"You have to strike a surface ledge to make any money. Don't think a +claim would amount to much out here unless you found a nest of them so +as to attract a crowd, and a town, and a mill, and all that. According +to my idea the mines out here all need capital to work 'em in case you +should strike one." +</p> +<p> +Regardless of possibilities, as the night was a little chilly, Brooks +had created quite a blaze, and by the light of the fire he had a fair +chance to study the woodsman's face, and finally he asked abruptly: +</p> +<p> +"Stranger, what is your name?" +</p> +<p> +The woodsman laughed, and said: +</p> +<p> +"I thought you'd ask that question." +</p> +<p> +"You did?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, it's natural that you should, but that ain't the reason I thought +so." +</p> +<p> +"It is not?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"Well, why did you think so?" +</p> +<p> +"I was going to ask your name." +</p> +<p> +"Certainly; my name is Brooks." +</p> +<p> +"I thought so." +</p> +<p> +"You did?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"What made you think my name was Brooks?" +</p> +<p> +"Can't you guess?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"Why did you ask my name?" +</p> +<p> +"As you said, it was a natural question." +</p> +<p> +"That ain't the reason you asked it." +</p> +<p> +"It is not?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"Well, you may tell me the true reason." +</p> +<p> +"You've been studying my face." +</p> +<p> +"I have." +</p> +<p> +"You think you've seen me before somewhere?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, you did see me before." +</p> +<p> +"I did?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"When and where?" +</p> +<p> +"Just look sharp and see if you can't place me." +</p> +<p> +"I can't." +</p> +<p> +"It was a great many years ago." +</p> +<p> +"It must have been; but to tell the truth, there is something very +familiar in your face." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, and you discovered it at the start, but you don't place me; I +placed you. I didn't until you mentioned your name." +</p> +<p> +"You now recall?" +</p> +<p> +"I do." +</p> +<p> +"Where have we met?" +</p> +<p> +"Try to remember." +</p> +<p> +"Tell me your name." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, certainly, by and by; but in the meantime pay me the compliment of +remembering who I am." +</p> +<p> +"You have the advantage." +</p> +<p> +"How?" +</p> +<p> +"I told you my name." +</p> +<p> +"I will tell you mine in good time, but try to remember." +</p> +<p> +"I give it up." +</p> +<p> +"You do?" +</p> +<p> +"I do." +</p> +<p> +The woodsman laughed, and said: +</p> +<p> +"We slept together one night." +</p> +<p> +"We did?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"When and where?" +</p> +<p> +"And now you can't recall?" +</p> +<p> +"I cannot." +</p> +<p> +"You are a square man, but there has come a change over you." +</p> +<p> +"Did we meet often?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"Were we intimate?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, yes, for the time being." +</p> +<p> +"I give it up." +</p> +<p> +"You don't place me?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +Again the woodsman laughed and said: +</p> +<p> +"Do you remember about fifteen years ago a young fellow, tired, wet, and +hungry, tried to find shelter in a freight car?" +</p> +<p> +"Hello! you are not Henry Creedon?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I am, and this is the second time you've fed me. You appear to be +my good angel; I may prove your good angel." +</p> +<p> +"So you are Henry Creedon?" +</p> +<p> +"I am," and turning to Desmond, Creedon said: +</p> +<p> +"Your friend there one night made a fight for me, fed me and found +shelter for me. He was a tramp then; I was footing it out West here." +</p> +<p> +"Henry," said Brooks, "what have you been doing all these years?" +</p> +<p> +"Mine hunting." +</p> +<p> +"Mine hunting for fifteen years?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"And have you found a mine yet?" +</p> +<p> +The woodsman laughed, and Brooks said: +</p> +<p> +"Desmond, we did indeed take desperate chances, and we've been making a +fool's chase, I reckon. Here is a man who has been mine hunting for +fifteen years and has not found one yet. Where do we come in?" +</p> +<p> +"I'll tell you," said Creedon; "it's luck when you find a mine. More are +found by chance than are discovered by experts, but I think I've found +one; I can't tell. You see, I was raised in a factory town, I've had no +education and I can't tell its value. I know where the find is located, +however, and some of these days I'll strike a prospecting party who will +have an engineer with them, and then I will know the value of my find." +</p> +<p> +"If you take a party in with you they will demand a share." +</p> +<p> +"Certainly." +</p> +<p> +"Do you intend to share with them?" +</p> +<p> +"I can't do otherwise." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, that is so; suppose I find an engineer for you?" +</p> +<p> +"I suppose you will want a rake in." +</p> +<p> +"Certainly." +</p> +<p> +"Well, Brooks, I'll tell you, I don't want to start in on a divide with +everyone, but I've made up my mind to take you in with me. I know you +are a kind-hearted and honest man, even though you are a tramp, a +whisky-loving tramp, and that I remember you emptied my canister that +night." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, but I am not drinking now; I've reformed." +</p> +<p> +"You have?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"So much the better for you." +</p> +<p> +"I've something to tell you." +</p> +<p> +"Go it." +</p> +<p> +"I am just the man to establish the value of your mine." +</p> +<p> +"You are?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I am." +</p> +<p> +"How is that, eh? Have you become an expert after being in the mountains +six weeks? and I am not in one way, and I've been here for fifteen +years." +</p> +<p> +"I was an expert before I came to the mountains." +</p> +<p> +"You were?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"How is that?" +</p> +<p> +"I am a civil engineer by profession." +</p> +<p> +"What's that?" +</p> +<p> +"I am a civil engineer by profession." +</p> +<p> +"You don't tell me!" +</p> +<p> +"That's what I tell you, and I tell you the truth." +</p> +<p> +"Then you are just the man I want." +</p> +<p> +"I said I was; I am more than an engineer, I am a mineralogist and a +geologist." +</p> +<p> +"Hold on, don't overcome a fellow out here in the mountains; if you are +a civil engineer that is enough for me. Hang your mineralogy and +geology; what I want is a man who can estimate. No doubt about the ledge +I've struck; the question is, how much will it cost to mine it; how much +is there of it? You see I've had some experience here in the mountains, +and sometimes we strike what is called a pocket; we might find gold for +a few feet one way and another, and then strike dead rock and no gold. I +ain't a mineralogist or geologist or a civil engineer, and I am afraid +my find won't amount to much, but it is worth investigation, and as you +are able to estimate we will make a start. To-morrow I will take you to +my ledge and then we will know whether we are millionaires or +tramps—eh? mountain tramps—but I am grateful for this food and coffee, +and now if you'll give me a little tobacco I'll be the most contented +man in the mountains, whether my mine turns out a hit or a misthrow." +</p> +<p> +So tobacco was produced; Brooks himself was an inveterate smoker, and +since being in the mountains Desmond had taken to the weed, and there +was promise that some day he might become an inveterate. +</p> +<p> +The three men had a jolly time, but in a quiet way. Creedon was a good +story teller; he had had many weird experiences in the mountains. He had +acted as guide to a great many parties, he had engaged in about fifty +fights with Indians during his residence in the great West, and had met +a great many very notable characters. +</p> +<p> +When the men concluded to lie down to sleep for the night they +extinguished their fire, and each man found a crevice into which he +crept, and only those who have slept in the open air in a pure climate +can tell of the exhilarating effects that follow a slumber under the +conditions described. +</p> +<p> +Desmond was the first to awake, and he peeped forth from his crevice and +glanced down toward the point where the fire had been, when he beheld a +sight that caused his blood to run cold. Five fierce-looking savages +were grouped around the spot where the campfire had been, and he had a +chance to study a scene he had never before witnessed. He beheld five +savages in full war paint; they were dressed in a most grotesque manner, +part of their attire being fragments of United States uniforms, showing +that the red men had been in a skirmish, and possibly had come out +victorious, and had had an opportunity to strip the bodies of the dead. +</p> +<p> +A great deal has been written about the shrewdness of redmen. They are +shrewd when their qualities are once fully aroused and they are on the +scent, but they are given to assumptions, the same as white men. Of +course Creedon was practically to be credited when he said that the +Indians assumed there had been a camp there and that the campers had +departed, but had they made as close observations as when on a trail +they would have made discoveries that would have suggested the near +presence of the late campers. +</p> +<p> +Creedon had as far as possible destroyed all signs when raking out the +fire of a recent encampment, but an experienced and alert eye can detect +the truth despite these little tricks. +</p> +<p> +Desmond saw the Indians: they were a hard-looking lot, the worst +specimens he had ever beheld, and they were assassins at sight, as he +determined. He was secure from observation, but it was necessary to warn +his comrades, who were in different crevices, and at that moment Creedon +actually snored. He was in the crevice adjoining the one where Desmond +had taken refuge. +</p> +<p> +The Indians were too far away to overhear the snore, but it was possible +the man might awake and step forth; then, as Desmond feared, the fight +would commence. He did not desire a fight; he might think the chances +would be with his party, as only two of the Indians had rifles, but then +if even one of their own party were kicked over it would be a sad +disaster. +</p> +<p> +The lad meditated some little time and studied the conditions. He +crawled into his crevice, and, lo, he saw a lateral breakaway. He might +gain Creedon's berth, as he called it, without chancing an outside +steal. Fortune favored him; Creedon's crevice was one of several rents +in the rock, and he managed to reach the sleeper's foot, and he +cautiously touched it, fearing at the moment that Creedon in his +surprise might make an outcry or an inquiry in a loud tone, but here he +learned a lesson in woodcraft. Creedon did not make an outcry; he awoke +and cautiously investigated, and soon discovered that Desmond had +touched him and was seeking to communicate with him. He demanded in a +whisper: +</p> +<p> +"What is it, lad?" +</p> +<p> +"There are Indians in the gulch." +</p> +<p> +"Aha! where?" +</p> +<p> +"Down where we were camped last night." +</p> +<p> +"You keep low and I will take a peep." +</p> +<p> +Desmond could afford to let Creedon take a peep. The woodsman did peep +and took in the situation, and he said: +</p> +<p> +"You are smaller than I am; does the rent where you are run to the berth +where Brooks is sleeping?" +</p> +<p> +"It may; I will find out and go slow; we don't want a fight if we can +help it, but we've got the dead bulge on those redskins if we have to +fight." +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h2> + CHAPTER III. +</h2> + +<h3> +CREEDON'S KNOWLEDGE OF WOODCRAFT—THE REDMEN'S +DEPARTURE—A LONG TRAIL—ON THE TRAMP—THE +STRANGEST REFUGE IN THE WORLD—A BRIDGE OF +RISKS. +</h3><p> </p> +<p> +Desmond crawled forward beyond the rent where Creedon had lodged, and he +found the space much wider as he progressed, and soon gained the opening +where the rent terminated in which Brooks had lain all night. Desmond +glanced in, and, lo, Brooks was inside awake, and had already discovered +the presence of the Indians, and so far they were all right. +</p> +<p> +"Have you been able to notify Creedon?" asked Brooks. +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"What does he say?" +</p> +<p> +"He bade me arouse you." +</p> +<p> +"I discovered the rascals as soon as I awoke." +</p> +<p> +"All right; lay low and I will learn what Creedon advises." +</p> +<p> +Desmond crawled back and said: +</p> +<p> +"Brooks is awake and wants to know what we shall do." +</p> +<p> +"There is only one thing to do: we will lay low, and if the rascals do +not discover us all right; if they do discover us it will be bad for +them and all right with us again, that's all. And now you and Brooks +just keep out of sight and let me run the show." +</p> +<p> +Word was passed to Brooks, and Desmond with the tramp lay low. As it +proved there was not much of a show to run, as the Indians moved away +after a little, but Creedon did not permit his friends to go forth. He +said: +</p> +<p> +"You can never tell about these redskins; they might suspect we are +around, and their going away may be a little trick; they are up to these +tricks." +</p> +<p> +Hours passed, and Creedon still kept his friends in hiding, and it was +near evening when he stole forth, saying he would take an observation. +After a little he returned and said: +</p> +<p> +"It's all right; come out." +</p> +<p> +Creedon said he had discovered evidence that the redskins had really +gone away. +</p> +<p> +"Why couldn't you have found that out sooner?" +</p> +<p> +The woodsman laughed and said: +</p> +<p> +"They might have found me out then; as it was, according to the tales +you and Brooks tell, I took a desperate chance." +</p> +<p> +"Shall we get to work and have a meal?" +</p> +<p> +"Not much, young man, you will have to control your appetite for awhile. +Remember, I am captain of this squadron. I'll lead you to a place, +however, where we can build a fire and camp and eat without fear. I am +posted around here; I know the safe places." +</p> +<p> +The party started on the march, and Desmond felt quite irritated; he had +gone nearly twenty-four hours without eating, and he said: +</p> +<p> +"I am ready to even fight for a meal." +</p> +<p> +Creedon laughed and said in reply: +</p> +<p> +"You may have a stomach full of fighting yet before we find the mine." +</p> +<p> +"I thought you had located it?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, but it's a week's tramp from where we are at present, and we may +have some lively times before we arrive at the place." +</p> +<p> +It was nine o'clock at night when the party arrived at one of the most +peculiar natural retreats Desmond had ever seen. It was a cave, as we +will call it, in the side wall of a cliff rising from a gulch even more +wild and rugged than the one where the party had camped the previous +night. Some mighty convulsion of the mountain had separated the whole +front of the cliff from the main rock, so that a space of at least +twenty feet intervened, and between yawned a dark abyss that led down to +where no man had yet penetrated. Creedon led the way up along a ledge of +ascent which lined the outer edge of the great mass of detached cliff. +Once at the top he descended on the inner side. It was night, but he had +taken advantage of a mask lantern which he carried with him, and which +he said was the most useful article in his possession. He added: +</p> +<p> +"These lanterns may belong to the profession of detectives and burglars, +but I've found them the most useful articles a cliff-climber can own. +They are different from other lamps and torches; you can control the one +ray of light and indicate your path without any trouble whatever." +</p> +<p> +This was true, as the guide demonstrated, and his party walked along +the narrow ledge without any fear of being precipitated over; all it +required was a good eye and a steady nerve, and they possessed these +necessary qualifications. +</p> +<p> +The guide at length came to a halt, and said: +</p> +<p> +"You stand here and I'll get my bridge." +</p> +<p> +He proceeded along alone, but soon returned with two saplings, which he +had strung together, and of which he had made a rope ladder. +</p> +<p> +Desmond was greatly interested, and watched the guide as he threw his +ladder across the intervening abyss, and then he said: +</p> +<p> +"It will take a little nerve to crawl over, but once over we are all +safe, and I've got a storehouse over there. I prepared this place with a +great deal of patience and labor. We can spend two or three days here. I +know you will enjoy it, and we can take a good long rest. I will go over +first and then hold the light so you two can follow." +</p> +<p> +Desmond glanced at Brooks, and asked: +</p> +<p> +"Will you risk it?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I will, lad; I am not the fellow I was about six months ago; I can +climb a steeple now." +</p> +<p> +The guide went over, creeping across. The saplings bent under his weight +and made a downward curve, so that when he attempted so ascend on the +opposite side it was a climb up, but with the ropes made of woven +prairie grass and sticks and boughs he easily ascended. He had carried +his lantern with him, and he flashed its light across his bridge and +asked, "Who will come next?" +</p> +<p> +"You go," said Desmond to Brooks. +</p> +<p> +The tramp did not hesitate, but started to crawl over the oddly +constructed bridge, and he did so as well as the guide had done. Then +Desmond crossed and the instant all hands were over the guide took up +his bridge stowed it away, and said: +</p> +<p> +"When we cross back it will be in the daytime, and much harder." +</p> +<p> +"Much harder in the daytime?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"I should think it would be easier." +</p> +<p> +The guide laughed and said: +</p> +<p> +"It might appear so, but in the daytime you will realize just what you +are doing. You will see the dark abyss beneath you, and when the bridge +sways downward your heart will be in your throat, I tell you. At night, +however, you do not know just what you are doing." +</p> +<p> +Desmond saw the truth of what the guide said, and observed that the man +was quite a philosopher. +</p> +<p> +"Now let me go in advance," said Creedon. +</p> +<p> +He led the way and soon turned into what he called Creedon Street. It +was a broad opening with a solid flooring, and walls of rock on either +side—the most singular and remarkable rock conformation that either +Brooks or Desmond had ever seen. The guide walked right ahead boldly; he +evidently knew that there were no rents down which they might plunge. +</p> +<p> +"Here is Creedon Hall," said the guide, as he turned into a broad +opening and flashed his light around. The party were in a cave, and yet +we can hardly call it a cave; it appeared to be merely a huge underline +in the side of the cliff, as it was open, as the guide said, facing +Creedon Street. +</p> +<p> +"I will soon have Creedon Hall illuminated for you," said the guide. He +secured some wood, and as Desmond followed him he saw that he had +abundance of it, and the guide said: +</p> +<p> +"This wood, some of it, has been stowed here for over ten years, and we +can have a jolly fire in a few minutes, and no fear of attracting +Indians or any one else. We are as safe here as though we were making a +grate fire in a big hotel in New York." +</p> +<p> +Creedon made good his word, and soon Creedon Hall was brilliantly +illuminated, and Desmond was delighted. He exclaimed in his enthusiasm. +</p> +<p> +"This is just immense!" +</p> +<p> +"Well, it is." +</p> +<p> +Brooks also was delighted; he set to work to make the coffee and prepare +the meal, and Creedon lay down on his blanket and lit his pipe, while +Desmond wandered around the cave, as he persisted in calling it. He +discovered several outlets from Creedon Hall, and he made up his mind +that as soon as his friends were asleep he would steal the mask lantern +and go on an exploring expedition. It was a jolly party that sat down to +coffee, cold dried meat, and crackers. Brooks had been very sparing of +his crackers, and had at least five pounds of them at the time he and +Desmond met the guide. +</p> +<p> +"When did you discover this place?" asked Desmond. +</p> +<p> +"I did not discover the place; it was revealed to me by an old hunter, a +Mexican, and how he discovered it he would never tell. The old man had a +great many secrets, and I have sometimes thought that there was gold +hidden here somewhere. I've spent days searching for it, but never could +find anything of the value of a red cent." +</p> +<p> +"Where is the old Mexican now?" +</p> +<p> +"That's hard to tell, lad; he died about five years ago, and his body +was carried to the ruins of an old Spanish church and there buried as he +had requested long before he died. He was a strange old man; he +possessed many secrets, but they died with him. It is possible he meant +to reveal them some day, but death caught him and he went out with his +mouth closed as far as his secrets were concerned. He was a sort of +miser in secrets. I did think that some day the old man would reveal +something of value to me; he pretended to think a great deal of me. I +saved his life at a critical moment; he was actually bound to the stake, +and I shot the rascal who was about to light the fire. They intended to +burn him alive, and the arrival of myself and party was just in time." +</p> +<p> +"Do the Indians still burn their prisoners at the stake?" +</p> +<p> +"These were not Indians—they were his own countrymen. They had tried to +force a confession from him, and because he refused to reveal the +whereabouts of the gold they thought he had stored away somewhere, they +were set to murder him in anger and revenge." +</p> +<p> +"And you saved him?" +</p> +<p> +"I did." +</p> +<p> +"And he never revealed his secrets to you?" +</p> +<p> +"Only the secret of this cave. He often made strange remarks and hinted +that some day I would receive my reward. We roomed here together all of +one winter, but he died and never opened his mouth to reveal where his +gold was, if it is true that he had any. I believe he did, but it will +never do me any good, and I do want to make a fortune somehow, but I +suppose I never will. Yes, lad, there are thousands of skeletons of +gold-seekers hid away in caverns in these mountains, victims of the same +ambition which is leading us to take such desperate chances." +</p> +<p> +Desmond was very greatly interested in the story of the old Mexican, and +he asked a number of questions. +</p> +<p> +"You never got the least inkling as to where his gold was hidden?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know that he had any gold; it is only a suspicion on my part." +</p> +<p> +"He lived in this cave?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Did you ever search here?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, you bet I did." +</p> +<p> +"And did you explore?" +</p> +<p> +"You bet I did." +</p> +<p> +"And you never found anything?" +</p> +<p> +"I never did." +</p> +<p> +"Nor secured any indication?" +</p> +<p> +"Never." +</p> +<p> +"Possibly you did not look in the right place." +</p> +<p> +"That is dead certain," came the natural answer. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h2> + CHAPTER IV. +</h2> + +<h3> +ON AN EXPLORING EXPEDITION—A FIND IN A CAVE—THE +SEPULCHRAL VOICE—THE EXPLANATION—DESMOND +GETS SQUARE ON A TRICK—STRANGE LONGINGS—THE +FINDING OF A NUGGET. +</h3><p> </p> +<p> +It was about midnight when the older men lay down on their blankets to +sleep. Creedon had a big silver bull's-eye watch, and he said he always +kept it going. +</p> +<p> +Desmond pretended to lie down and go to sleep also, but his head was +filled with visions of the Mexican's hidden gold. He had an idea that +Creedon's investigations might have been very superficial; he determined +to make a thorough and systematic search, and he actually believed he +would find the hidden gold. +</p> +<p> +Brooks and Creedon were good sleepers; both were very weary and they +were soon in a sound slumber, and then Desmond arose, stole on tiptoe +over beside Creedon and secured the mask lantern. A strange, weird scene +was certainly presented. There had been a big fire; the embers were all +aglow and illuminated the cave. There lay Brooks and Creedon, looking +picturesque in their hunting garb, and there was Desmond stealing on +tiptoe under the glare of the firelight to secure the mask lantern. +</p> +<p> +Having secured the lantern the lad moved away and made for a crevice +which promised the best results. He knew enough of rock conformations to +go forward very carefully, always flashing his light ahead and studying +the path in advance, and so slowly, carefully, and surely he moved along +until he had traversed, as he calculated, a distance of two hundred and +fifty feet, when suddenly his flashlight revealed a solid wall in front +of him. +</p> +<p> +"Here we are," he muttered, "and no mistake." +</p> +<p> +Desmond saw that his explorations in that direction had ended. He +retraced his steps and selected a second crevice along which he made his +way, and at length he landed in a pretty good sized inner cave. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I reckon we've got it here." +</p> +<p> +The lad proceeded to search around with the care of a detective looking +for clues. He did find evidences of some one having been in the cave; he +found the handle of a dirk, a small bit of a deerskin hunting jacket, +and finally a little bit of pure gold. He examined the latter under his +lamp, satisfied himself that it was a nugget of real gold in its natural +state, and his heart beat fast. +</p> +<p> +"I've got it at last," he muttered; "yes, I thought I knew how to carry +on this search. Creedon must have done it too hurriedly." +</p> +<p> +Desmond felt quite proud of his success; he had struck it sure, as he +believed, and he continued his search, and was intently engaged when +suddenly he heard a sepulchral groan at the instant he had plunged into +a sort of pocket and was feeling around; but when he heard that groan he +started back into the cave and stood as white as a sheet gazing around +in every direction, and there was a wild terror in his eyes. He stood +for fully two minutes gazing and listening, and finally he said: +</p> +<p> +"Great Scott! what was that I heard—a groan?" +</p> +<p> +Desmond, although brave and vigorous, after all was but a lad of less +than eighteen. He could have faced a grizzly bear, but when it came to +the supernatural he was not equal to it. The fact was he was dead +scared, and, then again he believed he had really struck the hidden +recess where the old Mexican's gold was secreted. +</p> +<p> +The young are more susceptible to superstitious fears, as a rule, than +older people; they are not skeptical. +</p> +<p> +Desmond listened a long time, and as he did not hear the noise again, +and feeling an intense desire to find the hidden treasure, he again went +to the rock pocket and plunged in, but immediately there came again the +groan, clear, distinct, and unmistakable, and also a voice commanding: +</p> +<p> +"Go away, go away; do not disturb my gold." +</p> +<p> +The lad leaped out into the main cave again, and he trembled from head +to foot. He had never received such a shock in all his life; he had +never really believed in ghosts—never thought much about them +indeed—but here he had at least evidence that the dead did watch their +treasures. Still, the desire to secure the wealth was strong upon him; +naturally he was, as our readers know, very nervy, and he determined to +argue with the ghost. He reasoned that the hidden wealth could be of no +benefit to the spirit where he was, and he thought he might talk him +into keeping quiet. +</p> +<p> +It was in a trembling voice that Desmond asked: +</p> +<p> +"Is the spirit here?" +</p> +<p> +The answer came: +</p> +<p> +"I am here." +</p> +<p> +A more experienced person than Desmond would have gotten on to the fact +that it was very strange that the spirit should answer him in such good +English, it being supposed to be the spirit of a Mexican, but spirits +probably can talk any language. At any rate, Desmond did not stop to +consider. +</p> +<p> +"Do you own the gold?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Why can't I have it? I've found it." +</p> +<p> +"You get away as quick as you can or I'll seize you." +</p> +<p> +Well, well, this was a great state of affairs; Desmond did not ask any +more questions. He seized his lamp and started to limp from the cave, +and he was white and trembling. He made his way to Creedon Hall and +beheld Brooks and Creedon standing over the fire. On the face of Brooks +there was an amused look, and on Creedon's an expression of real +jollity. +</p> +<p> +"Great sakes! Desmond," demanded Brooks, "where have you been? I awoke +and found you missing, and Creedon and I have been scared almost to +death." +</p> +<p> +Desmond tried to assume an indifferent air, and said: +</p> +<p> +"I wasn't sleepy, so I thought I would go and explore a little." +</p> +<p> +"You had better be careful how you explore around here." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, that's all; I won't say any more, but be careful, or you may be +suddenly missing." +</p> +<p> +"What did you find, boy?" +</p> +<p> +"I'll tell you all about it in the morning." +</p> +<p> +The men retired to their blankets and Desmond also lay down, after +having promised that he would not attempt to explore any more that +night. +</p> +<p> +He did not sleep, however; the phantom voice, the treasure, and his +discovery kept him awake, and he lay thinking about ghosts and goblins, +and he muttered; +</p> +<p> +"Hang it! I never believed in ghosts;" then as he lay there, there came +to his mind a recollection of the jolly look that had rested on the face +of the guide, and there came to his mind a suspicion, and then a +certainty, that he had been fooled. He was a wonderfully sharp lad, and +he began to think the whole matter over, and he recalled the fact that +the ghost had spoken good English. +</p> +<p> +"Hang me!" he muttered, "if I don't believe I've been made a victim of a +huge joke, and Brooks and Creedon are both guilty in aiding to give me a +scare. All right, to-morrow we will see all about it; I'll get square." +</p> +<p> +Desmond did fall asleep at length, and when he awoke Brooks and Creedon +were eating their breakfast, and Creedon said as Desmond joined them: +</p> +<p> +"So you were exploring last night?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"What did you find?" +</p> +<p> +"Gold." +</p> +<p> +"You did?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, come off." +</p> +<p> +"I did." +</p> +<p> +"You think you did." +</p> +<p> +"I did, I'll swear I did." +</p> +<p> +"Where did you find it?" +</p> +<p> +"In a cave which one of those passages leads to." +</p> +<p> +"You found gold?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"You will have to be careful." +</p> +<p> +"Careful?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"You'll strike the ghost." +</p> +<p> +"The ghost?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"What ghost?" +</p> +<p> +"The ghost of the old Mexican." +</p> +<p> +"I did think I heard a groan. Tell me about the old Mexican." +</p> +<p> +"I've told you all I know about him, and I'll tell you that in my +opinion it will be dangerous to meddle with his gold, even if you found +it." +</p> +<p> +"Could that old Mexican speak English?" +</p> +<p> +"A little." +</p> +<p> +"Only a little?" repeated Desmond. +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Then it's just as I suspected; I tell you I was scared at first, but +when the old ghost answered me—" +</p> +<p> +"When the ghost answered you?" demanded Creedon. +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Did you see the ghost?" +</p> +<p> +"I heard him—that is, I thought I did—and I spoke to him, but he gave +me back such good English I made up my mind that you didn't know how to +play a joke. Next time stick to the broken English; you might have +scared the life out of me then." +</p> +<p> +Brooks and Creedon laughed, and the latter said: +</p> +<p> +"Well, you are smart, you are; but, lad, let me tell you something: +don't spend time looking for the Mexican's gold." +</p> +<p> +"Why not?" +</p> +<p> +"I've explored every nook and cranny in this mountain, and there is no +treasure hidden here." +</p> +<p> +"But I found some gold." +</p> +<p> +"You did?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +Creedon and Brooks stared. +</p> +<p> +"Are you in earnest?" +</p> +<p> +"I am." +</p> +<p> +"Where did you find it?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, I am going to consider awhile before I tell." +</p> +<p> +Brooks looked Desmond straight in the face, and asked: +</p> +<p> +"Boy, honest, did you really find gold?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I did." +</p> +<p> +The matter began to assume a very serious aspect, for Desmond spoke +seriously. +</p> +<p> +"If you found any gold, lad, you've beat me." +</p> +<p> +"I did find gold." +</p> +<p> +"On your honor?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Well, here we are on shares; tell us all about it." +</p> +<p> +Desmond laughed in turn; they had had their laugh and he had his laugh, +as he said: +</p> +<p> +"Here is what I found." +</p> +<p> +The lad produced the little nugget he had picked up and then Creedon +laughed, and said: +</p> +<p> +"By George! that is the bit of gold I lost, and I had a good hunt for +it." +</p> +<p> +Our hero had been impressed by Creedon's statement that he had examined +every nook and corner in the mountain, and yet he did feel a sort of +hankering notion that he could find the gold, and he said: +</p> +<p> +"I want to explore again." +</p> +<p> +"All right; it can do no harm, but I will relinquish all claim now to +any gold that you may find in this cave." +</p> +<p> +"I'll take you at your word," said Desmond. +</p> +<p> +Of course the youth had no real hope of ever finding any gold, but it is +a known fact that such finds have been made, and sometimes the skeletons +of the owners have been found bleaching beside their gold. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h2> + CHAPTER V. +</h2> + +<h3> +BOY'S DETERMINATION—GOING THROUGH A CREVICE—THE +MOVABLE ROCK—AID TO DISCOVER—UP THROUGH +A HOLE—THE GOLDEN HEAP—DESMOND'S GREAT +TRIUMPH—THE OLD MEXICAN'S SECRET EXPOSED. +</h3><p> </p> +<p> +Desmond was somewhat impressed by the words of Creedon, but still +insisted that he would like to conduct an exploration. +</p> +<p> +"You will only go over the ground that I have already gone over." +</p> +<p> +"I know that, but I propose to look around all the same." +</p> +<p> +Desmond had been doing considerable thinking. He questioned Creedon +again and again, and made out that the old Mexican had lived in the cave +along with Creedon for months at a time, and as he learned, the old man +had thrown out a great many hints. These hints meant something; and then +again, if he had hidden his wealth in the cave he had done it so +securely and well that he had no idea of its ever being discovered until +such time as he saw fit to disclose the fact. Desmond knew how there +were some strange conformations in the rocks; the very place they were +in was a testimony to the strange freaks that nature in its upheavals +can and does create. +</p> +<p> +Brooks had nothing to say about the matter, and Creedon did remark +finally: +</p> +<p> +"Of course, as I've said, it can do no harm, but be careful you don't +strike—" +</p> +<p> +Desmond here interrupted, and said: +</p> +<p> +"I ain't afraid of ghosts; I've met one and I've got used to them." +</p> +<p> +"I don't mean a ghost, I mean a crevice; go very slow and carefully, or +you may become a ghost yourself." +</p> +<p> +Right here we wish to exchange a few words with our readers in regard to +these rock conformations. Right in the State of New York, in Ulster +County, and in what is called the Shawangunk Mountains, there are some +of the most wonderful caves and crevices, and in some of these caves +during the winter the snow drifts down, and in the spring becomes a +solid mass of ice, and the writer remembers upon one occasion after a +long and weary scramble over rocks under the face of a cliff which +towers up and overlooks counties, being shown a rock cave where there +was a solid mass of ice, which, in its contour resembled a ship. The ice +must have been at least sixty feet in length, twenty feet broad, and +fully forty feet high, and adjoining it were all manner of caves. These +caves are within a few miles of several settlements, and possibly at the +time of the visit of the writer had not been entered by over a dozen +persons. In these mountains are some very remarkable rock conformations, +and we merely mention this fact to the lads in the East, who may think +that these stories of rock caverns are exaggerated. There are probably +hundreds of caves in the Catskill and Shawangunk Mountains that have +never been entered or explored since the days when the early settlers +may have found them while bear hunting. +</p> +<p> +Desmond had been raised, as we have stated, near the mountains, and +probably had explored many rock caverns, and it is because of this fact +probably that he was not surprised when led to the cave where he first +beheld the girl Amy Brooks. That cave still exists and is well known to +many of the people living in its vicinity, and in our description we +adhered to almost absolute accuracy. +</p> +<p> +Creedon was a rough and ready sort of man, but not, the fellow, as +Desmond argued, who would apply himself to a critical study. It was a +great thing to have learned the facts concerning the old Mexican, and +the lad really believed that there was gold secreted somewhere in one of +the little cavities in that perforated mountain. +</p> +<p> +Creedon started in to relate to Brooks the facts about the mine he +believed he had discovered, and Desmond, taking the mask lantern, +started off to explore. +</p> +<p> +"You will burn out all my oil, lad; that is the only harm you will do, +and certainly little good. I cannot replenish the oil when it's burned +out, and I've been very careful, holding it for only such occasions as +when we came here across the chasm." +</p> +<p> +Creedon explained that he had only carried with him one can of oil, +which had lasted him to date. +</p> +<p> +Desmond started off and went direct to the crevice he had first entered, +and Creedon smiled as he saw him go in there, remarking to Brooks: +</p> +<p> +"The lad will run up against a stone wall sure, but he is enthusiastic; +it will be a lesson to him." +</p> +<p> +"Can't tell about that lad," said Brooks, "there is method in his +enthusiasm." +</p> +<p> +"That's all right, but I was camped in here one whole winter, and as I +told you, there is not a nook or cranny that I have not explored." +</p> +<p> +"But there are others," said Brooks, with an odd smile on his face. +</p> +<p> +Meantime, Desmond followed the crevice until he came to the stone wall. +He knew about the same wall, but he was working on a certain theory. He +was like the Captain Kidd treasure-seekers—the discouragement of others +did not in any way discourage him, and we will here say that a similar +persistence in any walk of life, as a rule, leads to great results. +</p> +<p> +Desmond, as stated, arrived opposite the stone wall, and he commenced a +calm, steady, determined examination. First appearances would have +discouraged any man, being faced as he was by a solid, smooth face of +rock. He stood contemplating the mass before him, and then with the ray +of light from his lantern he ran all over the rock. +</p> +<p> +"By ginger!" he muttered at last, "I reckon it's true. There does not +appear a hole big enough in that rock for a spider to crawl through; +but, hang me! I've got an impression." +</p> +<p> +There appeared to be a break in the rock just where it joined with the +roof of the cave. Desmond rolled a bowlder over against the rock and +mounted, and ran his finger over the crack. It was not a large crack and +offered no encouragement, but the lad was determined not to be satisfied +until he had established facts beyond all dispute. He ran his finger, as +stated, along the crack, and his knuckle pressed against the roof, and +to his surprise there appeared to be a loosening. He examined it and he +saw that there was a uniform crack running along the roof inclosing a +space about two feet square. The lad instinctively pressed on the center +between the cracks, and lo, there appeared to be a piece of the roof +that yielded. He pressed harder and satisfied himself that the piece of +rock between the cracks in the roof was movable. The discovery caused +his heart to stand still, and he muttered: +</p> +<p> +"Great Scott! but I've found it." He flashed the light on the crack and +thought he could discern where there had been some chiseling. He made +every effort to shift the rock out of its place, but it was too much for +him, owing to the fact that he could just about reach it. He did not +have purchase enough to exert his full strength. +</p> +<p> +He stepped down on the floor again and commenced to consider, and then +he determined to return to the main cave and solicit Brooks and Creedon +to go to his aid. +</p> +<p> +When he re-entered the main cavern Creedon with a laugh said: +</p> +<p> +"Well, lad, did you run up against a stone wall?" +</p> +<p> +"I did." +</p> +<p> +"I told you it was of no use to search these crevices. I've explored +every inch." +</p> +<p> +"You have?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"I think not." +</p> +<p> +Brooks knew Desmond so well he discerned that the lad had really made a +discovery, but he said nothing. +</p> +<p> +"You think not, eh?" +</p> +<p> +"I do." +</p> +<p> +"That would hint that you had found something." +</p> +<p> +"I have." +</p> +<p> +"What have you found?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know yet, but I am certain I have found a cranny or nook that +you never explored." +</p> +<p> +"You have?" +</p> +<p> +"I have." +</p> +<p> +"What have you found?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, it may be that it's 'tellings,' as the boys say." +</p> +<p> +Creedon looked at the lad in a curious way. +</p> +<p> +"It cannot be possible," he said, "that you have found anything?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I have." +</p> +<p> +"What have you found?" +</p> +<p> +"Guess." +</p> +<p> +"It's no time to guess; what have you found?" +</p> +<p> +"I'll show you what I've found; I want your help." +</p> +<p> +The lad found a piece of sapling about seven feet in length, and said: +</p> +<p> +"You gentlemen come with me; I'll show you something." +</p> +<p> +Animated by great interest and curiosity, Brooks and Creedon followed +Desmond. He led them to the little rock cave where the crevice abutted +on the solid wall of rock, and he said: +</p> +<p> +"Now what do you see?" +</p> +<p> +"We see the rock." +</p> +<p> +"Is that all?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Look sharp; there is something you have not discovered before." +</p> +<p> +"What is it?" +</p> +<p> +"Look." +</p> +<p> +"I've looked." +</p> +<p> +"I reckon when you did look upon the occasion of your former visits you +did as you are doing now—only <i>looked</i>, but you did not search." +</p> +<p> +"Have you searched?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I have." +</p> +<p> +"And you've found something?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I have." +</p> +<p> +"What?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, look." +</p> +<p> +"I'm done looking." +</p> +<p> +"Then let me show you." +</p> +<p> +Desmond took the strong piece of sapling he had brought with him and +jammed one end with great force against the square piece of roofing, and +the piece of rock moved. +</p> +<p> +Creedon gazed aghast and exclaimed: +</p> +<p> +"By all that's strange and wonderful, but I believe you have unfolded +the Mexican's secret." +</p> +<p> +"I think so; and now lend me your strength, both of you, and let's see +if we can move that loose piece of rock. I'll bet there is an opening +there." +</p> +<p> +"You are right—yes, lad, you have indeed raked into the old Mexican's +treasure den; I can recall now some words he once spoke." +</p> +<p> +"Don't spend any more time recalling; let's shove that rock aside if we +can." +</p> +<p> +The two men lent their aid to Desmond, and sure enough they did raise +the piece of rock, and by hoisting it they managed to move it aside a +trifle, enough to reveal the fact that there was a chamber above, and +that the opening was through the piece of rock. +</p> +<p> +It was a reward of Desmond's persistence, but after all it was accident +that had revealed to him the opening. +</p> +<p> +By hard work the men finally succeeded in moving the rock aside, and +there was disclosed the opening, and Desmond said: +</p> +<p> +"Now let me stand on our shoulders with the light and I will tell you +what it is we have found. There is something there to reveal, I am dead +sure." +</p> +<p> +The two men assisted Desmond to their shoulders. He took the lantern and +shoved his head through the opening, and then flashed the light around, +and with a joyful shout exclaimed: +</p> +<p> +"We've got it!" +</p> +<p> +"This beats me dead," said Creedon. +</p> +<p> +Both men were greatly excited, for it did appear that they had made a +great find of hidden treasure. +</p> +<p> +Meantime, Desmond managed to force himself up and disappeared in the +cave. He glanced around and beheld a sight that filled him with varying +emotions. +</p> +<p> +The chamber was not more than four feet square, but on the floor in one +corner was a shining heap. It shone under the ray of his lantern as he +flashed the light upon it. He took a handful of the shining stuff and +passed it down to Creedon, handing him the lantern at the same time, and +he said: +</p> +<p> +"You are a good judge; tell me what that is?" +</p> +<p> +"It's gold dust," cried Creedon; "how much is there of it?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, barrels full, I should say." +</p> +<p> +"Great ginger! lad, you've struck it." +</p> +<p> +"Well, it won't run away, I reckon, but give me your hat and I'll fill +it." +</p> +<p> +"Is that to be my share?" +</p> +<p> +"No, we're only giving you the first whack at it, that's all." +</p> +<p> +Desmond filled Creedon's hat with the dust and then descended, and the +whole party made their way to the outer cavern. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h2> + CHAPTER VI. +</h2> + +<h3> +DISCUSSING THE FIND—A NEW RESOLUTION—GOING TO CREEDON MINE—A +DISAPPOINTMENT—BETTER INDICATIONS—A NEW MOVE. +</h3><p> </p> +<p> +Once in the outer cavern, Desmond said: +</p> +<p> +"It's now a matter of business." +</p> +<p> +"Well?" +</p> +<p> +"How shall we divide?" +</p> +<p> +"You are the finder," replied Creedon; "you are to decide." +</p> +<p> +"You leave it to me?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"I'll make it an even divide all round." +</p> +<p> +"Boy, it's a great discovery." +</p> +<p> +"What do you think of its value?" +</p> +<p> +"It depends upon the weight, but from your description I should say we +had a ten-thousand-dollar find." +</p> +<p> +Desmond's eyes opened wide, and after a moment he asked: +</p> +<p> +"Does it really belong to us?" +</p> +<p> +"It does certainly; I am really the appointed heir of the old Mexican, +but anyway treasure-trove goes to the finder who can establish a right +to it." +</p> +<p> +"We can," said Brooks. +</p> +<p> +"You bet we can, and it is ours, but it's strange how the old Mexican's +secret has been opened up. Here I've had five years to search for this +gold and failed to find it, and this lad gets on to it in one day." +</p> +<p> +"It was a mere chance." +</p> +<p> +"Well, yes, to a certain extent; but if you had not been so persistent +you would not have developed the chance and made the find possible." +</p> +<p> +"How did the old man accumulate this gold?" +</p> +<p> +"It's plain enough; he has known some stream and has washed it, and +possibly it took him ten years to gather the heap you found there; but +how well he did it!" +</p> +<p> +"He did, sure." +</p> +<p> +"How shall we make a divide?" +</p> +<p> +"Easy enough if you will let me make a suggestion." +</p> +<p> +"Certainly." +</p> +<p> +"We will carry it all out here; we run no risk, no one will ever +penetrate to this retreat; then when we have it all carted out here we +will divide it, a coffee cup full at time." +</p> +<p> +"Good enough; that suits me." +</p> +<p> +"But wait; I've a better proposition if you will accept it." +</p> +<p> +"Go ahead." +</p> +<p> +"Let's leave it where it is, go on to my mine, and if it amounts to +anything we will have the capital to work it ourselves." +</p> +<p> +Desmond glanced at Brooks, and the man said: +</p> +<p> +"That is a good proposition." +</p> +<p> +Brooks was less suspicious than Desmond, but the lad determined to +accede to the proposition, and it was decided that on the following +morning they would start for Creedon's mine, and the guide said: +</p> +<p> +"We will start before daylight." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"We had better cross the chasm in the dark; I am afraid you would hardly +recross it if you were to behold once what would be underneath you." +</p> +<p> +It was so decided. +</p> +<p> +The party made all their preparations and on the following morning, +before daylight, with the aid of Creedon's ladder the party crossed the +chasm and proceeded on their way toward the place where Creedon's mine +was located. They managed to secure enough game which they cooked and +had for food, and commenced their long march, and it was a long march. +They had been five days on the tramp, and stopped one night to camp, +when Creedon said: +</p> +<p> +"In the morning we will be on the ground." +</p> +<p> +The place where they were camped was a mountain glen, and our young +friend Desmond, being in splendid health, was exceedingly happy. The +life thus far had been one of constant excitement, and therefore at his +age one of continuous enjoyment, and besides, to crown all, he was +comparatively rich. As intimated, Creedon had valued the dust at ten +thousand dollars, and when it should be turned into money Desmond could +indeed clear his mother's farm and go to school, and then to college, +and it was his highest ambition to obtain a fine education. He was an +ambitious lad. +</p> +<p> +Creedon was restless and excited all the evening; for him a great +decision was to be rendered. He had come to know that Brooks was indeed +an expert, and should the latter decide that his claim was of value it +meant that for which he had been struggling a long time, as he had said, +for fifteen years. +</p> +<p> +Creedon did not sleep; much danger would not have kept him awake, but +the possibilities of the dawning day did cause exceeding restlessness. +Desmond noticed that the woodsman did not sleep and went over and sat +near him. +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter, lad; why don't you sleep?" +</p> +<p> +"Why don't you sleep?" +</p> +<p> +"To tell the truth, I can't." +</p> +<p> +"Neither can I." +</p> +<p> +"I don't see what keeps you awake." +</p> +<p> +"The possibilities of the coming day." +</p> +<p> +Creedon was in a thoughtful mood, and Desmond asked: +</p> +<p> +"Why are you so anxious to get rich?" +</p> +<p> +"Lad, I'll tell you: I am thirty-three years old; I started from home +when I was less than eighteen; my father was a poor man. Living in our +town was a rich man who had a lovely daughter; she was just fifteen. I +had known her from the time we were wee little tots, and we fell in love +with each other, although she was fifteen and I but a little past +seventeen, but her father was rich; he despised low people, and that +girl and I agreed that I was to leave home, go into the world and earn a +fortune, and go back and claim her. We made a solemn agreement, pledged +ourselves under the stars, she was to wait for me even if I did not +return until I was a gray-haired man. Boy, she is waiting yet; she is a +handsome woman now—I have her photograph—and once a year I receive a +letter from her. She has urged me to return; her father is dead and she +has a competency in her own right, but I am not willing to go home, +marry her and live on her money; and besides, I want to get rich—real +rich. I wish to buy her the finest house in our native town, give her +horses and carriages; I'll die before I will return poor. The people in +the town have often and often hurt her feelings by their deridings, +telling her that I had forgotten her, that if I did succeed in winning a +fortune I would never return to her, but would marry some one else. They +told her I was a thriftless vagrant, never would get rich, and through +all this she has remained true to me, and every time I receive a letter +from her she urges me to return. I don't know; if my mine turns out all +right I will return, if it don't I will not return, and here I am just +about to learn what the chances are. It means to me life, love, and +happiness, or a return to the endless longing that has inspired me for +the last fifteen years; but, boy, I will never return unless I have a +fortune." +</p> +<p> +"No wonder you are restless, and I am now as much interested in our +success on your account as I am on my own." +</p> +<p> +"I have high hopes, lad—yes, high hopes." +</p> +<p> +On the morning following the dialogue related, all hands were up bright +and early and they started for the mine, and in two hours were on the +ground. Creedon was pale as a pictured ghost while pointing out to +Brooks the indications, and Brooks also was excited as he made his +study. +</p> +<p> +We will not bore our readers with an account of the investigations made +by Brooks, but will state that at the end of the second day he was +compelled to announce that the mine was valueless. +</p> +<p> +Desmond thought he had never seen a more disconsolate look on any man's +face than the one that settled over the face of Creedon when the +announcement was made. +</p> +<p> +"Your mine don't amount to anything in itself," said Brooks, "but it +carries a suggestion; it is a compass that points to where a valuable +mine may be found. We are not in it yet; to-morrow I will make a survey +and I may get indications that will carry us to the ledge where the gold +ores extend in paying quantities—yes, I think I can read the +indications as plainly as though the road were mapped out." +</p> +<p> +Brooks spent two days, and then said: +</p> +<p> +"It's all right; there is a mine somewhere, but I must have the proper +instruments and testing utensils. I will leave you and Desmond here in +the mountains and proceed to the nearest settlement and secure what I +need. Creedon, I can almost promise you that we will find a rich +digging, and it will be more accessible than this one." +</p> +<p> +"I have a better plan," said Creedon. +</p> +<p> +"What is your plan?" +</p> +<p> +"We will go and get the dust that the lad found; we will carry that to +the town, dispose of it, get our money, make our deposits in the bank, +and then start in on the search. Possessing the knowledge that you do, +we will find a mine. I am not discouraged yet." +</p> +<p> +It was so agreed, and the party made their way back to where they had +their store of dust. Creedon had made some deerskin bags so that the +burden would not fall upon one person. The dust was all secured and they +made a start for the town. +</p> +<p> +On the night when they made their last halt before ending their trip in +the town, Brooks, the wizard tramp, took advantage of an opportunity to +talk to Desmond alone. He said: +</p> +<p> +"Lad, to-morrow we will be in the town and we will have money. I have a +proposition. It will take a year or two to develop matters in case I do +locate the mine; you cannot afford at your time of life to spend a year. +I do not need you with me now. I am a man again, thanks to you, and I +will make a confidant of Creedon. He is a manly, honest fellow, and will +watch over me. Our joint interest will make him a splendid sentinel. I +feel that we are sure to win, if not in one direction in another. With +my scientific knowledge and his practical knowledge we will win, but it +may be two or three years. This is a fascinating life for you, but you +cannot afford to lose this valuable time." +</p> +<p> +"What is it you are about to propose?" +</p> +<p> +"I can send you home with five thousand dollars and I will still have +money enough to carry on our purpose. You can clear off the farm and go +to school; you are ambitious, and in less than a year you will be +prepared to stand an examination for college, and you can go with a +cheerful heart, for if my life is spared I will win a fortune for you. I +have no use for a fortune myself; I am working for you and Amy." +</p> +<p> +"But suppose something should happen to you? Do you remember you have +not made your revelation?" +</p> +<p> +"I propose to provide for that; I will confide to you a document. It is +not to be opened until you are assured of my death, so living or dead +you shall in good time learn the great secret that I have held all these +years." +</p> +<p> +"I must think this matter over," said Desmond. +</p> +<p> +"There must be no thinking. I have decided as to what you must do." +</p> +<p> +"And you do not want me to go back at all?" +</p> +<p> +"No, I want you to go home to the State of New York; I want you to go to +clear off the farm and go to school, and I will attend to your affairs +out here." +</p> +<p> +"I will decide in the morning." +</p> +<p> +That night Desmond thought over the whole matter. He had become +fascinated with the life in the mountains, but when he revolved the +whole matter in his mind he saw that it was indeed wiser for him to +return to his home; and under what joyful circumstances he would +return! He could clear the farm and have money in the bank; he could go +to school and go to college, and devote his whole attention to study +without any worry or fear, and in the morning he greeted Brooks with the +announcement: +</p> +<p> +"I have decided to obey you." +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h2> + CHAPTER VII. +</h2> + +<h3> +A SAD PARTING—PROPHETIC WORDS—ON THE TRAIN—A +SENATOR'S SON—LEADING UP TO A TRICK—GENUINE +FUN AHEAD. +</h3><p> </p> +<p> +There came a sad look to the face of Brooks, and he said: +</p> +<p> +"I shall miss you, Desmond, but I feel it is for the best. You are a +youth of great promise. I do not mean to flatter you, I am speaking the +truth, and it is in your interest that I so warmly advocate your return +to the East. I desire that you become an educated man, a graduate of +college; I wish you to secure your degree. And let me tell you now there +was fate in our meeting, and very remarkable consequences may follow our +acquaintance begun and maintained under such strange circumstances." +</p> +<p> +Desmond had never beheld his strange friend, the wizard tramp, under a +similar mood. There appeared to be a prophetic spell prompting the words +of the strange man. +</p> +<p> +"I hope you do not wish to get rid of me." +</p> +<p> +"No, I am speaking in your interest alone, lad; my life has been a +wasted one, yours is just commencing. You can be of some use in the +world, I have been a nuisance. I have a strange tale to tell—yes, +Desmond, like many others I have encountered a romance in life. I +deliberately threw myself away, but where I failed you can win; there is +a chance for you to become a useful man; great honor may await you +because you possess the qualities that win success. You are brave, firm, +and persistent, also enterprising; with these qualities, in this land, +any young man can win a success against the great throng of unambitious +and careless men like myself." +</p> +<p> +"Can you trust yourself?" +</p> +<p> +"I can." +</p> +<p> +"You are certain?" +</p> +<p> +"I am." +</p> +<p> +"You do not need me?" +</p> +<p> +"I do not." +</p> +<p> +"Remember, your weakness upon several occasions permitted you to fall." +</p> +<p> +"I have considered everything; I have an object in life now and a +prospect." +</p> +<p> +"A prospect?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Is there anything you are concealing from me?" +</p> +<p> +"I am considering your interests alone," was the reply. +</p> +<p> +"But your revelation?" +</p> +<p> +"It is not necessary for me to tell you once again that I have provided +for you to learn the secret of my life in case anything should happen to +me." +</p> +<p> +Desmond at once began his arrangements for a return to the East. He had +been away for many months; he had plenty of money; his return would be +in great triumph in every way. He purchased fine clothes, which he was +able to do even in the far Western town where he was stopping, and when +he arrayed himself in his good clothes even Brooks was surprised at the +wonderful transformation well-fitting attire made in the youth. Desmond +was indeed a fine-looking fellow, well educated comparatively, and as is +not unusually the case, he was naturally capable of adapting himself to +changed conditions. He did not seem awkward in his good clothes, but +appeared as though he had worn fine attire all his life. +</p> +<p> +At length the hour came when Desmond and Brooks were to part company. +The wizard tramp had a sad look upon his face, although he tried to be +cheerful and jovial The attempt, however, was a failure. He said: +</p> +<p> +"I will not go with you to the train, Desmond, we will part here, and +you can address your letters to me here; I will arrange to have them +forwarded to me in case I go prospecting again." +</p> +<p> +"You will go prospecting, I suppose, of course." +</p> +<p> +"I cannot tell; but remember, if anything happens to me I have arranged +for you to be communicated with." +</p> +<p> +There came a look of concern to our hero's face, and the discerning +Brooks said: +</p> +<p> +"You have something to say." +</p> +<p> +"I have an idea." +</p> +<p> +"Well?" +</p> +<p> +"There is great peril in the wilderness." +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"There have been cases where men have lost their lives and their deaths +have not become known until many years afterward." +</p> +<p> +"That is true, lad, and I have calculated for that." +</p> +<p> +"You have?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"How?" +</p> +<p> +"You will know if such an event should occur. In the meantime let me +tell you if a year should pass and you do not hear from me you will know +that I am dead." +</p> +<p> +"And then?" +</p> +<p> +"Tell Amy." +</p> +<p> +"And then?" +</p> +<p> +"She may make a disclosure to you. Remember, I have taken every +precaution." +</p> +<p> +"I do not know why you should withhold from me your life secret. No harm +could come of an immediate revelation, but of course you have your own +reasons for withholding your story." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, that is it, I have reasons; no harm might come of an immediate +revelation, but I have reasons of a very satisfactory character to +myself. You will understand and appreciate them when they are made known +to you. Desmond, I am a changed man; you need have no fear concerning me +now; time has righted a wrong. I am strong now—that is, normally +strong—all will go well, I believe, if not with me at least with you." +</p> +<p> +A little later and our hero was on his way across the country to the +town where he was to take the train, and a better equipped lad for +adventure never boarded a train, and lo, he encountered several very +thrilling adventures ere he arrived at the valley farm where kind hearts +beat to greet him. +</p> +<p> +Desmond had been on the train but a few minutes really when he observed +a tall, country-looking young fellow, who fixed his eyes on him. As has +been demonstrated all through our narrative, Desmond was a very quick, +discerning chap; in the language of the day, he was "up to snuff," and +the instant he caught the eye of the country-looking fellow he knew that +something was up, and he discerned more which will be disclosed as our +narrative advances. +</p> +<p> +Desmond had not boarded a through train; he was to go to a large town +where he would meet a through express. The train he had entered was a +way train, and he seated himself by the window. No one was in the seat +with him at first, but soon the country-looking chap took a seat beside +him. The latter appeared to be a jolly, innocent sort of chap, and he +addressed the young adventurer with the words: +</p> +<p> +"Hello!" +</p> +<p> +There came a merry gleam in Desmond's eyes, as he asked: +</p> +<p> +"Do you take me for a telephone?" +</p> +<p> +The stranger arched his eyebrows, and demanded: +</p> +<p> +"A telephone?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"What makes you ask that question?" +</p> +<p> +"Because you yelled 'hello' in my ear." +</p> +<p> +"I've heard about telephones, but I never saw one." +</p> +<p> +"You never did?" +</p> +<p> +"No; what are they like?" +</p> +<p> +The question was asked seemingly in the most innocent manner, but the +keen-witted Desmond's suspicions were at once aroused, and on the +instant he made a curious discovery. The fellow was a make-up, under a +disguise, and consequently under immediate suspicion also. +</p> +<p> +"So you never saw a telephone?" +</p> +<p> +"Never." +</p> +<p> +"You <i>tell</i> me that?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +Our hero knew he had a long journey before him; he was naturally very +fond of a joke and excitement, and besides he had instinctive hatred for +designing men. Our hero was aware that the trains, as a rule, are +infested with sharps, and the efforts of the railroad companies to +squelch these nuisances are not altogether successful. Our adventurer +determined to have a little amusement, and if his suspicions were fully +verified he was resolved to teach at least one sharp a good lesson. We +will repeat, Desmond did not look like an athlete or a youth who had +seen the rough side of life; he could easily be mistaken for an +ordinarily bright youth who had much to learn. +</p> +<p> +"So you really never saw a telephone?" +</p> +<p> +"Never," repeated the man. +</p> +<p> +Desmond, having determined upon his course of action, assumed a most +serious air, and with the greatest earnestness graphically described a +telephone, and the stranger appeared to be all interest and attention, +and expressed his surprise by innocent ejaculations, as our hero related +the wonderful possibilities of the telephone. +</p> +<p> +It was an amusing scene, or would have been to one who was under the +rose and understood that a game was being played. +</p> +<p> +When Desmond's description apparently, as stated, told in the most +earnest manner the sharp, as we shall call him, said: +</p> +<p> +"Well that beats me, it beats anything I ever heard. See here, stranger, +you are making a fool of me with a big fish story because I am a green +Western man, born and raised on the prairie." +</p> +<p> +"No, I've told you the truth." +</p> +<p> +"Well, well, you come from the city?" +</p> +<p> +"No, I am going to the city." +</p> +<p> +"New York?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Is that your home?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, <i>New York lies near where</i> I live." +</p> +<p> +"Dear me, what wonderful sights you have seen!" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, sir." +</p> +<p> +"That New York is a wonderful place." +</p> +<p> +"You bet it is." +</p> +<p> +"I am going there some day—yes, I've said I'd see New York some day and +I will. It must make a man blind for a few days to go around there." +</p> +<p> +"Well, yes, it is rather dazzling," said Desmond. +</p> +<p> +So the conversation continued for quite a time and finally the stranger +rose and went away, saying he would return immediately. Quite a +respectable-looking man took the vacated seat beside Desmond, and the +last neighbor asked: +</p> +<p> +"Do you know that green-looking chap who was just talking to you?" +</p> +<p> +"No, sir, I never saw him before." +</p> +<p> +"Then you don't know who he is?" +</p> +<p> +"No, sir." +</p> +<p> +"That is a son of Senator F——, the richest mine owner out in this +</p> +<p> +Desmond studied the man who was giving him this unsolicited information, +and he concluded that the nice-looking man was sharp number two; he was +up to this sort of business and perceived the whole game. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, he appears like a good, honest fellow," said Desmond. +</p> +<p> +"Honest? why, you could trust him with all you had in the world." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, he looks that." +</p> +<p> +"He is one of the kindest-hearted fellows in the world. I tell you if +you get into trouble he is the man to aid you. He is the best pistol +shot and rifle shot in the land. Why, that fellow has fought off a whole +tribe of Indians. The redskins fear him as a white man fears the devil, +and his father is one of the richest men out in this section, as I told +you." +</p> +<p> +"Yes. He don't look like a millionaire's son." +</p> +<p> +"No, but he is all the same, and he appears to have taken a great fancy +to you. I was watching him while he talked to you; I tell you no one +will interfere with you anywhere in this land if they know that he is +your friend." +</p> +<p> +"That's good." +</p> +<p> +"Yes. He is a splendid fellow." +</p> +<p> +The man who had volunteered all this information walked into a forward +car, and a few moments later the senator's son, so-called, returned, and +as frequently occurs in far Western trains, the particular car in which +Desmond was riding was deserted. Our hero and the countryman had the car +all to themselves, and after a little further talk the senator's son +said: +</p> +<p> +"I wish some greeny would come in here, we'd have some fun." +</p> +<p> +"How?" +</p> +<p> +"I'll tell you, I am a regular juggler; I know all the tricks of +gamblers and I'd fool a fellow." +</p> +<p> +"Do you know all the tricks of gamblers?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, and sometimes I beat the game just for fun. You see I am down on +gamblers, I just like to beat them. Generally there are one or two of +those rascals on this train, but they know me; I don't get a chance at +them any more, so I sometimes amuse myself by astonishing greenhorns. By +ginger! but it's funny I've never been in New York; I am half a mind to +go right on to the great city with you." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, come along," said Desmond, a merry twinkle in his eyes. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h2> + CHAPTER VIII. +</h2> + +<h3> +PLAYING TO CATCH A WEASEL—A SHARP'S +SCHOLAR—OPENING UP OF THE GAME—TWO +BIG HANDS—A CRISIS. +</h3><p> </p> +<p> +"I can't go, but I'd like to; but you give me your address, and some day +you will see me in York. I feel like the man who said, 'See Venice and +die;' I want to see New York. Say, they tell me there are a great many +sharpers in that wonderful city." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it's full of them." +</p> +<p> +"Well, wouldn't I have fun beating those fellows, especially on the race +track, eh? They tell me these sharps are as thick as mosquitoes in +August down on the race tracks." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, they hover around there." +</p> +<p> +"I like you, young fellow." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I do." +</p> +<p> +"So you said." +</p> +<p> +"You're honest; I like an honest young fellow every time. Are you an +orphan?" +</p> +<p> +"A half orphan." +</p> +<p> +"Your mother dead?" +</p> +<p> +"No, my father." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I am just the other way—my mother is dead and my dad, he is away +up. They say he is a great man. I reckon he is, but I am no shakes; you +see I care more for fun than lands. Now, see here; I'll teach you some +tricks. Would you like to learn?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I would." +</p> +<p> +"Good enough, and when you get back to York you can punish some of those +sharps there, for my occupation is gone out here; they won't let me play +against them or I'd beat them every time—yes, I beat their game and +then give the money away to some poor person who needs it; but they +don't know you, and before we get to the end of the route some of those +fellows may get aboard, and as I said, they don't know you, and we'll +have some great fun; you can beat the game." +</p> +<p> +"I'd like to do that." +</p> +<p> +"You would?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"I was beaten once." +</p> +<p> +"You were?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"At what game?" +</p> +<p> +"Three card monte." +</p> +<p> +"Well, well! and did they ever come the thimblerig on you?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I had a taste of that also." +</p> +<p> +"Then you've been through the mill?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Well, now, see here; I'll teach you the game, and you are the only one +I ever will teach it to; you are honest. But if I were to teach the game +to some fellows who claim to be honest they would start in as gamblers +right away." +</p> +<p> +"I never will." +</p> +<p> +"No, I can see that in your eye; you've got an honest face; I like you +clean through." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you again." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, and I am going to learn you a trick or two." +</p> +<p> +"I'll be glad to learn." +</p> +<p> +The man produced his cards and said: +</p> +<p> +"I always carry an outfit with me just for fun." +</p> +<p> +"Is that so?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"That's fine." +</p> +<p> +We cannot in words describe the peculiar tones of our hero or the +singular expression upon his face, but he was playing for great fun. He +held in reserve a great surprise for the senator's son, a grand climax +and tableau was to close the scene, or rather, as Desmond classed it in +his mind, grand comedy. He did not know just how the fellow intended to +work his game; he believed the method would be a novel one, but he was +ready—yes, permitting himself to be led on to the grand climax. +</p> +<p> +The wizard tramp was an expert gambler and he had taught Desmond a great +many tricks in order to put the youth on his guard, and also for +amusement during their lonely hours together. All there was to learn +about the trick Desmond already knew, but he pretended ignorance, and +let the sharp go ahead. He proved an apt scholar, however, for the +senator's son said: +</p> +<p> +"Jiminy! I don't know but I am doing wrong." +</p> +<p> +"Doing wrong?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"You learn so quick you appear to be a natural gambler." +</p> +<p> +"I am pretty quick at learning points, I will admit." +</p> +<p> +"You are great." +</p> +<p> +Our hero had just about mastered the intricacies of the game when, lo, +three men entered the car, and the sharp whispered to the lad: +</p> +<p> +"Great Scott! here are a lot of 'gambs' as sure as you are alive. I +wonder if they will give me a chance at them; if they do I'll show you +some fun, if they don't you are up to the trick, you are my pupil, and +you can show me the fun." +</p> +<p> +"That's so." +</p> +<p> +"Lay low, my friend, don't go too fast or these fellows will become +suspicious. I want to catch them good, and we will if you play it +right." +</p> +<p> +Desmond was on to the trick; he saw how the game was to be played, and +he appreciated that it was indeed a neat little trick. They were working +to fleece him differently from any little game he had ever seen or had +read about. +</p> +<p> +The "gambs," as the sharp had called the newcomers in the car, did not +betray their game at once. They took a seat a little distance off and +commenced playing among themselves "only for fun," as they said loud +enough to be overheard. +</p> +<p> +"We'll catch them," whispered the sharp. +</p> +<p> +"I don't know; they do not appear disposed to let us into their game; +maybe they are acquainted with you." +</p> +<p> +"Never mind, they will go for you. Let me see, I'll go out of the car, +see! and then they will make your acquaintance. I'll be at hand in case +there is a row." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I see." +</p> +<p> +"We must catch these fellows and teach them a lesson." +</p> +<p> +"We will." +</p> +<p> +"We will have to blind them. Let me see; have you any money to make a +bluff on?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, plenty." +</p> +<p> +"Make believe you are making a bet with me and show a roll, then we will +bait them and they will go for you; and, oh, won't we give 'em a lesson? +You bet we will; we'll just clean them out and give the money to some +needy person—that is, you can—and you'll meet many a poor cuss before +you get to New York." +</p> +<p> +"You can meet them anywhere." +</p> +<p> +"Have you got a roll?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"A good sized one? for we want to give them a good bait." +</p> +<p> +Desmond was playing his part of the game well—very well—his whole +manner was right up to the mark—indeed, he did a fine piece of acting. +He pulled out a roll of bills, pretended to dispute with the sharp, and +suddenly exclaimed: +</p> +<p> +"I'll bet you a hundred." +</p> +<p> +"No, no, young fellow, I don't bet," said the sharp. "I know I am right, +I'd only be robbing you." +</p> +<p> +"I won't let you rob me; I am up to what I say." +</p> +<p> +The youth put an emphasis on his words which the sharp did not notice; +he thought he had such a sure thing, he was not looking for a false +"steer." Desmond saw the glitter, however, in the sharp's eyes at the +sight of the roll, for it looked like a big pile of money, and the sharp +appeared to feel, as indicated in his face, that the pile was already +his own. +</p> +<p> +"By ginger!" he said, "you are a dandy; you can play this game right up, +but don't be too anxious or you will scare those fellows off; just take +it easy, let them lead you on." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I know how to work; don't you forget I am a Yorker." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I see you Yorkers are smart fellows. You know a heap, I can see +that; but I did learn you some?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, and when we get through here, I'll teach you a trick." +</p> +<p> +The sharp shot a keen glance at Desmond, and the lad saw that he had +been a little premature, but it was only a fuse that flashed, and the +sharp said, speaking in a very low tone: +</p> +<p> +"I'll go in the next car, but I'll be on hand at the right moment. I +want to enjoy the laugh when you catch these fellows. You are sure you +are on to the trick?" +</p> +<p> +"I am." +</p> +<p> +"You must keep your eyes well open." +</p> +<p> +"You bet I will." +</p> +<p> +The sharp left the car, and after a moment one of the confederates came +over and took a seat alongside of Desmond, and in a jolly, familiar +tone, he said: +</p> +<p> +"You bucked the senator's son down, didn't you?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, yes." +</p> +<p> +"It takes a good man to buck him down; He's got lots of stuff and sand +too, but you bucked him." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I did." +</p> +<p> +"We're having a little game here to pass the time—it's awful dreary +these long rides. You see, we are salesmen and we've had some of these +fellows out here trying to rope us in, and we are trying to learn the +game." +</p> +<p> +"Don't you know the game?" +</p> +<p> +"No; do you?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, I know a little about it." +</p> +<p> +"Come along and show us what you know." +</p> +<p> +The party got together; Desmond appeared hale-fellow-well-met with the +rogues, and the game was played amid a great deal of laughter, until one +of the party said: +</p> +<p> +"By Jove! boys, I am on to this thing." +</p> +<p> +"You are?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I am." +</p> +<p> +"You daren't bet for fair." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I dare." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, come off." +</p> +<p> +"I'll bet for fair; I'll give every one of you a chance." +</p> +<p> +"You will?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I will." +</p> +<p> +"Come off." +</p> +<p> +"I am in earnest; who'll go first and bet me?" +</p> +<p> +"I will," said one man. +</p> +<p> +"All right." +</p> +<p> +The cards were thrown and a bet made, and the dealer was beat and lost +apparently a ten-dollar bill. +</p> +<p> +"All right; I was beat that time. Who'll take a second hack at it? I've +got it all right, and I'll catch some of you fellows." +</p> +<p> +"Will you?" +</p> +<p> +"I will, by thunder." +</p> +<p> +The trick was being played in the most bungling manner, simply because +when properly played the exposure would have shown the game. The second +man bet and won, and the dealer said: +</p> +<p> +"I give it up, let's play a little game we know something about." +</p> +<p> +"What will it be?" +</p> +<p> +"I'll deal you fellows a little faro; we might as well pass the time +that way as any other." +</p> +<p> +A game of faro commenced and Desmond went into the game, and in a little +time the original sharp came in the car and wanted to take a hand, and +it was then that the gamblers said: +</p> +<p> +"No, we won't let you; you are a 'jack' player; we are only amateurs." +</p> +<p> +The party played faro for a little while and then a regular game of +poker was proposed. The latter was a game that all hands could play in +for a trick; even the senator's son was permitted to enter the game, and +winking in a knowing manner to our hero he did get in the game, and the +four proceeded up to a crisis where, as usual, two men held hands of +value, and as it chanced, the original sharp was the man who held a hand +against Desmond, and he said: +</p> +<p> +"Here, I'll only make a small bet; I don't want to win your money." +</p> +<p> +"I'll bet you anything you want," said Desmond. +</p> +<p> +"Hello! are you in earnest?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I am." +</p> +<p> +"Do you really want to get my money?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I do." +</p> +<p> +"Dead sure?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"I've a big hand, I'll tell you that before you start in." +</p> +<p> +"That's all right, I'm betting on my hand." +</p> +<p> +"Now see here, young fellow, remember this is poker, and on principle I +always claim when I win, so don't bet high on your hand." +</p> +<p> +"I'll go as high as you choose." +</p> +<p> +"And you know what you are doing?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"I am in dead earnest." +</p> +<p> +"So am I." +</p> +<p> +"Everything is barred?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, everything," said Desmond. +</p> +<p> +"All right; if you will have it so swing out your roll. I'm betting +heavy on this hand, but I've warned you, remember." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, but you can't bluff me," said Desmond. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h2> + CHAPTER IX. +</h2> + +<h3> +ALMOST A BREAK—A NOVEL GAME TO ROB—OUR HERO'S +ARTISTIC ACTING—A TABLEAU AND A GRAND SURPRISE. +</h3><p> </p> +<p> +Again the sharp fixed his eyes upon our hero, but it was not a +give-away; Desmond was playing his game too well. He appeared like an +excited gambler, an amateur, who apparently believed he had a sure +thing. +</p> +<p> +"I'll warn you once more," said the sharp. +</p> +<p> +"To the dogs with your warning, you daren't bet." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, I dare bet, but I like you; I've a dead sure hand, you can't +beat me." +</p> +<p> +"That's my lookout." +</p> +<p> +"Then you know just what you are doing?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I do." +</p> +<p> +"These men can bear witness that I want to throw up my hand." +</p> +<p> +"You needn't." +</p> +<p> +"And you will really bet?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I will." +</p> +<p> +"With your eyes open?" +</p> +<p> +"Dead sure." +</p> +<p> +"All right; what is your raise?" +</p> +<p> +Desmond gave a lift and the sharp raised back, and so the play went on +until the stake was a thousand dollars on the two hands, and the sharp +said: +</p> +<p> +"See here, young follow, five hundred is enough for you to lose." +</p> +<p> +"No, no, I am not losing." +</p> +<p> +"You ain't?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"Suppose you are mistaken." +</p> +<p> +"I can stand it." +</p> +<p> +"You can?" +</p> +<p> +"I can." +</p> +<p> +"All right; no use for me to attempt to stand against a young fellow +like you. I begin to suspect you've been playing innocent, and I will +teach you a lesson; I raise you a hundred." +</p> +<p> +"I see it and go two hundred better." +</p> +<p> +Each time a bet was made the money was laid on the table, and it was a +very exciting scene and moment. The sharp looked puzzled; he had laid +out for a dead sure thing, but there had come a complete change over +Desmond, and it was the latter fact that scared the sharp. He +hesitated, but at length, in a slow tone, said: +</p> +<p> +"I'll see you a call," and he laid down his cards. He held four jacks, a +great hand, but one that is often beaten, of course, and it was beaten +on this occasion, for, strange to declare, Desmond held four kings. +</p> +<p> +Right here let us offer an explanation. Our hero was playing against a +false deal; the man who was leading him made the fatal mistake that he +was working with a gudgeon on his hook, consequently he was not +watchful. The wizard tramp had taught Desmond a great many tricks, and +the lad's natural discernment and watchfulness had prepared him for the +hand when the great trick was to be sprung, and unwatched he worked a +bigger trick. He did not know what the hand was he was pitted against, +but he had been let in to gamblers' tricks, that is, "snide" gamblers. +These fellows in making a false deal do not win on the highest hands, +for they always know the hand against them. The fellow who was seeking +to rob Desmond thought he knew our hero's hand, but it was right there +he was fooled. Our hero had worked his own trick, as stated—he stole a +hand so deftly that the unwatchful robbers did not see him do it, and it +was there he had them. He was really taking a slight chance, but only a +slight one, and what followed? Well, it was a case of the biter bitten, +and when Desmond exposed his hand there came a look upon the sharp's +face that can never be described, but which might be photographed with a +snap-shot machine. +</p> +<p> +There fell a dead stillness in that car for a few seconds, and then the +defeated sharp said: +</p> +<p> +"Aha! you are a cheat." +</p> +<p> +"Am I?" +</p> +<p> +Desmond was perfectly cool. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, you are, and that money is mine." +</p> +<p> +"Is it?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, see here, young fellow, don't you attempt to bluff me, or I'll mark +you." +</p> +<p> +As intimated, there had come a great change over Desmond. He did not +look like and he certainly did not act like the same person who a little +time previously had been learning gambling tricks from the sharp. The +gambler attempted to rake the money from the seat, and it was at that +moment the real fun commenced. +</p> +<p> +"You miserable rascal," cried Desmond, "lay a finger on a bill on that +seat and I'll pin your hand to the car seat." +</p> +<p> +Well, there was a scene of consternation around there just at that +instant, and our hero said: +</p> +<p> +"I've been carrying out your programme, amusing myself with a sneak +thief, and now, Mr. Senator's Son, you have evidence that Yorkers do +know a thing or two, and you get yourself together and get out of this +car and off the train at the next station, or I'll make a horse-fly net +of you. Is that plain English? Take your own money, I don't need it. You +are under cover, but let me give you a pointer—you play the senator's +son too well altogether to make a success of it." +</p> +<p> +The group of gamblers stared in silence. They did not dare make a +hostile move; there was something about Desmond in his transformed +appearance that froze them—indeed, even his youth was a mystery to +them, for he acted like a man who had had years of experience. +</p> +<p> +"You started in, gentlemen, to play a big game of robbery, but ran up +against a snag. I am letting you off easy—very easy—but you see we +young fellows from York are not malicious." +</p> +<p> +The gamblers had indeed gotten off easily, and we will here explain that +they did not fear Desmond in a scrimage; but they would have feared any +one who would have made a fight, as they did not wish to draw the +attention of the train men to their scheme which had been exposed. Had +they been winners they would have made a fight, but the game they were +attempting was one of highway robbery, for they had been outwitted in +the deal, and had no claim upon the money. +</p> +<p> +The train arrived at a station and the gamblers started to alight. They +felt bitter, and the self-styled senator's son said to Desmond: +</p> +<p> +"The train will stop here fifteen minutes. You are a good fellow, I like +you, I'd like to have you stop off a minute and have a cool drink with +us." +</p> +<p> +Desmond well knew the scoundrel's purpose, but being fond of adventure +he determined to give the rascals a still greater surprise. He was in +splendid condition, his muscles were developed up to the consistency of +whit-leather, and with a smile he rose to follow the man who had invited +him to alight for refreshment. The gambler stepped off the car ahead of +Desmond; the latter followed, when the former suddenly swung round and +made a vicious lunge at the youth who had so cleverly outwitted him, and +once again the scamp was outwitted. A second time he ran up against a +snag, for our hero dodged the blow that was meant for him and countered +with a tremendous slugger which landed on his assailant's nose, and over +the man fell with a swiftness that would have suggested the kick of a +horse, and when he fell he lay there; but two of the other chaps had in +the meantime made a rush for Desmond, and they received a rap +successively—indeed, they had run in on our young walking champion +where he was at home. He was a wonder in science, strength and agility; +no two or three ordinary men would have had any show with him at all, +and the fact was the assailants so determined, for the attack was not +renewed, and our hero stepped aboard the train, the object of the +wondering glances of twenty people who had witnessed the assault and +its culmination. +</p> +<p> +Desmond sat down in the car as coolly as though he had just gone out for +a breath of fresh air. +</p> +<p> +Our hero encountered several other adventures of a minor character, but +in good time arrived in New York City. He had not announced his return +to the farm, and consequently spent several days in the all-round +greatest city in the world. There is no place like old New York; there +is more life to be seen in the great American metropolis in one day than +can be seen in any other great capital in two. It is a city peculiar to +itself, unlike any other, in its situation between two rivers and its +nose practically putting out to the sea; in its activities and general +loveliness—indeed, it in a wonderful place, and Desmond enjoyed every +minute during his sojourn, but at length he took a train up-country and +in due time arrived at the station from which he was to team it to the +old farm where his grandfather and father had lived and died. +</p> +<p> +As stated, Desmond had not announced his return, and when within a mile +of the farm he alighted from the wagon that had carried him over and +started afoot. It was late in the afternoon when he arrived in sight of +the old farm, and he was standing on a rise of ground looking over +toward his old home, when he espied a girl sitting beneath a tree. One +glance was sufficient; he recognized Amy, and he determined to steal +upon her unawares. He managed to gain a clump of bushes located within +twenty feet of where the girl sat, and he had an opportunity to study +her unobserved. We will not describe his emotions, but it was a +beautiful sight that fell under his delighted gaze. The life on the farm +had been of great advantage to Amy in many ways, and in her white muslin +dress she appeared so beautiful as to make it seem that she was out of +place in that wild region. Her form was perfect in its grace, and her +face—well, we will not go into a description, but let it suffice to say +that there are few girls in all the world who surpass her in the +exquisite loveliness of her face. +</p> +<p> +Desmond studied the girl for a long time and he observed that she +appeared to be perfectly contented and happy. She had her mandolin with +her, and after quite a period of abstraction she took up her instrument, +and soon her splendid voice sounded clear and melodious on the still +air, for it was an afternoon when nature rested under a spell, as it +were; not a breath of air appeared to float amid the leaves and flowers. +</p> +<p> +A moment, and our hero made the most delightful discovery of his life. +Amy was singing and improvising; she did it readily and charmingly, and +her hidden auditor was indeed charmed. She was singing to an absent one, +and she mingled the name of our hero in her song. It was a plea for the +absent one to return, and the sweetness of the melody was not more +entrancing than the verses. She appeared to be not only a singer but a +poetess, possessed of rare talent. +</p> +<p> +Desmond did not appear inclined to break the spell, but when he saw Amy +making preparations to depart he stepped from his place of concealment. +The girl uttered a cry; at the first glance she did not recognize the +farmer boy, transformed as he was into a gentleman in dress, but when +she caught sight of his face and heard his merry laugh and pleasant +salutation, she exclaimed: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Desmond, I did not know you at first. How elegant you look!" +</p> +<p> +"Thank you; how is my mother?" +</p> +<p> +"She is well, but did not know you were coming home; neither did I." +</p> +<p> +"Well, no, I thought I would give you a surprise. It's all right, here I +am, this side up with care." +</p> +<p> +"Your mother will be delighted." +</p> +<p> +"And you?" +</p> +<p> +"I am giddy with delight, and I hope all is well with you and with my—" +The girl stopped short and said, "Mr. Brooks." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, when I left him he was all right." +</p> +<p> +"Did he come with you?" +</p> +<p> +"No, he remained behind to transact some business; and, Amy, if you are +surprised to see me looking so elegant, as you say, you would be more +surprised did you behold at this moment your—I mean Mr. Brooks." +</p> +<p> +A shadow flitted across the girl's face, but it was succeeded a moment +later by a bright smile, as she said: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I am so happy, I was never happier in my whole life." +</p> +<p> +"And what makes you so happy?" +</p> +<p> +The question was put abruptly. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h2> + CHAPTER X. +</h2> + +<h3> + CONCLUSION. +</h3><p> </p> + +<p> +Amy suddenly appeared to realize—well, our readers can guess what. It +appeared to cross her mind that she was betraying too great happiness, +and was a little too free in betraying it. She hesitated and blushed, +and after an instant of embarrassment Desmond said: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, don't be afraid, tell me why you are so happy." +</p> +<p> +"Everything makes me happy, and I shall continue to be happy unless—" +Again the girl stopped short. +</p> +<p> +"Go on," said Desmond. +</p> +<p> +"Unless I am to be taken away from your mother." +</p> +<p> +"Do you desire to remain with my mother?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"I love your mother." +</p> +<p> +"You love my mother?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I do." +</p> +<p> +"And who else?" +</p> +<p> +The question came in a pointed manner; Amy was a girl nearly sixteen. +</p> +<p> +"My—I mean Mr. Brooks." +</p> +<p> +"Who else?" +</p> +<p> +The girl did not answer. +</p> +<p> +"Come, Amy, who else do you love?" +</p> +<p> +"You are real mean." +</p> +<p> +"I am?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"How?" +</p> +<p> +"You know." +</p> +<p> +"I do?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"I don't want to be mean, but tell me who else you love?" +</p> +<p> +"I won't." +</p> +<p> +"You won't?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +There was bantering in the tones of both these young people at that +moment. +</p> +<p> +"Shall I tell you who I love?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"I love my mother." +</p> +<p> +"You can't help it." +</p> +<p> +"I have learned to love Mr. Brooks, your—I mean—well, Mr. Brooks." +</p> +<p> +In a tantalizing tone the girl asked: +</p> +<p> +"Who else?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, you're real mean," said Desmond, imitating Amy's tone at the +moment she had made the same remark to him. +</p> +<p> +"I don't want to be mean." +</p> +<p> +"You don't?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"Will you keep my secret?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes," came the eager answer. +</p> +<p> +"Honor bright?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, honor bright." +</p> +<p> +"You won't tell even my mother?" +</p> +<p> +The girl did not answer. +</p> +<p> +"Come, promise." +</p> +<p> +"I promise." +</p> +<p> +"I've met a girl I love, and I've made you my confidante, but don't tell +my mother." +</p> +<p> +Amy had turned desperately pale, and in a pettish, trembling tone, she +said: +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I will tell your mother." +</p> +<p> +"You promised not to do so." +</p> +<p> +"I don't care, I'll break my promise." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Amy, you are real mean." +</p> +<p> +"I can't help it if I am." +</p> +<p> +"You can't?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"Why not?" +</p> +<p> +"I am mad—real mad." +</p> +<p> +"You are?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"Because you went and fell in love with a girl; it's ridiculous, +anyway." +</p> +<p> +"It is?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"You are only a boy." +</p> +<p> +"I am?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"What are you, pray? you are only a girl." +</p> +<p> +"I know it." +</p> +<p> +"I couldn't fall in love with a mere girl, could I?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, you could." +</p> +<p> +Desmond laughed in a merry manner, and said: +</p> +<p> +"Well, to tell the truth, I did fall in love with a mere girl. Do you +want to hear about her?" +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"You don't?" +</p> +<p> +"No, I don't." +</p> +<p> +"I am going to tell you all the same; you are the girl I've fallen in +love with." +</p> +<p> +There came a bright, happy look to Amy's beautiful face as she said: +</p> +<p> +"Oh, you are real mean." +</p> +<p> +"I am?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"To tell me that so suddenly." +</p> +<p> +"Well, who else do you love?" +</p> +<p> +"I love you." +</p> +<p> +"All right; go and break your promise and tell my mother," said Desmond +in a provoking tone, following his advice by encircling Amy's waist and +imprinting upon her red-hot cheek a kiss. +</p> +<p> +"You tell your mother yourself," said Amy. +</p> +<p> +"No, I won't; you said you would." +</p> +<p> +"Then I will." +</p> +<p> +"You will?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Well, well!" +</p> +<p> +"Your mother will be glad." +</p> +<p> +"What?" ejaculated Desmond. +</p> +<p> +"Your mother will be glad." +</p> +<p> +"How do you know?" +</p> +<p> +"She told me so." +</p> +<p> +That night there was a happy party under the old farmhouse roof. Mrs. +Dare had met her son with tears of joy in her eyes, and Desmond had told +the weird tale of his remarkable adventures. +</p> +<p> +At once our hero set to work to prepare for college. He had talked the +matter over with his mother and with Amy, and in due time he did enter +Amherst College, and for a long time his adventures ceased. He heard +occasionally from Mr. Brooks, who appeared to be doing well and who sent +money on at intervals, but no explanation. And so the time passed until +Desmond graduated and returned home. He met his mother and Amy, and a +moment later there came forth from the house a well-known figure; it was +Brooks, the whilom wizard tramp. +</p> +<p> +Again there followed a pleasant evening, and on the following morning +Desmond was out bright and early to take a walk over the farm. He had +gone but a short distance when he saw a figure in the grove near the +house. He advanced and met his old friend the wizard tramp. +</p> +<p> +"You are out early," said Desmond. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I thought I might meet you." +</p> +<p> +"And you will now tell me how you have succeeded?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Desmond, I will tell you all now, and I owe all to you. We are +rich—very rich. We found the mine, Creedon and I, and we got +capitalists interested and developed it. You were our silent partner, +and to-day you are worth a quarter of a million and I am worth as much +more, or rather Amy is, for I have been working for my child." +</p> +<p> +"I have suspected all along that Amy was your daughter. Has she told you +anything?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, she has told me she is to become your wife." +</p> +<p> +"What do you think of it?" +</p> +<p> +"It has been the one hope of my life that you would win her love and she +yours. It was for this reason I insisted upon your returning to the +East, and the wisdom of my plans is fully confirmed." +</p> +<p> +"You have a revelation to make to me." +</p> +<p> +"I have made the revelation—Amy is my own child." +</p> +<p> +"And is that all you have to reveal? I've known that all along." +</p> +<p> +"That is my most important revelation, but I have another to make. My +father was the younger son of an English nobleman; he married a +beautiful but poor girl, as the world counts riches, and his father +drove him away, and he came here to America. He never saw his brother +again; his nephew, my cousin, inherited the estates and title, but +strange to say, I was the nearest of kin. Five years ago my cousin died; +he left no estate, but the title which had been maintained in honor by +my ancestors has descended to me, and when you marry Amy you will marry +a lord's daughter." +</p> +<p> +Desmond meditated a moment, and then said: +</p> +<p> +"I am satisfied to marry the daughter of plain Mr. Brooks." +</p> +<p> +"Thank you, my son, but I shall clear the estate, and for a season at +least dwell in the ancient halls of my ancestors. I will remain to +witness your marriage and shall then go home to England. And now comes +my last revelation: you and Amy are distantly connected; my remote +ancestors were yours also. Your grandfather came down from the younger +line a long time back, but blood as good as any one's flows in your +veins." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, from my mother." +</p> +<p> +"I admit it, <i>from your mother</i>." +</p> +<p> +Our readers know what followed. Amy and Desmond were married, and on +the night of the wedding he remarked to his father-in-law: +</p> +<p> +"This time I took no desperate chance." +</p> +<p> +"Neither did Amy when she intrusted her future happiness to you," came +the bright and elegant answer. +</p> +<p> +The whilom wizard tramp did return to England, and it was in the +ancestral halls that Desmond and Amy spent their delightful honeymoon. +</p> +<center> +THE END. +</center> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Desperate Chance +by Old Sleuth (Harlan P. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Desperate Chance + The Wizard Tramp's Revelation, A Thrilling Narrative + +Author: Old Sleuth (Harlan P. Halsey) + +Release Date: January 12, 2004 [EBook #10690] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DESPERATE CHANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +A DESPERATE CHANCE: + +OR + +THE WIZARD TRAMP'S REVELATION, + +A Thrilling Narrative. + +By OLD SLEUTH. + +[Illustration: "He Placed the Ladder of Saplings Across the Abyss."] + +1897 + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE CAMPFIRE IN THE GULCH--AN ALARM--THE SOLITARY +FIGURE--UNDER COVER--A WHITE MAN--"HAIL, +FRIEND!"--A CORDIAL MEETING--A SECOND STRANGE +CHARACTER. + + +"Well, Desmond, we've taken a desperate chance, and so far appear to be +losers." + +The circumstances under which the words above quoted were spoken were +weird and strange. A man and a mere youth were sitting by a campfire +that was blazing and crackling in a narrow gulch far away in the Rocky +Mountains, days and days travel from civilization. + +The circumstances that had brought them there were also very strange and +unusual. Desmond Dare was the son of a widow who owned a small farm in +New York State. There had been a mortgage on this farm which was about +to be foreclosed when Desmond, a brave, vigorous lad, sold his only +possession, a valuable colt, and determined to enter a walking match for +the prize. He was on his way to the city where the match was to take +place when in a belt of woods he heard a cry for help. He ran in the +direction whence the cry came and found three tramps assailing a fourth +man. The vigorous youth sprang to the rescue and drove the three tramps +off, and was later persuaded by the man he had rescued to go with him to +a rock cavern. There the lad beheld a very beautiful girl of about +fourteen whose history was enveloped in a dark mystery; he also learned +that the man he had rescued was known as the wizard tramp. The latter +was a very strange and peculiar character, a victim of the rum habit, +which had brought him away down until he became a tramp of the most +pronounced type. This man, however, was really a very shrewd fellow, +well educated, not only in book learning, but in the ways of the world, +and seeing that Desmond had resolved to take a desperate chance, the +tramp volunteered to land him a winner; he succeeded in so doing. The +champion of the walking match carried his money to his mother, the tramp +went upon an extended spree and spent his share. Afterward the tramp and +Desmond Dare started on the road together. The girl had been placed with +Mrs. Dare on the farm, and the man and boy proceeded West afoot, +determined to locate a gold mine. The former discovered each day some +new quality, and held forth to Desmond that some day he would make a +very startling revelation. The youth had no idea as to the character of +the revelation, but knowing that the tramp, named Brooks, was a very +remarkable man, he anticipated a very startling denouement. After many +very strange and exciting adventures Brooks, the tramp, and Desmond Dare +arrived in the Rockies, and in due time started in to find their gold +mine. The previous history of these two remarkable characters can be +read in Nos. 90 and 91 of "OLD SLEUTH'S OWN." + +At the time we introduce the tramp and Desmond Dare to our readers in +this narrative, they had been knocking around the mountains in search of +their mine and had met with failures on every side, and at length one +night they camped in the gulch as described in our opening paragraphs, +and Brooks spoke the words with which we open our narrative. + +They were sitting beside their fire; both were partly attired as hunters +and mountaineers, and both were well armed. Brooks, who had practically +been a bloat had lived a temperate life, had enjoyed plenty of exercise +in the open air, and had experienced to a certain extent a return of his +original physical strength and vigor. At the time the whilom tramp made +the disconsolate remark quoted, Desmond asked: + +"What do you propose to do--give it up?" + +"I don't know just what to do, lad." + +"We've scraped together a little gold dust; possibly we may have money +enough to engage in some legitimate business, and what we can't get by +the discovery of a mine, we may acquire in time in speculation. You are +shrewd and level-headed." + +"That would be a good scheme for you, lad, but not for me. I am too far +advanced in life to earn money by slow labor now. What I propose is that +you go back, take all the gold we have, and enter into trade; you are +bright and energetic and may succeed." + +"And what will you do?" + +"I shall continue my search for a mine, and some day I may strike it." + +Brooks was a college graduate, a civil engineer, and a mineralogist, and +believed he had great advantages in searching for a mine, but, as has +been indicated, thus far their tramp and search had been a dead failure. + +"I'll stick with you," said Desmond. + +"No, lad, you must go back." + +"I swear I will not; I like this life, and remember, we have gathered +some wash dust and we may gather more. I don't know the value of what we +have gathered from the bottom of that stream we struck, but I do know +that it would take a long time to accumulate as much money in trade. +Remember, we have been in the mountains only six weeks." + +"That is all right, but we might stay here six years and not make a +find." + +At that instant there came a sound which caused Brooks and Desmond to +bend their ears and listen. Some of the Indians were on the warpath; a +band of bucks had been making a raid and had been pursued by the United +States cavalry into the mountains. Indians, as a rule, do not take to +the mountains, but sometimes when pursued hotly they will separate into +small bands and scatter through the hills; these fellows are dangerous. +They would have murdered any white men they might meet for their arms +alone, without considering the spirit of wantonness or revenge that +might animate them. + +Brooks and Desmond rose from their seats beside the fire and moved +slowly away. At any moment an arrow or even a rifle shot might come and +end the life of one or both. + +Desmond had become a very expert woodsman; he and Brooks had been +chased by Indians several times and had exchanged shots with one band. +They knew a cover in a crevice in the wall of rock which ran up abruptly +each side of the gulch; from this spot they could survey and also make a +good fight in an emergency. They had good weapons, plenty of ammunition, +and what was more, coolness, skill, and courage. Desmond, especially, +was a very cool-headed chap in times of danger; the use of firearms was +not new to him, nor was the woodsman life altogether a novelty, for he +had been raised in a very wild and desolate mountain region. + +Quickly they stole to cover, although they believed it possible that +they might have been seen, for they had absolute proof, well known to +woodsmen, that if there were foes in the vicinity they had been +discovered. Once in their covert they lay low, and a few moments passed, +when they beheld a solitary figure advancing slowly and very cautiously +up the gulch, and as the figure came in the light of the fire Desmond, +whose eyesight was very keen, said: + +"It's a white man; he looks like a hunter; we will wait a moment or two, +but I guess it is all right." + +The figure, meantime, with rifle poised, advanced very slowly and +finally stood fully revealed close to the fire, and indeed he was a +white man of strong and vigorous frame. + +"I'll go and meet him," said Desmond; "you lay low here, rifle in hand +ready to shoot in case he proves an enemy." + +"All right, lad, go ahead." + +Desmond stepped from his hiding-place and advanced toward the fire. The +stranger saw him, still held his position ready for offense or defense, +and permitted Desmond to approach, and soon he discerned that the lad +was a white man and he called: + +"Hail, friend!" + +"Hail, to you," replied the lad. + +The two men approached and shook hands. The hunter was a splendid +specimen of physical manhood, and his face indicated honesty and +good-nature. + +"Are you alone here, lad?" + +"No." + +"Where's your comrade?" + +Desmond made a sign, and Brooks stepped forth from the crevice and +approached the fire. + +"Hail, friend," said the stranger hunter. + +Brooks answered the salutation, the two men shook hands and the stranger +said; + +"What may be your business out here?" + +"We'll talk of that later on; but, stranger, you took great chances." + +"I did?" + +"Yes." + +"How?" + +"In approaching the fire you were exposed; suppose the fire had been +kindled by Indians?" + +The woodsman laughed, and said: + +"I knew it was not an Indian's fire." + +"You did?" + +"Yes." + +"How is that?" + +"They don't create such a big blaze. I knew white men were around, and +men whom I need not fear, but I was on my guard all the same." + +"We could have dropped you off." + +"Well, yes, but out here we have to take chances, and it was necessary +for me to do so." + +"It was?" + +"Yes." + +"How so?" + +"I need food; I have not struck any game lately. The fact is, I've been +up in the peaks where there is no game. I hope you have a cold snack +here, my friends, and some tobacco, for I have not had a regular tobacco +smoke or chew for over a month." + +"We were just about to prepare some coffee and make a meal." + +"Good enough; did you say coffee? Well, I have struck Elysium; I haven't +tasted a cup of coffee in a year. You see I was snowbound away up in the +mountains; fortunately I had plenty of dried meat, and I was compelled +to wait until I was thawed out." + +Brooks commenced making the coffee, and while doing so the woodsman +asked: + +"Are you regular hunters?" + +"No." + +"Ever in the mountains before?" + +"Never." + +"You've been taking great chances." + +"We have?" + +"Yes." + +"How so?" + +"The mountains are full of bad Indian fugitives, and they are very ugly. +Some are parts of a raiding gang of bucks, and others are rascals who +have made a kick out at the reservation. I've met twenty of them in the +last ten days; they are in squads of twos and threes, and they are full +of fight." + +"We have met some of them." + +"And you managed to escape?" + +"We had a fight with one party." + +"You did?" + +"Yes." + +"How did you come out?" + +"Ahead, I reckon, or we would not be here." + +The conversation was between the woodsman and Desmond. + +"What brought you into the mountains--are you tourists?" + +"No." + +"On business?" + +"Yes." + +"Surveyors?" + +"No." + +"I thought not; no use to survey out this way. I suppose you are looking +for a lost mine." + +"Well, we might take in a lost mine or find a new one, it don't matter." + +"Ah! I see; well, so far you've been lucky, but you've been taking +desperate chances." + +"Oh! that's a way we have." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +A RECOGNITION--THE WOODSMAN'S DISCLOSURES--A +CHANCE AFTER ALL--THE BIVOUAC--DESMOND'S +DISCOVERY--SAVAGES GALORE. + + +The coffee was soon prepared and Brooks produced some dried meat and a +few crackers, and the three men, so strangely met, sat down to enjoy +their meal. The woodsman was offered the first cup of coffee, and as he +drank it down, all hot and steaming, he smacked his lips and exclaimed: + +"Well, that was good; that cup of coffee makes us friends. I may do you +a good turn." + +"Good enough; we are ready for a good turn. We've had rather hard luck +so far." + +"So you are after a mine, eh?" + +"Yes." + +"You are regular prospectors?" + +"Yes." + +"You have to strike a surface ledge to make any money. Don't think a +claim would amount to much out here unless you found a nest of them so +as to attract a crowd, and a town, and a mill, and all that. According +to my idea the mines out here all need capital to work 'em in case you +should strike one." + +Regardless of possibilities, as the night was a little chilly, Brooks +had created quite a blaze, and by the light of the fire he had a fair +chance to study the woodsman's face, and finally he asked abruptly: + +"Stranger, what is your name?" + +The woodsman laughed, and said: + +"I thought you'd ask that question." + +"You did?" + +"Yes." + +"Why?" + +"Well, it's natural that you should, but that ain't the reason I thought +so." + +"It is not?" + +"No." + +"Well, why did you think so?" + +"I was going to ask your name." + +"Certainly; my name is Brooks." + +"I thought so." + +"You did?" + +"Yes." + +"What made you think my name was Brooks?" + +"Can't you guess?" + +"No." + +"Why did you ask my name?" + +"As you said, it was a natural question." + +"That ain't the reason you asked it." + +"It is not?" + +"No." + +"Well, you may tell me the true reason." + +"You've been studying my face." + +"I have." + +"You think you've seen me before somewhere?" + +"Well, you did see me before." + +"I did?" + +"Yes." + +"When and where?" + +"Just look sharp and see if you can't place me." + +"I can't." + +"It was a great many years ago." + +"It must have been; but to tell the truth, there is something very +familiar in your face." + +"Yes, and you discovered it at the start, but you don't place me; I +placed you. I didn't until you mentioned your name." + +"You now recall?" + +"I do." + +"Where have we met?" + +"Try to remember." + +"Tell me your name." + +"Oh, certainly, by and by; but in the meantime pay me the compliment of +remembering who I am." + +"You have the advantage." + +"How?" + +"I told you my name." + +"I will tell you mine in good time, but try to remember." + +"I give it up." + +"You do?" + +"I do." + +The woodsman laughed, and said: + +"We slept together one night." + +"We did?" + +"Yes." + +"When and where?" + +"And now you can't recall?" + +"I cannot." + +"You are a square man, but there has come a change over you." + +"Did we meet often?" + +"No." + +"Were we intimate?" + +"Well, yes, for the time being." + +"I give it up." + +"You don't place me?" + +"No." + +Again the woodsman laughed and said: + +"Do you remember about fifteen years ago a young fellow, tired, wet, and +hungry, tried to find shelter in a freight car?" + +"Hello! you are not Henry Creedon?" + +"Yes, I am, and this is the second time you've fed me. You appear to be +my good angel; I may prove your good angel." + +"So you are Henry Creedon?" + +"I am," and turning to Desmond, Creedon said: + +"Your friend there one night made a fight for me, fed me and found +shelter for me. He was a tramp then; I was footing it out West here." + +"Henry," said Brooks, "what have you been doing all these years?" + +"Mine hunting." + +"Mine hunting for fifteen years?" + +"Yes." + +"And have you found a mine yet?" + +The woodsman laughed, and Brooks said: + +"Desmond, we did indeed take desperate chances, and we've been making a +fool's chase, I reckon. Here is a man who has been mine hunting for +fifteen years and has not found one yet. Where do we come in?" + +"I'll tell you," said Creedon; "it's luck when you find a mine. More are +found by chance than are discovered by experts, but I think I've found +one; I can't tell. You see, I was raised in a factory town, I've had no +education and I can't tell its value. I know where the find is located, +however, and some of these days I'll strike a prospecting party who will +have an engineer with them, and then I will know the value of my find." + +"If you take a party in with you they will demand a share." + +"Certainly." + +"Do you intend to share with them?" + +"I can't do otherwise." + +"Yes, that is so; suppose I find an engineer for you?" + +"I suppose you will want a rake in." + +"Certainly." + +"Well, Brooks, I'll tell you, I don't want to start in on a divide with +everyone, but I've made up my mind to take you in with me. I know you +are a kind-hearted and honest man, even though you are a tramp, a +whisky-loving tramp, and that I remember you emptied my canister that +night." + +"Yes, but I am not drinking now; I've reformed." + +"You have?" + +"Yes." + +"So much the better for you." + +"I've something to tell you." + +"Go it." + +"I am just the man to establish the value of your mine." + +"You are?" + +"Yes, I am." + +"How is that, eh? Have you become an expert after being in the mountains +six weeks? and I am not in one way, and I've been here for fifteen +years." + +"I was an expert before I came to the mountains." + +"You were?" + +"Yes." + +"How is that?" + +"I am a civil engineer by profession." + +"What's that?" + +"I am a civil engineer by profession." + +"You don't tell me!" + +"That's what I tell you, and I tell you the truth." + +"Then you are just the man I want." + +"I said I was; I am more than an engineer, I am a mineralogist and a +geologist." + +"Hold on, don't overcome a fellow out here in the mountains; if you are +a civil engineer that is enough for me. Hang your mineralogy and +geology; what I want is a man who can estimate. No doubt about the ledge +I've struck; the question is, how much will it cost to mine it; how much +is there of it? You see I've had some experience here in the mountains, +and sometimes we strike what is called a pocket; we might find gold for +a few feet one way and another, and then strike dead rock and no gold. I +ain't a mineralogist or geologist or a civil engineer, and I am afraid +my find won't amount to much, but it is worth investigation, and as you +are able to estimate we will make a start. To-morrow I will take you to +my ledge and then we will know whether we are millionaires or +tramps--eh? mountain tramps--but I am grateful for this food and coffee, +and now if you'll give me a little tobacco I'll be the most contented +man in the mountains, whether my mine turns out a hit or a misthrow." + +So tobacco was produced; Brooks himself was an inveterate smoker, and +since being in the mountains Desmond had taken to the weed, and there +was promise that some day he might become an inveterate. + +The three men had a jolly time, but in a quiet way. Creedon was a good +story teller; he had had many weird experiences in the mountains. He had +acted as guide to a great many parties, he had engaged in about fifty +fights with Indians during his residence in the great West, and had met +a great many very notable characters. + +When the men concluded to lie down to sleep for the night they +extinguished their fire, and each man found a crevice into which he +crept, and only those who have slept in the open air in a pure climate +can tell of the exhilarating effects that follow a slumber under the +conditions described. + +Desmond was the first to awake, and he peeped forth from his crevice and +glanced down toward the point where the fire had been, when he beheld a +sight that caused his blood to run cold. Five fierce-looking savages +were grouped around the spot where the campfire had been, and he had a +chance to study a scene he had never before witnessed. He beheld five +savages in full war paint; they were dressed in a most grotesque manner, +part of their attire being fragments of United States uniforms, showing +that the red men had been in a skirmish, and possibly had come out +victorious, and had had an opportunity to strip the bodies of the dead. + +A great deal has been written about the shrewdness of redmen. They are +shrewd when their qualities are once fully aroused and they are on the +scent, but they are given to assumptions, the same as white men. Of +course Creedon was practically to be credited when he said that the +Indians assumed there had been a camp there and that the campers had +departed, but had they made as close observations as when on a trail +they would have made discoveries that would have suggested the near +presence of the late campers. + +Creedon had as far as possible destroyed all signs when raking out the +fire of a recent encampment, but an experienced and alert eye can detect +the truth despite these little tricks. + +Desmond saw the Indians: they were a hard-looking lot, the worst +specimens he had ever beheld, and they were assassins at sight, as he +determined. He was secure from observation, but it was necessary to warn +his comrades, who were in different crevices, and at that moment Creedon +actually snored. He was in the crevice adjoining the one where Desmond +had taken refuge. + +The Indians were too far away to overhear the snore, but it was possible +the man might awake and step forth; then, as Desmond feared, the fight +would commence. He did not desire a fight; he might think the chances +would be with his party, as only two of the Indians had rifles, but then +if even one of their own party were kicked over it would be a sad +disaster. + +The lad meditated some little time and studied the conditions. He +crawled into his crevice, and, lo, he saw a lateral breakaway. He might +gain Creedon's berth, as he called it, without chancing an outside +steal. Fortune favored him; Creedon's crevice was one of several rents +in the rock, and he managed to reach the sleeper's foot, and he +cautiously touched it, fearing at the moment that Creedon in his +surprise might make an outcry or an inquiry in a loud tone, but here he +learned a lesson in woodcraft. Creedon did not make an outcry; he awoke +and cautiously investigated, and soon discovered that Desmond had +touched him and was seeking to communicate with him. He demanded in a +whisper: + +"What is it, lad?" + +"There are Indians in the gulch." + +"Aha! where?" + +"Down where we were camped last night." + +"You keep low and I will take a peep." + +Desmond could afford to let Creedon take a peep. The woodsman did peep +and took in the situation, and he said: + +"You are smaller than I am; does the rent where you are run to the berth +where Brooks is sleeping?" + +"It may; I will find out and go slow; we don't want a fight if we can +help it, but we've got the dead bulge on those redskins if we have to +fight." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +CREEDON'S KNOWLEDGE OF WOODCRAFT--THE REDMEN'S +DEPARTURE--A LONG TRAIL--ON THE TRAMP--THE +STRANGEST REFUGE IN THE WORLD--A BRIDGE OF +RISKS. + + +Desmond crawled forward beyond the rent where Creedon had lodged, and he +found the space much wider as he progressed, and soon gained the opening +where the rent terminated in which Brooks had lain all night. Desmond +glanced in, and, lo, Brooks was inside awake, and had already discovered +the presence of the Indians, and so far they were all right. + +"Have you been able to notify Creedon?" asked Brooks. + +"Yes." + +"What does he say?" + +"He bade me arouse you." + +"I discovered the rascals as soon as I awoke." + +"All right; lay low and I will learn what Creedon advises." + +Desmond crawled back and said: + +"Brooks is awake and wants to know what we shall do." + +"There is only one thing to do: we will lay low, and if the rascals do +not discover us all right; if they do discover us it will be bad for +them and all right with us again, that's all. And now you and Brooks +just keep out of sight and let me run the show." + +Word was passed to Brooks, and Desmond with the tramp lay low. As it +proved there was not much of a show to run, as the Indians moved away +after a little, but Creedon did not permit his friends to go forth. He +said: + +"You can never tell about these redskins; they might suspect we are +around, and their going away may be a little trick; they are up to these +tricks." + +Hours passed, and Creedon still kept his friends in hiding, and it was +near evening when he stole forth, saying he would take an observation. +After a little he returned and said: + +"It's all right; come out." + +Creedon said he had discovered evidence that the redskins had really +gone away. + +"Why couldn't you have found that out sooner?" + +The woodsman laughed and said: + +"They might have found me out then; as it was, according to the tales +you and Brooks tell, I took a desperate chance." + +"Shall we get to work and have a meal?" + +"Not much, young man, you will have to control your appetite for awhile. +Remember, I am captain of this squadron. I'll lead you to a place, +however, where we can build a fire and camp and eat without fear. I am +posted around here; I know the safe places." + +The party started on the march, and Desmond felt quite irritated; he had +gone nearly twenty-four hours without eating, and he said: + +"I am ready to even fight for a meal." + +Creedon laughed and said in reply: + +"You may have a stomach full of fighting yet before we find the mine." + +"I thought you had located it?" + +"Yes, but it's a week's tramp from where we are at present, and we may +have some lively times before we arrive at the place." + +It was nine o'clock at night when the party arrived at one of the most +peculiar natural retreats Desmond had ever seen. It was a cave, as we +will call it, in the side wall of a cliff rising from a gulch even more +wild and rugged than the one where the party had camped the previous +night. Some mighty convulsion of the mountain had separated the whole +front of the cliff from the main rock, so that a space of at least +twenty feet intervened, and between yawned a dark abyss that led down to +where no man had yet penetrated. Creedon led the way up along a ledge of +ascent which lined the outer edge of the great mass of detached cliff. +Once at the top he descended on the inner side. It was night, but he had +taken advantage of a mask lantern which he carried with him, and which +he said was the most useful article in his possession. He added: + +"These lanterns may belong to the profession of detectives and burglars, +but I've found them the most useful articles a cliff-climber can own. +They are different from other lamps and torches; you can control the one +ray of light and indicate your path without any trouble whatever." + +This was true, as the guide demonstrated, and his party walked along +the narrow ledge without any fear of being precipitated over; all it +required was a good eye and a steady nerve, and they possessed these +necessary qualifications. + +The guide at length came to a halt, and said: + +"You stand here and I'll get my bridge." + +He proceeded along alone, but soon returned with two saplings, which he +had strung together, and of which he had made a rope ladder. + +Desmond was greatly interested, and watched the guide as he threw his +ladder across the intervening abyss, and then he said: + +"It will take a little nerve to crawl over, but once over we are all +safe, and