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To The West, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 38. "Do I Look Fortunate?" |
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_ CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT. "DO I LOOK FORTUNATE?" As the time glided on I used to be quite in despair. "I don't get any stronger, Esau," I used to say, pettishly. "What? Why, look at you!" he'd cry. "On'y t'other day you was walking with a stick and a crutch." "I was not," I said, indignantly. "I never had a crutch." "That you did, sir," he said, with a chuckle; "and now you've chucked 'em both away and goes alone." "But my legs feel so weak, and ache so directly." "Tchah! What o' that! Why, only t'other day they used to double up like an old two-foot rule, or a knife with the spring broke. You're coming all right enough. I say, I want to talk to you." He gave a sharp look round as we stood beside the stream where it entered the river--the stream up which we had found the gold, and to whose bank we had come to catch trout with rods and lines of our own manufacture, and grasshoppers for bait. I had been fishing, but after taking three decent trout, I had lain down wearied out, and now Esau squatted down by me, with his rod across his knees. "I say," he whispered, "what about that gold up yonder?" "Well, what about it?" "Don't you never think about it a deal?" "Sometimes. Do you?" "Always. I can't get away from it. Seems as if something's always tempting me to go and get it." "But you cannot," I said, sharply. "We gave our word to Mr Raydon." "Yes, that's the worst of it. I can't think how a fellow can be so stupid." "Let it go, and don't think about it." "That's what I want to do, but I can't help myself, and I'm always wanting to get lots of it, and be rich." "Rubbish!" I cried, testily. "Gold ain't rubbish," said Esau, gruffly. "Of course I should give you half." "We promised Mr Raydon not to touch that gold any more," I said; "so don't talk or think about it. Promise me." "I'll promise not to talk about it," he replied; "but it's no use to promise not to think about it, because it will come. Why, I dream about it every night." "Then you must not," I said. "I was talking to Mr Raydon last night about what is to be done when Mr John comes." "Well, what does he say? Anything about the gold?" "No," I cried, fiercely. "Of course you think about it if you are always talking of it. He says that he thinks the best thing will be for Mr John to have some land lower down the river at a place we passed; that there are twenty or thirty acres of good rich soil, and that as he will have us with him, we must learn to use axes and help him to clear the land, and plant it with fruit-trees, and build a house on the clearing." "Yes; that's all right enough, only the trees take so long to bear." "That he will help us with different things till we can manage alone; and that before many years are gone we can make ourselves quite a good home." "Oh!" ejaculated Esau. "But then that will take a long time, and you won't be able to work much, and I don't think Mr John Dempster will, not being strong, and all the time there's enough gold up--" "Will you hold your tongue?" I cried, angrily. "Do you want me to hit you?" "If you like," he said, grinning. "Don't think you could hurt me much." "You coward!" I cried. "Wait till I get strong again." "I shall be precious glad," said Esau, "for I'd a deal rather you gave me one or two cracks than kept on saying the things you do sometimes. My! how you have given it me ever since you have been ill! It has made you raspy." I winced a little at this, for I felt that I had been horribly irritable. "I can't help thinking about the gold, but I won't say gold no more as long as I live." I could not help laughing at this earnest delivery, and Esau showed his teeth. "There, I don't care," he said. "I'm happy enough here if you'll get well. But I do wish old Gunson knew about it." I looked sharply at Esau, for these words of his impressed me. I had often wished that Gunson knew of what we had found, for I thought that perhaps he was struggling on without a bit of good fortune. The thoughts passed from my mind directly, as Esau began to make casts with his line here and there, as if fishing in the grass. "Well, I don't mind," he said. "Turn farmer, eh?--and plant trees, and cut trees down, and build a house. All right. It will be good enough, and you and me will go and shoot and fish. I shall like it. Shall we have old Quong?" "I suppose so, if he'll stay. There, let's go on fishing, and take back some trout for Mr Raydon's tea. I do feel so idle and helpless. Do you think he ever feels that we are staying too long?" "Dunno," said Esau. "I should if I was him." These words made me feel very low-spirited, and that night I broached the subject to Mr Raydon, apologising for being there so helpless and weak, and ending by asking him if I had not better go down to the mouth of the river again. He looked at me searchingly. "Tired of this place?" he said. "Oh no," I replied. "I have been very happy here." "Then why do you talk of going?" "Because I feel as if I must be a burden to you." "Indeed! Well, suppose I say go, and you make your way back along the river very slowly, for you are in a miserably weak state?" "Yes, sir; but I am getting better now." "Yes, I know; but suppose, as soon as you are gone, my sister and her husband appear, what am I to say to them?" "I had not thought of that," I replied. "But you see I had. But come, Mayne, be frank with me. You have some other reason for wanting to go." He looked at me so searchingly that I coloured, for