I've got a storehouse over there. I prepared this place with a +great deal of patience and labor. We can spend two or three days here. I +know you will enjoy it, and we can take a good long rest. I will go over +first and then hold the light so you two can follow." + +Desmond glanced at Brooks, and asked: + +"Will you risk it?" + +"Yes, I will, lad; I am not the fellow I was about six months ago; I can +climb a steeple now." + +The guide went over, creeping across. The saplings bent under his weight +and made a downward curve, so that when he attempted so ascend on the +opposite side it was a climb up, but with the ropes made of woven +prairie grass and sticks and boughs he easily ascended. He had carried +his lantern with him, and he flashed its light across his bridge and +asked, "Who will come next?" + +"You go," said Desmond to Brooks. + +The tramp did not hesitate, but started to crawl over the oddly +constructed bridge, and he did so as well as the guide had done. Then +Desmond crossed and the instant all hands were over the guide took up +his bridge stowed it away, and said: + +"When we cross back it will be in the daytime, and much harder." + +"Much harder in the daytime?" + +"Yes." + +"I should think it would be easier." + +The guide laughed and said: + +"It might appear so, but in the daytime you will realize just what you +are doing. You will see the dark abyss beneath you, and when the bridge +sways downward your heart will be in your throat, I tell you. At night, +however, you do not know just what you are doing." + +Desmond saw the truth of what the guide said, and observed that the man +was quite a philosopher. + +"Now let me go in advance," said Creedon. + +He led the way and soon turned into what he called Creedon Street. It +was a broad opening with a solid flooring, and walls of rock on either +side--the most singular and remarkable rock conformation that either +Brooks or Desmond had ever seen. The guide walked right ahead boldly; he +evidently knew that there were no rents down which they might plunge. + +"Here is Creedon Hall," said the guide, as he turned into a broad +opening and flashed his light around. The party were in a cave, and yet +we can hardly call it a cave; it appeared to be merely a huge underline +in the side of the cliff, as it was open, as the guide said, facing +Creedon Street. + +"I will soon have Creedon Hall illuminated for you," said the guide. He +secured some wood, and as Desmond followed him he saw that he had +abundance of it, and the guide said: + +"This wood, some of it, has been stowed here for over ten years, and we +can have a jolly fire in a few minutes, and no fear of attracting +Indians or any one else. We are as safe here as though we were making a +grate fire in a big hotel in New York." + +Creedon made good his word, and soon Creedon Hall was brilliantly +illuminated, and Desmond was delighted. He exclaimed in his enthusiasm. + +"This is just immense!" + +"Well, it is." + +Brooks also was delighted; he set to work to make the coffee and prepare +the meal, and Creedon lay down on his blanket and lit his pipe, while +Desmond wandered around the cave, as he persisted in calling it. He +discovered several outlets from Creedon Hall, and he made up his mind +that as soon as his friends were asleep he would steal the mask lantern +and go on an exploring expedition. It was a jolly party that sat down to +coffee, cold dried meat, and crackers. Brooks had been very sparing of +his crackers, and had at least five pounds of them at the time he and +Desmond met the guide. + +"When did you discover this place?" asked Desmond. + +"I did not discover the place; it was revealed to me by an old hunter, a +Mexican, and how he discovered it he would never tell. The old man had a +great many secrets, and I have sometimes thought that there was gold +hidden here somewhere. I've spent days searching for it, but never could +find anything of the value of a red cent." + +"Where is the old Mexican now?" + +"That's hard to tell, lad; he died about five years ago, and his body +was carried to the ruins of an old Spanish church and there buried as he +had requested long before he died. He was a strange old man; he +possessed many secrets, but they died with him. It is possible he meant +to reveal them some day, but death caught him and he went out with his +mouth closed as far as his secrets were concerned. He was a sort of +miser in secrets. I did think that some day the old man would reveal +something of value to me; he pretended to think a great deal of me. I +saved his life at a critical moment; he was actually bound to the stake, +and I shot the rascal who was about to light the fire. They intended to +burn him alive, and the arrival of myself and party was just in time." + +"Do the Indians still burn their prisoners at the stake?" + +"These were not Indians--they were his own countrymen. They had tried to +force a confession from him, and because he refused to reveal the +whereabouts of the gold they thought he had stored away somewhere, they +were set to murder him in anger and revenge." + +"And you saved him?" + +"I did." + +"And he never revealed his secrets to you?" + +"Only the secret of this cave. He often made strange remarks and hinted +that some day I would receive my reward. We roomed here together all of +one winter, but he died and never opened his mouth to reveal where his +gold was, if it is true that he had any. I believe he did, but it will +never do me any good, and I do want to make a fortune somehow, but I +suppose I never will. Yes, lad, there are thousands of skeletons of +gold-seekers hid away in caverns in these mountains, victims of the same +ambition which is leading us to take such desperate chances." + +Desmond was very greatly interested in the story of the old Mexican, and +he asked a number of questions. + +"You never got the least inkling as to where his gold was hidden?" + +"I don't know that he had any gold; it is only a suspicion on my part." + +"He lived in this cave?" + +"Yes." + +"Did you ever search here?" + +"Well, you bet I did." + +"And did you explore?" + +"You bet I did." + +"And you never found anything?" + +"I never did." + +"Nor secured any indication?" + +"Never." + +"Possibly you did not look in the right place." + +"That is dead certain," came the natural answer. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +ON AN EXPLORING EXPEDITION--A FIND IN A CAVE--THE +SEPULCHRAL VOICE--THE EXPLANATION--DESMOND +GETS SQUARE ON A TRICK--STRANGE LONGINGS--THE +FINDING OF A NUGGET. + + +It was about midnight when the older men lay down on their blankets to +sleep. Creedon had a big silver bull's-eye watch, and he said he always +kept it going. + +Desmond pretended to lie down and go to sleep also, but his head was +filled with visions of the Mexican's hidden gold. He had an idea that +Creedon's investigations might have been very superficial; he determined +to make a thorough and systematic search, and he actually believed he +would find the hidden gold. + +Brooks and Creedon were good sleepers; both were very weary and they +were soon in a sound slumber, and then Desmond arose, stole on tiptoe +over beside Creedon and secured the mask lantern. A strange, weird scene +was certainly presented. There had been a big fire; the embers were all +aglow and illuminated the cave. There lay Brooks and Creedon, looking +picturesque in their hunting garb, and there was Desmond stealing on +tiptoe under the glare of the firelight to secure the mask lantern. + +Having secured the lantern the lad moved away and made for a crevice +which promised the best results. He knew enough of rock conformations to +go forward very carefully, always flashing his light ahead and studying +the path in advance, and so slowly, carefully, and surely he moved along +until he had traversed, as he calculated, a distance of two hundred and +fifty feet, when suddenly his flashlight revealed a solid wall in front +of him. + +"Here we are," he muttered, "and no mistake." + +Desmond saw that his explorations in that direction had ended. He +retraced his steps and selected a second crevice along which he made his +way, and at length he landed in a pretty good sized inner cave. + +"Well, I reckon we've got it here." + +The lad proceeded to search around with the care of a detective looking +for clues. He did find evidences of some one having been in the cave; he +found the handle of a dirk, a small bit of a deerskin hunting jacket, +and finally a little bit of pure gold. He examined the latter under his +lamp, satisfied himself that it was a nugget of real gold in its natural +state, and his heart beat fast. + +"I've got it at last," he muttered; "yes, I thought I knew how to carry +on this search. Creedon must have done it too hurriedly." + +Desmond felt quite proud of his success; he had struck it sure, as he +believed, and he continued his search, and was intently engaged when +suddenly he heard a sepulchral groan at the instant he had plunged into +a sort of pocket and was feeling around; but when he heard that groan he +started back into the cave and stood as white as a sheet gazing around +in every direction, and there was a wild terror in his eyes. He stood +for fully two minutes gazing and listening, and finally he said: + +"Great Scott! what was that I heard--a groan?" + +Desmond, although brave and vigorous, after all was but a lad of less +than eighteen. He could have faced a grizzly bear, but when it came to +the supernatural he was not equal to it. The fact was he was dead +scared, and, then again he believed he had really struck the hidden +recess where the old Mexican's gold was secreted. + +The young are more susceptible to superstitious fears, as a rule, than +older people; they are not skeptical. + +Desmond listened a long time, and as he did not hear the noise again, +and feeling an intense desire to find the hidden treasure, he again went +to the rock pocket and plunged in, but immediately there came again the +groan, clear, distinct, and unmistakable, and also a voice commanding: + +"Go away, go away; do not disturb my gold." + +The lad leaped out into the main cave again, and he trembled from head +to foot. He had never received such a shock in all his life; he had +never really believed in ghosts--never thought much about them +indeed--but here he had at least evidence that the dead did watch their +treasures. Still, the desire to secure the wealth was strong upon him; +naturally he was, as our readers know, very nervy, and he determined to +argue with the ghost. He reasoned that the hidden wealth could be of no +benefit to the spirit where he was, and he thought he might talk him +into keeping quiet. + +It was in a trembling voice that Desmond asked: + +"Is the spirit here?" + +The answer came: + +"I am here." + +A more experienced person than Desmond would have gotten on to the fact +that it was very strange that the spirit should answer him in such good +English, it being supposed to be the spirit of a Mexican, but spirits +probably can talk any language. At any rate, Desmond did not stop to +consider. + +"Do you own the gold?" + +"Yes." + +"Why can't I have it? I've found it." + +"You get away as quick as you can or I'll seize you." + +Well, well, this was a great state of affairs; Desmond did not ask any +more questions. He seized his lamp and started to limp from the cave, +and he was white and trembling. He made his way to Creedon Hall and +beheld Brooks and Creedon standing over the fire. On the face of Brooks +there was an amused look, and on Creedon's an expression of real +jollity. + +"Great sakes! Desmond," demanded Brooks, "where have you been? I awoke +and found you missing, and Creedon and I have been scared almost to +death." + +Desmond tried to assume an indifferent air, and said: + +"I wasn't sleepy, so I thought I would go and explore a little." + +"You had better be careful how you explore around here." + +"Why?" + +"Well, that's all; I won't say any more, but be careful, or you may be +suddenly missing." + +"What did you find, boy?" + +"I'll tell you all about it in the morning." + +The men retired to their blankets and Desmond also lay down, after +having promised that he would not attempt to explore any more that +night. + +He did not sleep, however; the phantom voice, the treasure, and his +discovery kept him awake, and he lay thinking about ghosts and goblins, +and he muttered; + +"Hang it! I never believed in ghosts;" then as he lay there, there came +to his mind a recollection of the jolly look that had rested on the face +of the guide, and there came to his mind a suspicion, and then a +certainty, that he had been fooled. He was a wonderfully sharp lad, and +he began to think the whole matter over, and he recalled the fact that +the ghost had spoken good English. + +"Hang me!" he muttered, "if I don't believe I've been made a victim of a +huge joke, and Brooks and Creedon are both guilty in aiding to give me a +scare. All right, to-morrow we will see all about it; I'll get square." + +Desmond did fall asleep at length, and when he awoke Brooks and Creedon +were eating their breakfast, and Creedon said as Desmond joined them: + +"So you were exploring last night?" + +"Yes." + +"What did you find?" + +"Gold." + +"You did?" + +"Yes." + +"Oh, come off." + +"I did." + +"You think you did." + +"I did, I'll swear I did." + +"Where did you find it?" + +"In a cave which one of those passages leads to." + +"You found gold?" + +"Yes." + +"You will have to be careful." + +"Careful?" + +"Yes." + +"Why?" + +"You'll strike the ghost." + +"The ghost?" + +"Yes." + +"What ghost?" + +"The ghost of the old Mexican." + +"I did think I heard a groan. Tell me about the old Mexican." + +"I've told you all I know about him, and I'll tell you that in my +opinion it will be dangerous to meddle with his gold, even if you found +it." + +"Could that old Mexican speak English?" + +"A little." + +"Only a little?" repeated Desmond. + +"Yes." + +"Then it's just as I suspected; I tell you I was scared at first, but +when the old ghost answered me--" + +"When the ghost answered you?" demanded Creedon. + +"Yes." + +"Did you see the ghost?" + +"I heard him--that is, I thought I did--and I spoke to him, but he gave +me back such good English I made up my mind that you didn't know how to +play a joke. Next time stick to the broken English; you might have +scared the life out of me then." + +Brooks and Creedon laughed, and the latter said: + +"Well, you are smart, you are; but, lad, let me tell you something: +don't spend time looking for the Mexican's gold." + +"Why not?" + +"I've explored every nook and cranny in this mountain, and there is no +treasure hidden here." + +"But I found some gold." + +"You did?" + +"Yes." + +Creedon and Brooks stared. + +"Are you in earnest?" + +"I am." + +"Where did you find it?" + +"Well, I am going to consider awhile before I tell." + +Brooks looked Desmond straight in the face, and asked: + +"Boy, honest, did you really find gold?" + +"Yes, I did." + +The matter began to assume a very serious aspect, for Desmond spoke +seriously. + +"If you found any gold, lad, you've beat me." + +"I did find gold." + +"On your honor?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, here we are on shares; tell us all about it." + +Desmond laughed in turn; they had had their laugh and he had his laugh, +as he said: + +"Here is what I found." + +The lad produced the little nugget he had picked up and then Creedon +laughed, and said: + +"By George! that is the bit of gold I lost, and I had a good hunt for +it." + +Our hero had been impressed by Creedon's statement that he had examined +every nook and corner in the mountain, and yet he did feel a sort of +hankering notion that he could find the gold, and he said: + +"I want to explore again." + +"All right; it can do no harm, but I will relinquish all claim now to +any gold that you may find in this cave." + +"I'll take you at your word," said Desmond. + +Of course the youth had no real hope of ever finding any gold, but it is +a known fact that such finds have been made, and sometimes the skeletons +of the owners have been found bleaching beside their gold. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +BOY'S DETERMINATION--GOING THROUGH A CREVICE--THE +MOVABLE ROCK--AID TO DISCOVER--UP THROUGH +A HOLE--THE GOLDEN HEAP--DESMOND'S GREAT +TRIUMPH--THE OLD MEXICAN'S SECRET EXPOSED. + + +Desmond was somewhat impressed by the words of Creedon, but still +insisted that he would like to conduct an exploration. + +"You will only go over the ground that I have already gone over." + +"I know that, but I propose to look around all the same." + +Desmond had been doing considerable thinking. He questioned Creedon +again and again, and made out that the old Mexican had lived in the cave +along with Creedon for months at a time, and as he learned, the old man +had thrown out a great many hints. These hints meant something; and then +again, if he had hidden his wealth in the cave he had done it so +securely and well that he had no idea of its ever being discovered until +such time as he saw fit to disclose the fact. Desmond knew how there +were some strange conformations in the rocks; the very place they were +in was a testimony to the strange freaks that nature in its upheavals +can and does create. + +Brooks had nothing to say about the matter, and Creedon did remark +finally: + +"Of course, as I've said, it can do no harm, but be careful you don't +strike--" + +Desmond here interrupted, and said: + +"I ain't afraid of ghosts; I've met one and I've got used to them." + +"I don't mean a ghost, I mean a crevice; go very slow and carefully, or +you may become a ghost yourself." + +Right here we wish to exchange a few words with our readers in regard to +these rock conformations. Right in the State of New York, in Ulster +County, and in what is called the Shawangunk Mountains, there are some +of the most wonderful caves and crevices, and in some of these caves +during the winter the snow drifts down, and in the spring becomes a +solid mass of ice, and the writer remembers upon one occasion after a +long and weary scramble over rocks under the face of a cliff which +towers up and overlooks counties, being shown a rock cave where there +was a solid mass of ice, which, in its contour resembled a ship. The ice +must have been at least sixty feet in length, twenty feet broad, and +fully forty feet high, and adjoining it were all manner of caves. These +caves are within a few miles of several settlements, and possibly at the +time of the visit of the writer had not been entered by over a dozen +persons. In these mountains are some very remarkable rock conformations, +and we merely mention this fact to the lads in the East, who may think +that these stories of rock caverns are exaggerated. There are probably +hundreds of caves in the Catskill and Shawangunk Mountains that have +never been entered or explored since the days when the early settlers +may have found them while bear hunting. + +Desmond had been raised, as we have stated, near the mountains, and +probably had explored many rock caverns, and it is because of this fact +probably that he was not surprised when led to the cave where he first +beheld the girl Amy Brooks. That cave still exists and is well known to +many of the people living in its vicinity, and in our description we +adhered to almost absolute accuracy. + +Creedon was a rough and ready sort of man, but not, the fellow, as +Desmond argued, who would apply himself to a critical study. It was a +great thing to have learned the facts concerning the old Mexican, and +the lad really believed that there was gold secreted somewhere in one of +the little cavities in that perforated mountain. + +Creedon started in to relate to Brooks the facts about the mine he +believed he had discovered, and Desmond, taking the mask lantern, +started off to explore. + +"You will burn out all my oil, lad; that is the only harm you will do, +and certainly little good. I cannot replenish the oil when it's burned +out, and I've been very careful, holding it for only such occasions as +when we came here across the chasm." + +Creedon explained that he had only carried with him one can of oil, +which had lasted him to date. + +Desmond started off and went direct to the crevice he had first entered, +and Creedon smiled as he saw him go in there, remarking to Brooks: + +"The lad will run up against a stone wall sure, but he is enthusiastic; +it will be a lesson to him." + +"Can't tell about that lad," said Brooks, "there is method in his +enthusiasm." + +"That's all right, but I was camped in here one whole winter, and as I +told you, there is not a nook or cranny that I have not explored." + +"But there are others," said Brooks, with an odd smile on his face. + +Meantime, Desmond followed the crevice until he came to the stone wall. +He knew about the same wall, but he was working on a certain theory. He +was like the Captain Kidd treasure-seekers--the discouragement of others +did not in any way discourage him, and we will here say that a similar +persistence in any walk of life, as a rule, leads to great results. + +Desmond, as stated, arrived opposite the stone wall, and he commenced a +calm, steady, determined examination. First appearances would have +discouraged any man, being faced as he was by a solid, smooth face of +rock. He stood contemplating the mass before him, and then with the ray +of light from his lantern he ran all over the rock. + +"By ginger!" he muttered at last, "I reckon it's true. There does not +appear a hole big enough in that rock for a spider to crawl through; +but, hang me! I've got an impression." + +There appeared to be a break in the rock just where it joined with the +roof of the cave. Desmond rolled a bowlder over against the rock and +mounted, and ran his finger over the crack. It was not a large crack and +offered no encouragement, but the lad was determined not to be satisfied +until he had established facts beyond all dispute. He ran his finger, as +stated, along the crack, and his knuckle pressed against the roof, and +to his surprise there appeared to be a loosening. He examined it and he +saw that there was a uniform crack running along the roof inclosing a +space about two feet square. The lad instinctively pressed on the center +between the cracks, and lo, there appeared to be a piece of the roof +that yielded. He pressed harder and satisfied himself that the piece of +rock between the cracks in the roof was movable. The discovery caused +his heart to stand still, and he muttered: + +"Great Scott! but I've found it." He flashed the light on the crack and +thought he could discern where there had been some chiseling. He made +every effort to shift the rock out of its place, but it was too much for +him, owing to the fact that he could just about reach it. He did not +have purchase enough to exert his full strength. + +He stepped down on the floor again and commenced to consider, and then +he determined to return to the main cave and solicit Brooks and Creedon +to go to his aid. + +When he re-entered the main cavern Creedon with a laugh said: + +"Well, lad, did you run up against a stone wall?" + +"I did." + +"I told you it was of no use to search these crevices. I've explored +every inch." + +"You have?" + +"Yes." + +"I think not." + +Brooks knew Desmond so well he discerned that the lad had really made a +discovery, but he said nothing. + +"You think not, eh?" + +"I do." + +"That would hint that you had found something." + +"I have." + +"What have you found?" + +"I don't know yet, but I am certain I have found a cranny or nook that +you never explored." + +"You have?" + +"I have." + +"What have you found?" + +"Oh, it may be that it's 'tellings,' as the boys say." + +Creedon looked at the lad in a curious way. + +"It cannot be possible," he said, "that you have found anything?" + +"Yes, I have." + +"What have you found?" + +"Guess." + +"It's no time to guess; what have you found?" + +"I'll show you what I've found; I want your help." + +The lad found a piece of sapling about seven feet in length, and said: + +"You gentlemen come with me; I'll show you something." + +Animated by great interest and curiosity, Brooks and Creedon followed +Desmond. He led them to the little rock cave where the crevice abutted +on the solid wall of rock, and he said: + +"Now what do you see?" + +"We see the rock." + +"Is that all?" + +"Yes." + +"Look sharp; there is something you have not discovered before." + +"What is it?" + +"Look." + +"I've looked." + +"I reckon when you did look upon the occasion of your former visits you +did as you are doing now--only _looked_, but you did not search." + +"Have you searched?" + +"Yes, I have." + +"And you've found something?" + +"Yes, I have." + +"What?" + +"Oh, look." + +"I'm done looking." + +"Then let me show you." + +Desmond took the strong piece of sapling he had brought with him and +jammed one end with great force against the square piece of roofing, and +the piece of rock moved. + +Creedon gazed aghast and exclaimed: + +"By all that's strange and wonderful, but I believe you have unfolded +the Mexican's secret." + +"I think so; and now lend me your strength, both of you, and let's see +if we can move that loose piece of rock. I'll bet there is an opening +there." + +"You are right--yes, lad, you have indeed raked into the old Mexican's +treasure den; I can recall now some words he once spoke." + +"Don't spend any more time recalling; let's shove that rock aside if we +can." + +The two men lent their aid to Desmond, and sure enough they did raise +the piece of rock, and by hoisting it they managed to move it aside a +trifle, enough to reveal the fact that there was a chamber above, and +that the opening was through the piece of rock. + +It was a reward of Desmond's persistence, but after all it was accident +that had revealed to him the opening. + +By hard work the men finally succeeded in moving the rock aside, and +there was disclosed the opening, and Desmond said: + +"Now let me stand on our shoulders with the light and I will tell you +what it is we have found. There is something there to reveal, I am dead +sure." + +The two men assisted Desmond to their shoulders. He took the lantern and +shoved his head through the opening, and then flashed the light around, +and with a joyful shout exclaimed: + +"We've got it!" + +"This beats me dead," said Creedon. + +Both men were greatly excited, for it did appear that they had made a +great find of hidden treasure. + +Meantime, Desmond managed to force himself up and disappeared in the +cave. He glanced around and beheld a sight that filled him with varying +emotions. + +The chamber was not more than four feet square, but on the floor in one +corner was a shining heap. It shone under the ray of his lantern as he +flashed the light upon it. He took a handful of the shining stuff and +passed it down to Creedon, handing him the lantern at the same time, and +he said: + +"You are a good judge; tell me what that is?" + +"It's gold dust," cried Creedon; "how much is there of it?" + +"Oh, barrels full, I should say." + +"Great ginger! lad, you've struck it." + +"Well, it won't run away, I reckon, but give me your hat and I'll fill +it." + +"Is that to be my share?" + +"No, we're only giving you the first whack at it, that's all." + +Desmond filled Creedon's hat with the dust and then descended, and the +whole party made their way to the outer cavern. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +DISCUSSING THE FIND--A NEW RESOLUTION--GOING TO CREEDON MINE--A +DISAPPOINTMENT--BETTER INDICATIONS--A NEW MOVE. + + +Once in the outer cavern, Desmond said: + +"It's now a matter of business." + +"Well?" + +"How shall we divide?" + +"You are the finder," replied Creedon; "you are to decide." + +"You leave it to me?" + +"Yes." + +"I'll make it an even divide all round." + +"Boy, it's a great discovery." + +"What do you think of its value?" + +"It depends upon the weight, but from your description I should say we +had a ten-thousand-dollar find." + +Desmond's eyes opened wide, and after a moment he asked: + +"Does it really belong to us?" + +"It does certainly; I am really the appointed heir of the old Mexican, +but anyway treasure-trove goes to the finder who can establish a right +to it." + +"We can," said Brooks. + +"You bet we can, and it is ours, but it's strange how the old Mexican's +secret has been opened up. Here I've had five years to search for this +gold and failed to find it, and this lad gets on to it in one day." + +"It was a mere chance." + +"Well, yes, to a certain extent; but if you had not been so persistent +you would not have developed the chance and made the find possible." + +"How did the old man accumulate this gold?" + +"It's plain enough; he has known some stream and has washed it, and +possibly it took him ten years to gather the heap you found there; but +how well he did it!" + +"He did, sure." + +"How shall we make a divide?" + +"Easy enough if you will let me make a suggestion." + +"Certainly." + +"We will carry it all out here; we run no risk, no one will ever +penetrate to this retreat; then when we have it all carted out here we +will divide it, a coffee cup full at time." + +"Good enough; that suits me." + +"But wait; I've a better proposition if you will accept it." + +"Go ahead." + +"Let's leave it where it is, go on to my mine, and if it amounts to +anything we will have the capital to work it ourselves." + +Desmond glanced at Brooks, and the man said: + +"That is a good proposition." + +Brooks was less suspicious than Desmond, but the lad determined to +accede to the proposition, and it was decided that on the following +morning they would start for Creedon's mine, and the guide said: + +"We will start before daylight." + +"Why?" + +"We had better cross the chasm in the dark; I am afraid you would hardly +recross it if you were to behold once what would be underneath you." + +It was so decided. + +The party made all their preparations and on the following morning, +before daylight, with the aid of Creedon's ladder the party crossed the +chasm and proceeded on their way toward the place where Creedon's mine +was located. They managed to secure enough game which they cooked and +had for food, and commenced their long march, and it was a long march. +They had been five days on the tramp, and stopped one night to camp, +when Creedon said: + +"In the morning we will be on the ground." + +The place where they were camped was a mountain glen, and our young +friend Desmond, being in splendid health, was exceedingly happy. The +life thus far had been one of constant excitement, and therefore at his +age one of continuous enjoyment, and besides, to crown all, he was +comparatively rich. As intimated, Creedon had valued the dust at ten +thousand dollars, and when it should be turned into money Desmond could +indeed clear his mother's farm and go to school, and then to college, +and it was his highest ambition to obtain a fine education. He was an +ambitious lad. + +Creedon was restless and excited all the evening; for him a great +decision was to be rendered. He had come to know that Brooks was indeed +an expert, and should the latter decide that his claim was of value it +meant that for which he had been struggling a long time, as he had said, +for fifteen years. + +Creedon did not sleep; much danger would not have kept him awake, but +the possibilities of the dawning day did cause exceeding restlessness. +Desmond noticed that the woodsman did not sleep and went over and sat +near him. + +"What's the matter, lad; why don't you sleep?" + +"Why don't you sleep?" + +"To tell the truth, I can't." + +"Neither can I." + +"I don't see what keeps you awake." + +"The possibilities of the coming day." + +Creedon was in a thoughtful mood, and Desmond asked: + +"Why are you so anxious to get rich?" + +"Lad, I'll tell you: I am thirty-three years old; I started from home +when I was less than eighteen; my father was a poor man. Living in our +town was a rich man who had a lovely daughter; she was just fifteen. I +had known her from the time we were wee little tots, and we fell in love +with each other, although she was fifteen and I but a little past +seventeen, but her father was rich; he despised low people, and that +girl and I agreed that I was to leave home, go into the world and earn a +fortune, and go back and claim her. We made a solemn agreement, pledged +ourselves under the stars, she was to wait for me even if I did not +return until I was a gray-haired man. Boy, she is waiting yet; she is a +handsome woman now--I have her photograph--and once a year I receive a +letter from her. She has urged me to return; her father is dead and she +has a competency in her own right, but I am not willing to go home, +marry her and live on her money; and besides, I want to get rich--real +rich. I wish to buy her the finest house in our native town, give her +horses and carriages; I'll die before I will return poor. The people in +the town have often and often hurt her feelings by their deridings, +telling her that I had forgotten her, that if I did succeed in winning a +fortune I would never return to her, but would marry some one else. They +told her I was a thriftless vagrant, never would get rich, and through +all this she has remained true to me, and every time I receive a letter +from her she urges me to return. I don't know; if my mine turns out all +right I will return, if it don't I will not return, and here I am just +about to learn what the chances are. It means to me life, love, and +happiness, or a return to the endless longing that has inspired me for +the last fifteen years; but, boy, I will never return unless I have a +fortune." + +"No wonder you are restless, and I am now as much interested in our +success on your account as I am on my own." + +"I have high hopes, lad--yes, high hopes." + +On the morning following the dialogue related, all hands were up bright +and early and they started for the mine, and in two hours were on the +ground. Creedon was pale as a pictured ghost while pointing out to +Brooks the indications, and Brooks also was excited as he made his +study. + +We will not bore our readers with an account of the investigations made +by Brooks, but will state that at the end of the second day he was +compelled to announce that the mine was valueless. + +Desmond thought he had never seen a more disconsolate look on any man's +face than the one that settled over the face of Creedon when the +announcement was made. + +"Your mine don't amount to anything in itself," said Brooks, "but it +carries a suggestion; it is a compass that points to where a valuable +mine may be found. We are not in it yet; to-morrow I will make a survey +and I may get indications that will carry us to the ledge where the gold +ores extend in paying quantities--yes, I think I can read the +indications as plainly as though the road were mapped out." + +Brooks spent two days, and then said: + +"It's all right; there is a mine somewhere, but I must have the proper +instruments and testing utensils. I will leave you and Desmond here in +the mountains and proceed to the nearest settlement and secure what I +need. Creedon, I can almost promise you that we will find a rich +digging, and it will be more accessible than this one." + +"I have a better plan," said Creedon. + +"What is your plan?" + +"We will go and get the dust that the lad found; we will carry that to +the town, dispose of it, get our money, make our deposits in the bank, +and then start in on the search. Possessing the knowledge that you do, +we will find a mine. I am not discouraged yet." + +It was so agreed, and the party made their way back to where they had +their store of dust. Creedon had made some deerskin bags so that the +burden would not fall upon one person. The dust was all secured and they +made a start for the town. + +On the night when they made their last halt before ending their trip in +the town, Brooks, the wizard tramp, took advantage of an opportunity to +talk to Desmond alone. He said: + +"Lad, to-morrow we will be in the town and we will have money. I have a +proposition. It will take a year or two to develop matters in case I do +locate the mine; you cannot afford at your time of life to spend a year. +I do not need you with me now. I am a man again, thanks to you, and I +will make a confidant of Creedon. He is a manly, honest fellow, and will +watch over me. Our joint interest will make him a splendid sentinel. I +feel that we are sure to win, if not in one direction in another. With +my scientific knowledge and his practical knowledge we will win, but it +may be two or three years. This is a fascinating life for you, but you +cannot afford to lose this valuable time." + +"What is it you are about to propose?" + +"I can send you home with five thousand dollars and I will still have +money enough to carry on our purpose. You can clear off the farm and go +to school; you are ambitious, and in less than a year you will be +prepared to stand an examination for college, and you can go with a +cheerful heart, for if my life is spared I will win a fortune for you. I +have no use for a fortune myself; I am working for you and Amy." + +"But suppose something should happen to you? Do you remember you have +not made your revelation?" + +"I propose to provide for that; I will confide to you a document. It is +not to be opened until you are assured of my death, so living or dead +you shall in good time learn the great secret that I have held all these +years." + +"I must think this matter over," said Desmond. + +"There must be no thinking. I have decided as to what you must do." + +"And you do not want me to go back at all?" + +"No, I want you to go home to the State of New York; I want you to go to +clear off the farm and go to school, and I will attend to your affairs +out here." + +"I will decide in the morning." + +That night Desmond thought over the whole matter. He had become +fascinated with the life in the mountains, but when he revolved the +whole matter in his mind he saw that it was indeed wiser for him to +return to his home; and under what joyful circumstances he would +return! He could clear the farm and have money in the bank; he could go +to school and go to college, and devote his whole attention to study +without any worry or fear, and in the morning he greeted Brooks with the +announcement: + +"I have decided to obey you." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +A SAD PARTING--PROPHETIC WORDS--ON THE TRAIN--A +SENATOR'S SON--LEADING UP TO A TRICK--GENUINE +FUN AHEAD. + + +There came a sad look to the face of Brooks, and he said: + +"I shall miss you, Desmond, but I feel it is for the best. You are a +youth of great promise. I do not mean to flatter you, I am speaking the +truth, and it is in your interest that I so warmly advocate your return +to the East. I desire that you become an educated man, a graduate of +college; I wish you to secure your degree. And let me tell you now there +was fate in our meeting, and very remarkable consequences may follow our +acquaintance begun and maintained under such strange circumstances." + +Desmond had never beheld his strange friend, the wizard tramp, under a +similar mood. There appeared to be a prophetic spell prompting the words +of the strange man. + +"I hope you do not wish to get rid of me." + +"No, I am speaking in your interest alone, lad; my life has been a +wasted one, yours is just commencing. You can be of some use in the +world, I have been a nuisance. I have a strange tale to tell--yes, +Desmond, like many others I have encountered a romance in life. I +deliberately threw myself away, but where I failed you can win; there is +a chance for you to become a useful man; great honor may await you +because you possess the qualities that win success. You are brave, firm, +and persistent, also enterprising; with these qualities, in this land, +any young man can win a success against the great throng of unambitious +and careless men like myself." + +"Can you trust yourself?" + +"I can." + +"You are certain?" + +"I am." + +"You do not need me?" + +"I do not." + +"Remember, your weakness upon several occasions permitted you to fall." + +"I have considered everything; I have an object in life now and a +prospect." + +"A prospect?" + +"Yes." + +"Is there anything you are concealing from me?" + +"I am considering your interests alone," was the reply. + +"But your revelation?" + +"It is not necessary for me to tell you once again that I have provided +for you to learn the secret of my life in case anything should happen to +me." + +Desmond at once began his arrangements for a return to the East. He had +been away for many months; he had plenty of money; his return would be +in great triumph in every way. He purchased fine clothes, which he was +able to do even in the far Western town where he was stopping, and when +he arrayed himself in his good clothes even Brooks was surprised at the +wonderful transformation well-fitting attire made in the youth. Desmond +was indeed a fine-looking fellow, well educated comparatively, and as is +not unusually the case, he was naturally capable of adapting himself to +changed conditions. He did not seem awkward in his good clothes, but +appeared as though he had worn fine attire all his life. + +At length the hour came when Desmond and Brooks were to part company. +The wizard tramp had a sad look upon his face, although he tried to be +cheerful and jovial The attempt, however, was a failure. He said: + +"I will not go with you to the train, Desmond, we will part here, and +you can address your letters to me here; I will arrange to have them +forwarded to me in case I go prospecting again." + +"You will go prospecting, I suppose, of course." + +"I cannot tell; but remember, if anything happens to me I have arranged +for you to be communicated with." + +There came a look of concern to our hero's face, and the discerning +Brooks said: + +"You have something to say." + +"I have an idea." + +"Well?" + +"There is great peril in the wilderness." + +"Yes." + +"There have been cases where men have lost their lives and their deaths +have not become known until many years afterward." + +"That is true, lad, and I have calculated for that." + +"You have?" + +"Yes." + +"How?" + +"You will know if such an event should occur. In the meantime let me +tell you if a year should pass and you do not hear from me you will know +that I am dead." + +"And then?" + +"Tell Amy." + +"And then?" + +"She may make a disclosure to you. Remember, I have taken every +precaution." + +"I do not know why you should withhold from me your life secret. No harm +could come of an immediate revelation, but of course you have your own +reasons for withholding your story." + +"Yes, that is it, I have reasons; no harm might come of an immediate +revelation, but I have reasons of a very satisfactory character to +myself. You will understand and appreciate them when they are made known +to you. Desmond, I am a changed man; you need have no fear concerning me +now; time has righted a wrong. I am strong now--that is, normally +strong--all will go well, I believe, if not with me at least with you." + +A little later and our hero was on his way across the country to the +town where he was to take the train, and a better equipped lad for +adventure never boarded a train, and lo, he encountered several very +thrilling adventures ere he arrived at the valley farm where kind hearts +beat to greet him. + +Desmond had been on the train but a few minutes really when he observed +a tall, country-looking young fellow, who fixed his eyes on him. As has +been demonstrated all through our narrative, Desmond was a very quick, +discerning chap; in the language of the day, he was "up to snuff," and +the instant he caught the eye of the country-looking fellow he knew that +something was up, and he discerned more which will be disclosed as our +narrative advances. + +Desmond had not boarded a through train; he was to go to a large town +where he would meet a through express. The train he had entered was a +way train, and he seated himself by the window. No one was in the seat +with him at first, but soon the country-looking chap took a seat beside +him. The latter appeared to be a jolly, innocent sort of chap, and he +addressed the young adventurer with the words: + +"Hello!" + +There came a merry gleam in Desmond's eyes, as he asked: + +"Do you take me for a telephone?" + +The stranger arched his eyebrows, and demanded: + +"A telephone?" + +"Yes." + +"What makes you ask that question?" + +"Because you yelled 'hello' in my ear." + +"I've heard about telephones, but I never saw one." + +"You never did?" + +"No; what are they like?" + +The question was asked seemingly in the most innocent manner, but the +keen-witted Desmond's suspicions were at once aroused, and on the +instant he made a curious discovery. The fellow was a make-up, under a +disguise, and consequently under immediate suspicion also. + +"So you never saw a telephone?" + +"Never." + +"You _tell_ me that?" + +"Yes." + +Our hero knew he had a long journey before him; he was naturally very +fond of a joke and excitement, and besides he had instinctive hatred for +designing men. Our hero was aware that the trains, as a rule, are +infested with sharps, and the efforts of the railroad companies to +squelch these nuisances are not altogether successful. Our adventurer +determined to have a little amusement, and if his suspicions were fully +verified he was resolved to teach at least one sharp a good lesson. We +will repeat, Desmond did not look like an athlete or a youth who had +seen the rough side of life; he could easily be mistaken for an +ordinarily bright youth who had much to learn. + +"So you really never saw a telephone?" + +"Never," repeated the man. + +Desmond, having determined upon his course of action, assumed a most +serious air, and with the greatest earnestness graphically described a +telephone, and the stranger appeared to be all interest and attention, +and expressed his surprise by innocent ejaculations, as our hero related +the wonderful possibilities of the telephone. + +It was an amusing scene, or would have been to one who was under the +rose and understood that a game was being played. + +When Desmond's description apparently, as stated, told in the most +earnest manner the sharp, as we shall call him, said: + +"Well that beats me, it beats anything I ever heard. See here, stranger, +you are making a fool of me with a big fish story because I am a green +Western man, born and raised on the prairie." + +"No, I've told you the truth." + +"Well, well, you come from the city?" + +"No, I am going to the city." + +"New York?" + +"Yes." + +"Is that your home?" + +"Well, _New York lies near where_ I live." + +"Dear me, what wonderful sights you have seen!" + +"Yes, sir." + +"That New York is a wonderful place." + +"You bet it is." + +"I am going there some day--yes, I've said I'd see New York some day and +I will. It must make a man blind for a few days to go around there." + +"Well, yes, it is rather dazzling," said Desmond. + +So the conversation continued for quite a time and finally the stranger +rose and went away, saying he would return immediately. Quite a +respectable-looking man took the vacated seat beside Desmond, and the +last neighbor asked: + +"Do you know that green-looking chap who was just talking to you?" + +"No, sir, I never saw him before." + +"Then you don't know who he is?" + +"No, sir." + +"That is a son of Senator F----, the richest mine owner out in this +section; he looks like a countryman. You see he was raised in the West, +but he is one of the most honest and good-hearted fellows in the world, +liberal to a fault, fond of fun, but a good and true friend to any one." + +Desmond studied the man who was giving him this unsolicited information, +and he concluded that the nice-looking man was sharp number two; he was +up to this sort of business and perceived the whole game. + +"Yes, he appears like a good, honest fellow," said Desmond. + +"Honest? why, you could trust him with all you had in the world." + +"Yes, he looks that." + +"He is one of the kindest-hearted fellows in the world. I tell you if +you get into trouble he is the man to aid you. He is the best pistol +shot and rifle shot in the land. Why, that fellow has fought off a whole +tribe of Indians. The redskins fear him as a white man fears the devil, +and his father is one of the richest men out in this section, as I told +you." + +"Yes. He don't look like a millionaire's son." + +"No, but he is all the same, and he appears to have taken a great fancy +to you. I was watching him while he talked to you; I tell you no one +will interfere with you anywhere in this land if they know that he is +your friend." + +"That's good." + +"Yes. He is a splendid fellow." + +The man who had volunteered all this information walked into a forward +car, and a few moments later the senator's son, so-called, returned, and +as frequently occurs in far Western trains, the particular car in which +Desmond was riding was deserted. Our hero and the countryman had the car +all to themselves, and after a little further talk the senator's son +said: + +"I wish some greeny would come in here, we'd have some fun." + +"How?" + +"I'll tell you, I am a regular juggler; I know all the tricks of +gamblers and I'd fool a fellow." + +"Do you know all the tricks of gamblers?" + +"Yes, and sometimes I beat the game just for fun. You see I am down on +gamblers, I just like to beat them. Generally there are one or two of +those rascals on this train, but they know me; I don't get a chance at +them any more, so I sometimes amuse myself by astonishing greenhorns. By +ginger! but it's funny I've never been in New York; I am half a mind to +go right on to the great city with you." + +"Yes, come along," said Desmond, a merry twinkle in his eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +PLAYING TO CATCH A WEASEL--A SHARP'S +SCHOLAR--OPENING UP OF THE GAME--TWO +BIG HANDS--A CRISIS. + + +"I can't go, but I'd like to; but you give me your address, and some day +you will see me in York. I feel like the man who said, 'See Venice and +die;' I want to see New York. Say, they tell me there are a great many +sharpers in that wonderful city." + +"Yes, it's full of them." + +"Well, wouldn't I have fun beating those fellows, especially on the race +track, eh? They tell me these sharps are as thick as mosquitoes in +August down on the race tracks." + +"Yes, they hover around there." + +"I like you, young fellow." + +"Thank you." + +"Yes, I do." + +"So you said." + +"You're honest; I like an honest young fellow every time. Are you an +orphan?" + +"A half orphan." + +"Your mother dead?" + +"No, my father." + +"Well, I am just the other way--my mother is dead and my dad, he is away +up. They say he is a great man. I reckon he is, but I am no shakes; you +see I care more for fun than lands. Now, see here; I'll teach you some +tricks. Would you like to learn?" + +"Yes, I would." + +"Good enough, and when you get back to York you can punish some of those +sharps there, for my occupation is gone out here; they won't let me play +against them or I'd beat them every time--yes, I beat their game and +then give the money away to some poor person who needs it; but they +don't know you, and before we get to the end of the route some of those +fellows may get aboard, and as I said, they don't know you, and we'll +have some great fun; you can beat the game." + +"I'd like to do that." + +"You would?" + +"Yes." + +"Why?" + +"I was beaten once." + +"You were?" + +"Yes." + +"At what game?" + +"Three card monte." + +"Well, well! and did they ever come the thimblerig on you?" + +"Yes, I had a taste of that also." + +"Then you've been through the mill?