I could feel my cheeks burning. "No, sir," I said; "no other reason." "Not gold-hunting?" "No; indeed, no." "But you and Dean have been talking about your discovery a good deal." "I--I think not, sir," I said, hesitatingly. "We have talked about it." "And what a pity it is for a fortune to be lying there untouched?" "Dean thought something of the kind, sir. I did not." "Ha!" he said, as he again fixed me with his eyes. "No, Mayne, you must not think of going away. You have not exhausted my stock of hospitality yet." Perhaps it was fancy, I said to myself, but it certainly seemed to me during the next few days, whenever I went out for a good long stroll with Esau, some one seemed to be watching us. One day it was Grey who encountered us somewhere on the mountain-side; another day it was one of the men; and again, on another, Mr Raydon himself, whose presence was announced by the great dog, who came bounding up, to be followed in a few minutes by his master. He did not stay long, but as soon as he was gone I found that my feelings were shared by Esau himself. "I say," he growled, "are they afraid we are going to lose ourselves?" "Why?" I asked. "Because whenever we come right away into the woods, they send that dog to scent us out." "Yes; they generally send somebody," I said, thoughtfully. "Do you know why?" whispered Esau. I glanced at him, but did not answer. "It's because the chief's afraid we shall go up yonder trying for gold." "And he does not trust us," I said to myself, as I felt that Esau must be right; and the uncomfortable feeling of being suspected seemed to increase. I was thinking about this a good deal, and had made up my mind to ask Mr Raydon if he thought I could be so dishonourable, when we neared the Fort, and I was startled back from my musings which were carrying me on through the interior, when Esau uttered a cheery hail. "What's the matter?" I said. "Can't you see? Look!" he cried. "Gunson!" I exclaimed; and sure enough there he was, coming slowly towards us, looking very old and careworn, and as if he had gone through a great deal of trouble since we parted in the autumn. "Why, my lad," he cried, shaking hands with me warmly, "you look quite thin and white. Been ill?" "Yes," I said, as I grasped his hand warmly. "Fever?" "No," I said, hesitatingly; "an accident." "Why don't you tell him?" said Esau, sturdily. "I shot him." "You shot him?" "Yes," I said, quickly; "he let the rifle slip out of his hand somehow, and the ball hit me." "I'm not surprised," cried Gunson, in a tone full of anger and contempt. "Don't say any more about it," I cried. "It was an accident, and I'm getting better fast. Tell me about what you have been doing." Gunson laughed. "Walking, wading in rivers, washing sand, climbing mountains, exposed to all sorts of weather, half-starved, half-frozen, and all to get the tempting gold." "No luck then?" said Esau, eagerly. "Not a bit, my lad." "What, ain't you found gold at all?" "Oh, yes, in scores of places, but always where it would cost thirty shillings to earn a pound's worth. Not profitable work, eh?" Esau glanced at me, and I at Esau, the same thought in both our minds-- that we could, in a couple of hours' walk from where we were, show him-- the wearied-out prospector--an ample supply. "If I only could tell him," I thought, as I recalled how generous and kind he had always been to us. But it was impossible, and I darted a look at Esau which he understood, for he nodded at me in a curious way, setting me thinking that I must speak to him seriously again about our duty to Mr Raydon. I had hardly thought this when I saw the latter coming towards us. "Ah, Mr Gunson," he said, with a sharp, keen glance, "you have kept your word, then, and come back." "Yes, I've come back, and shall be glad of a day or two's rest." "You are welcome," replied Mr Raydon. "Well, have you been very fortunate?" "What a question to ask me!" said Gunson; "the most unlucky man that ever lived! Do I look fortunate?" "No," said Mr Raydon, smiling; "far from it. There, come up to my place, and let me hear what you have been doing." As we approached the strangers' quarters, Quong made his appearance with his eyes twinkling. "Plenty flesh tea," he cried. "Plenty new blead." "Hullo, my Celestial friend," said Gunson, smiling at the eager-looking little fellow. "Did you see me coming?" "No. Not see. Gley tell me Mr Gunson come, and make tea dilectly, and cook bacon." "Ready to come on with me now, Quong?" said Gunson. "I'm going up the western part." Quong stared. "What! Go away? No. Stop allee long here." "That's right, my lad. Don't leave good quarters. Been washing for gold lately?" "Eh? Washee washee gole? Too much piecy make work. Cook along big meat. No go out at all. You likee likee flesh blead, not blead high." "Indeed, it will be a treat," said Gunson, going into the place with Mr Raydon, while we kept back until he had finished his meal. "I say," said Esau, as we walked about the enclosure, "can't little Quong tell fibseys." "That's what I was thinking," I replied. "Why, I've met him twice up the river trying for gold." "Oh. I've seen him lots of times. He gets away when he has done his work, looking as innocent as you please, and all the time he's hunting for gold. I say, you see if Mr Raydon don't keep an eye on us for fear we should tell old Gunson. My! wouldn't he like to know of our find. I can't understand how it is that he who knows all about it should be so unlucky, and you--" "We," I said. "Well, we, then--should be so lucky, and find so much. Dunno, though; it hasn't brought us much luck as yet." _ |
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