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, now, see here; I'll teach you the game, and you are the only one +I ever will teach it to; you are honest. But if I were to teach the game +to some fellows who claim to be honest they would start in as gamblers +right away." + +"I never will." + +"No, I can see that in your eye; you've got an honest face; I like you +clean through." + +"Thank you again." + +"Yes, and I am going to learn you a trick or two." + +"I'll be glad to learn." + +The man produced his cards and said: + +"I always carry an outfit with me just for fun." + +"Is that so?" + +"Yes." + +"That's fine." + +We cannot in words describe the peculiar tones of our hero or the +singular expression upon his face, but he was playing for great fun. He +held in reserve a great surprise for the senator's son, a grand climax +and tableau was to close the scene, or rather, as Desmond classed it in +his mind, grand comedy. He did not know just how the fellow intended to +work his game; he believed the method would be a novel one, but he was +ready--yes, permitting himself to be led on to the grand climax. + +The wizard tramp was an expert gambler and he had taught Desmond a great +many tricks in order to put the youth on his guard, and also for +amusement during their lonely hours together. All there was to learn +about the trick Desmond already knew, but he pretended ignorance, and +let the sharp go ahead. He proved an apt scholar, however, for the +senator's son said: + +"Jiminy! I don't know but I am doing wrong." + +"Doing wrong?" + +"Yes." + +"You learn so quick you appear to be a natural gambler." + +"I am pretty quick at learning points, I will admit." + +"You are great." + +Our hero had just about mastered the intricacies of the game when, lo, +three men entered the car, and the sharp whispered to the lad: + +"Great Scott! here are a lot of 'gambs' as sure as you are alive. I +wonder if they will give me a chance at them; if they do I'll show you +some fun, if they don't you are up to the trick, you are my pupil, and +you can show me the fun." + +"That's so." + +"Lay low, my friend, don't go too fast or these fellows will become +suspicious. I want to catch them good, and we will if you play it +right." + +Desmond was on to the trick; he saw how the game was to be played, and +he appreciated that it was indeed a neat little trick. They were working +to fleece him differently from any little game he had ever seen or had +read about. + +The "gambs," as the sharp had called the newcomers in the car, did not +betray their game at once. They took a seat a little distance off and +commenced playing among themselves "only for fun," as they said loud +enough to be overheard. + +"We'll catch them," whispered the sharp. + +"I don't know; they do not appear disposed to let us into their game; +maybe they are acquainted with you." + +"Never mind, they will go for you. Let me see, I'll go out of the car, +see! and then they will make your acquaintance. I'll be at hand in case +there is a row." + +"Yes, I see." + +"We must catch these fellows and teach them a lesson." + +"We will." + +"We will have to blind them. Let me see; have you any money to make a +bluff on?" + +"Yes, plenty." + +"Make believe you are making a bet with me and show a roll, then we will +bait them and they will go for you; and, oh, won't we give 'em a lesson? +You bet we will; we'll just clean them out and give the money to some +needy person--that is, you can--and you'll meet many a poor cuss before +you get to New York." + +"You can meet them anywhere." + +"Have you got a roll?" + +"Yes." + +"A good sized one? for we want to give them a good bait." + +Desmond was playing his part of the game well--very well--his whole +manner was right up to the mark--indeed, he did a fine piece of acting. +He pulled out a roll of bills, pretended to dispute with the sharp, and +suddenly exclaimed: + +"I'll bet you a hundred." + +"No, no, young fellow, I don't bet," said the sharp. "I know I am right, +I'd only be robbing you." + +"I won't let you rob me; I am up to what I say." + +The youth put an emphasis on his words which the sharp did not notice; +he thought he had such a sure thing, he was not looking for a false +"steer." Desmond saw the glitter, however, in the sharp's eyes at the +sight of the roll, for it looked like a big pile of money, and the sharp +appeared to feel, as indicated in his face, that the pile was already +his own. + +"By ginger!" he said, "you are a dandy; you can play this game right up, +but don't be too anxious or you will scare those fellows off; just take +it easy, let them lead you on." + +"Oh, I know how to work; don't you forget I am a Yorker." + +"Yes, I see you Yorkers are smart fellows. You know a heap, I can see +that; but I did learn you some?" + +"Yes, and when we get through here, I'll teach you a trick." + +The sharp shot a keen glance at Desmond, and the lad saw that he had +been a little premature, but it was only a fuse that flashed, and the +sharp said, speaking in a very low tone: + +"I'll go in the next car, but I'll be on hand at the right moment. I +want to enjoy the laugh when you catch these fellows. You are sure you +are on to the trick?" + +"I am." + +"You must keep your eyes well open." + +"You bet I will." + +The sharp left the car, and after a moment one of the confederates came +over and took a seat alongside of Desmond, and in a jolly, familiar +tone, he said: + +"You bucked the senator's son down, didn't you?" + +"Well, yes." + +"It takes a good man to buck him down; He's got lots of stuff and sand +too, but you bucked him." + +"Yes, I did." + +"We're having a little game here to pass the time--it's awful dreary +these long rides. You see, we are salesmen and we've had some of these +fellows out here trying to rope us in, and we are trying to learn the +game." + +"Don't you know the game?" + +"No; do you?" + +"Well, I know a little about it." + +"Come along and show us what you know." + +The party got together; Desmond appeared hale-fellow-well-met with the +rogues, and the game was played amid a great deal of laughter, until one +of the party said: + +"By Jove! boys, I am on to this thing." + +"You are?" + +"Yes, I am." + +"You daren't bet for fair." + +"Yes, I dare." + +"Oh, come off." + +"I'll bet for fair; I'll give every one of you a chance." + +"You will?" + +"Yes, I will." + +"Come off." + +"I am in earnest; who'll go first and bet me?" + +"I will," said one man. + +"All right." + +The cards were thrown and a bet made, and the dealer was beat and lost +apparently a ten-dollar bill. + +"All right; I was beat that time. Who'll take a second hack at it? I've +got it all right, and I'll catch some of you fellows." + +"Will you?" + +"I will, by thunder." + +The trick was being played in the most bungling manner, simply because +when properly played the exposure would have shown the game. The second +man bet and won, and the dealer said: + +"I give it up, let's play a little game we know something about." + +"What will it be?" + +"I'll deal you fellows a little faro; we might as well pass the time +that way as any other." + +A game of faro commenced and Desmond went into the game, and in a little +time the original sharp came in the car and wanted to take a hand, and +it was then that the gamblers said: + +"No, we won't let you; you are a 'jack' player; we are only amateurs." + +The party played faro for a little while and then a regular game of +poker was proposed. The latter was a game that all hands could play in +for a trick; even the senator's son was permitted to enter the game, and +winking in a knowing manner to our hero he did get in the game, and the +four proceeded up to a crisis where, as usual, two men held hands of +value, and as it chanced, the original sharp was the man who held a hand +against Desmond, and he said: + +"Here, I'll only make a small bet; I don't want to win your money." + +"I'll bet you anything you want," said Desmond. + +"Hello! are you in earnest?" + +"Yes, I am." + +"Do you really want to get my money?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"Dead sure?" + +"Yes." + +"I've a big hand, I'll tell you that before you start in." + +"That's all right, I'm betting on my hand." + +"Now see here, young fellow, remember this is poker, and on principle I +always claim when I win, so don't bet high on your hand." + +"I'll go as high as you choose." + +"And you know what you are doing?" + +"Yes." + +"I am in dead earnest." + +"So am I." + +"Everything is barred?" + +"Yes, everything," said Desmond. + +"All right; if you will have it so swing out your roll. I'm betting +heavy on this hand, but I've warned you, remember." + +"Yes, but you can't bluff me," said Desmond. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +ALMOST A BREAK--A NOVEL GAME TO ROB--OUR HERO'S +ARTISTIC ACTING--A TABLEAU AND A GRAND SURPRISE. + + +Again the sharp fixed his eyes upon our hero, but it was not a +give-away; Desmond was playing his game too well. He appeared like an +excited gambler, an amateur, who apparently believed he had a sure +thing. + +"I'll warn you once more," said the sharp. + +"To the dogs with your warning, you daren't bet." + +"Oh, yes, I dare bet, but I like you; I've a dead sure hand, you can't +beat me." + +"That's my lookout." + +"Then you know just what you are doing?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"These men can bear witness that I want to throw up my hand." + +"You needn't." + +"And you will really bet?" + +"Yes, I will." + +"With your eyes open?" + +"Dead sure." + +"All right; what is your raise?" + +Desmond gave a lift and the sharp raised back, and so the play went on +until the stake was a thousand dollars on the two hands, and the sharp +said: + +"See here, young follow, five hundred is enough for you to lose." + +"No, no, I am not losing." + +"You ain't?" + +"No." + +"Suppose you are mistaken." + +"I can stand it." + +"You can?" + +"I can." + +"All right; no use for me to attempt to stand against a young fellow +like you. I begin to suspect you've been playing innocent, and I will +teach you a lesson; I raise you a hundred." + +"I see it and go two hundred better." + +Each time a bet was made the money was laid on the table, and it was a +very exciting scene and moment. The sharp looked puzzled; he had laid +out for a dead sure thing, but there had come a complete change over +Desmond, and it was the latter fact that scared the sharp. He +hesitated, but at length, in a slow tone, said: + +"I'll see you a call," and he laid down his cards. He held four jacks, a +great hand, but one that is often beaten, of course, and it was beaten +on this occasion, for, strange to declare, Desmond held four kings. + +Right here let us offer an explanation. Our hero was playing against a +false deal; the man who was leading him made the fatal mistake that he +was working with a gudgeon on his hook, consequently he was not +watchful. The wizard tramp had taught Desmond a great many tricks, and +the lad's natural discernment and watchfulness had prepared him for the +hand when the great trick was to be sprung, and unwatched he worked a +bigger trick. He did not know what the hand was he was pitted against, +but he had been let in to gamblers' tricks, that is, "snide" gamblers. +These fellows in making a false deal do not win on the highest hands, +for they always know the hand against them. The fellow who was seeking +to rob Desmond thought he knew our hero's hand, but it was right there +he was fooled. Our hero had worked his own trick, as stated--he stole a +hand so deftly that the unwatchful robbers did not see him do it, and it +was there he had them. He was really taking a slight chance, but only a +slight one, and what followed? Well, it was a case of the biter bitten, +and when Desmond exposed his hand there came a look upon the sharp's +face that can never be described, but which might be photographed with a +snap-shot machine. + +There fell a dead stillness in that car for a few seconds, and then the +defeated sharp said: + +"Aha! you are a cheat." + +"Am I?" + +Desmond was perfectly cool. + +"Yes, you are, and that money is mine." + +"Is it?" + +"Oh, see here, young fellow, don't you attempt to bluff me, or I'll mark +you." + +As intimated, there had come a great change over Desmond. He did not +look like and he certainly did not act like the same person who a little +time previously had been learning gambling tricks from the sharp. The +gambler attempted to rake the money from the seat, and it was at that +moment the real fun commenced. + +"You miserable rascal," cried Desmond, "lay a finger on a bill on that +seat and I'll pin your hand to the car seat." + +Well, there was a scene of consternation around there just at that +instant, and our hero said: + +"I've been carrying out your programme, amusing myself with a sneak +thief, and now, Mr. Senator's Son, you have evidence that Yorkers do +know a thing or two, and you get yourself together and get out of this +car and off the train at the next station, or I'll make a horse-fly net +of you. Is that plain English? Take your own money, I don't need it. You +are under cover, but let me give you a pointer--you play the senator's +son too well altogether to make a success of it." + +The group of gamblers stared in silence. They did not dare make a +hostile move; there was something about Desmond in his transformed +appearance that froze them--indeed, even his youth was a mystery to +them, for he acted like a man who had had years of experience. + +"You started in, gentlemen, to play a big game of robbery, but ran up +against a snag. I am letting you off easy--very easy--but you see we +young fellows from York are not malicious." + +The gamblers had indeed gotten off easily, and we will here explain that +they did not fear Desmond in a scrimage; but they would have feared any +one who would have made a fight, as they did not wish to draw the +attention of the train men to their scheme which had been exposed. Had +they been winners they would have made a fight, but the game they were +attempting was one of highway robbery, for they had been outwitted in +the deal, and had no claim upon the money. + +The train arrived at a station and the gamblers started to alight. They +felt bitter, and the self-styled senator's son said to Desmond: + +"The train will stop here fifteen minutes. You are a good fellow, I like +you, I'd like to have you stop off a minute and have a cool drink with +us." + +Desmond well knew the scoundrel's purpose, but being fond of adventure +he determined to give the rascals a still greater surprise. He was in +splendid condition, his muscles were developed up to the consistency of +whit-leather, and with a smile he rose to follow the man who had invited +him to alight for refreshment. The gambler stepped off the car ahead of +Desmond; the latter followed, when the former suddenly swung round and +made a vicious lunge at the youth who had so cleverly outwitted him, and +once again the scamp was outwitted. A second time he ran up against a +snag, for our hero dodged the blow that was meant for him and countered +with a tremendous slugger which landed on his assailant's nose, and over +the man fell with a swiftness that would have suggested the kick of a +horse, and when he fell he lay there; but two of the other chaps had in +the meantime made a rush for Desmond, and they received a rap +successively--indeed, they had run in on our young walking champion +where he was at home. He was a wonder in science, strength and agility; +no two or three ordinary men would have had any show with him at all, +and the fact was the assailants so determined, for the attack was not +renewed, and our hero stepped aboard the train, the object of the +wondering glances of twenty people who had witnessed the assault and +its culmination. + +Desmond sat down in the car as coolly as though he had just gone out for +a breath of fresh air. + +Our hero encountered several other adventures of a minor character, but +in good time arrived in New York City. He had not announced his return +to the farm, and consequently spent several days in the all-round +greatest city in the world. There is no place like old New York; there +is more life to be seen in the great American metropolis in one day than +can be seen in any other great capital in two. It is a city peculiar to +itself, unlike any other, in its situation between two rivers and its +nose practically putting out to the sea; in its activities and general +loveliness--indeed, it in a wonderful place, and Desmond enjoyed every +minute during his sojourn, but at length he took a train up-country and +in due time arrived at the station from which he was to team it to the +old farm where his grandfather and father had lived and died. + +As stated, Desmond had not announced his return, and when within a mile +of the farm he alighted from the wagon that had carried him over and +started afoot. It was late in the afternoon when he arrived in sight of +the old farm, and he was standing on a rise of ground looking over +toward his old home, when he espied a girl sitting beneath a tree. One +glance was sufficient; he recognized Amy, and he determined to steal +upon her unawares. He managed to gain a clump of bushes located within +twenty feet of where the girl sat, and he had an opportunity to study +her unobserved. We will not describe his emotions, but it was a +beautiful sight that fell under his delighted gaze. The life on the farm +had been of great advantage to Amy in many ways, and in her white muslin +dress she appeared so beautiful as to make it seem that she was out of +place in that wild region. Her form was perfect in its grace, and her +face--well, we will not go into a description, but let it suffice to say +that there are few girls in all the world who surpass her in the +exquisite loveliness of her face. + +Desmond studied the girl for a long time and he observed that she +appeared to be perfectly contented and happy. She had her mandolin with +her, and after quite a period of abstraction she took up her instrument, +and soon her splendid voice sounded clear and melodious on the still +air, for it was an afternoon when nature rested under a spell, as it +were; not a breath of air appeared to float amid the leaves and flowers. + +A moment, and our hero made the most delightful discovery of his life. +Amy was singing and improvising; she did it readily and charmingly, and +her hidden auditor was indeed charmed. She was singing to an absent one, +and she mingled the name of our hero in her song. It was a plea for the +absent one to return, and the sweetness of the melody was not more +entrancing than the verses. She appeared to be not only a singer but a +poetess, possessed of rare talent. + +Desmond did not appear inclined to break the spell, but when he saw Amy +making preparations to depart he stepped from his place of concealment. +The girl uttered a cry; at the first glance she did not recognize the +farmer boy, transformed as he was into a gentleman in dress, but when +she caught sight of his face and heard his merry laugh and pleasant +salutation, she exclaimed: + +"Oh, Desmond, I did not know you at first. How elegant you look!" + +"Thank you; how is my mother?" + +"She is well, but did not know you were coming home; neither did I." + +"Well, no, I thought I would give you a surprise. It's all right, here I +am, this side up with care." + +"Your mother will be delighted." + +"And you?" + +"I am giddy with delight, and I hope all is well with you and with my--" +The girl stopped short and said, "Mr. Brooks." + +"Yes, when I left him he was all right." + +"Did he come with you?" + +"No, he remained behind to transact some business; and, Amy, if you are +surprised to see me looking so elegant, as you say, you would be more +surprised did you behold at this moment your--I mean Mr. Brooks." + +A shadow flitted across the girl's face, but it was succeeded a moment +later by a bright smile, as she said: + +"Oh, I am so happy, I was never happier in my whole life." + +"And what makes you so happy?" + +The question was put abruptly. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +CONCLUSION. + + +Amy suddenly appeared to realize--well, our readers can guess what. It +appeared to cross her mind that she was betraying too great happiness, +and was a little too free in betraying it. She hesitated and blushed, +and after an instant of embarrassment Desmond said: + +"Oh, don't be afraid, tell me why you are so happy." + +"Everything makes me happy, and I shall continue to be happy unless--" +Again the girl stopped short. + +"Go on," said Desmond. + +"Unless I am to be taken away from your mother." + +"Do you desire to remain with my mother?" + +"Yes." + +"Why?" + +"I love your mother." + +"You love my mother?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"And who else?" + +The question came in a pointed manner; Amy was a girl nearly sixteen. + +"My--I mean Mr. Brooks." + +"Who else?" + +The girl did not answer. + +"Come, Amy, who else do you love?" + +"You are real mean." + +"I am?" + +"Yes." + +"How?" + +"You know." + +"I do?" + +"Yes." + +"I don't want to be mean, but tell me who else you love?" + +"I won't." + +"You won't?" + +"No." + +There was bantering in the tones of both these young people at that +moment. + +"Shall I tell you who I love?" + +"Yes." + +"I love my mother." + +"You can't help it." + +"I have learned to love Mr. Brooks, your--I mean--well, Mr. Brooks." + +In a tantalizing tone the girl asked: + +"Who else?" + +"Oh, you're real mean," said Desmond, imitating Amy's tone at the +moment she had made the same remark to him. + +"I don't want to be mean." + +"You don't?" + +"No." + +"Will you keep my secret?" + +"Yes," came the eager answer. + +"Honor bright?" + +"Yes, honor bright." + +"You won't tell even my mother?" + +The girl did not answer. + +"Come, promise." + +"I promise." + +"I've met a girl I love, and I've made you my confidante, but don't tell +my mother." + +Amy had turned desperately pale, and in a pettish, trembling tone, she +said: + +"Yes, I will tell your mother." + +"You promised not to do so." + +"I don't care, I'll break my promise." + +"Oh, Amy, you are real mean." + +"I can't help it if I am." + +"You can't?" + +"No." + +"Why not?" + +"I am mad--real mad." + +"You are?" + +"Yes." + +"Why?" + +"Because you went and fell in love with a girl; it's ridiculous, +anyway." + +"It is?" + +"Yes." + +"Why?" + +"You are only a boy." + +"I am?" + +"Yes." + +"What are you, pray? you are only a girl." + +"I know it." + +"I couldn't fall in love with a mere girl, could I?" + +"Yes, you could." + +Desmond laughed in a merry manner, and said: + +"Well, to tell the truth, I did fall in love with a mere girl. Do you +want to hear about her?" + +"No." + +"You don't?" + +"No, I don't." + +"I am going to tell you all the same; you are the girl I've fallen in +love with." + +There came a bright, happy look to Amy's beautiful face as she said: + +"Oh, you are real mean." + +"I am?" + +"Yes." + +"Why?" + +"To tell me that so suddenly." + +"Well, who else do you love?" + +"I love you." + +"All right; go and break your promise and tell my mother," said Desmond +in a provoking tone, following his advice by encircling Amy's waist and +imprinting upon her red-hot cheek a kiss. + +"You tell your mother yourself," said Amy. + +"No, I won't; you said you would." + +"Then I will." + +"You will?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, well!" + +"Your mother will be glad." + +"What?" ejaculated Desmond. + +"Your mother will be glad." + +"How do you know?" + +"She told me so." + +That night there was a happy party under the old farmhouse roof. Mrs. +Dare had met her son with tears of joy in her eyes, and Desmond had told +the weird tale of his remarkable adventures. + +At once our hero set to work to prepare for college. He had talked the +matter over with his mother and with Amy, and in due time he did enter +Amherst College, and for a long time his adventures ceased. He heard +occasionally from Mr. Brooks, who appeared to be doing well and who sent +money on at intervals, but no explanation. And so the time passed until +Desmond graduated and returned home. He met his mother and Amy, and a +moment later there came forth from the house a well-known figure; it was +Brooks, the whilom wizard tramp. + +Again there followed a pleasant evening, and on the following morning +Desmond was out bright and early to take a walk over the farm. He had +gone but a short distance when he saw a figure in the grove near the +house. He advanced and met his old friend the wizard tramp. + +"You are out early," said Desmond. + +"Yes, I thought I might meet you." + +"And you will now tell me how you have succeeded?" + +"Yes, Desmond, I will tell you all now, and I owe all to you. We are +rich--very rich. We found the mine, Creedon and I, and we got +capitalists interested and developed it. You were our silent partner, +and to-day you are worth a quarter of a million and I am worth as much +more, or rather Amy is, for I have been working for my child." + +"I have suspected all along that Amy was your daughter. Has she told you +anything?" + +"Yes, she has told me she is to become your wife." + +"What do you think of it?" + +"It has been the one hope of my life that you would win her love and she +yours. It was for this reason I insisted upon your returning to the +East, and the wisdom of my plans is fully confirmed." + +"You have a revelation to make to me." + +"I have made the revelation--Amy is my own child." + +"And is that all you have to reveal? I've known that all along." + +"That is my most important revelation, but I have another to make. My +father was the younger son of an English nobleman; he married a +beautiful but poor girl, as the world counts riches, and his father +drove him away, and he came here to America. He never saw his brother +again; his nephew, my cousin, inherited the estates and title, but +strange to say, I was the nearest of kin. Five years ago my cousin died; +he left no estate, but the title which had been maintained in honor by +my ancestors has descended to me, and when you marry Amy you will marry +a lord's daughter." + +Desmond meditated a moment, and then said: + +"I am satisfied to marry the daughter of plain Mr. Brooks." + +"Thank you, my son, but I shall clear the estate, and for a season at +least dwell in the ancient halls of my ancestors. I will remain to +witness your marriage and shall then go home to England. And now comes +my last revelation: you and Amy are distantly connected; my remote +ancestors were yours also. Your grandfather came down from the younger +line a long time back, but blood as good as any one's flows in your +veins." + +"Yes, from my mother." + +"I admit it, _from your mother_." + +Our readers know what followed. Amy and Desmond were married, and on +the night of the wedding he remarked to his father-in-law: + +"This time I took no desperate chance." + +"Neither did Amy when she intrusted her future happiness to you," came +the bright and elegant answer. + +The whilom wizard tramp did return to England, and it was in the +ancestral halls that Desmond and Amy spent their delightful honeymoon. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Desperate Chance +by Old Sleuth (Harlan P. 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