Castlemon Harry
The Haunted Mine

"Well, Banta, I suppose this is your last evening with us," he remarked.

"Yes; I go off to-morrow."

"Don't you wish you had not promised to go up there?"

"No, I don't; I shall find out if the boys are all right, anyway. That is what I care the most about. I shall take some provisions with me, and if the boys are above ground I will leave them; otherwise, I shall bring them back."

"Oh, the boys must have the better of the ghosts by this time," said another; "they would have been here before this time if they had not. You will find them with more gold stowed away than they know what to do with."

"And didn't they see the ghosts at all?"

"Why, as to that, I can't say. But they have beaten them at their own game. You will see."

Claus pricked up his ears when he heard this, and when the miners had all drawn away, one by one, and sought their blankets in their lean-to's, he asked of the man who sat near him, and who was waiting to smoke his pipe out before he went to bed.

"Where is Banta going?"

"Up to the haunted mine," was the reply. "You see, he went up there two weeks ago with the boys, and promised to come back in two weeks to see how they were coming on. His two weeks are up to-night."

"What is up there, anyway?"

"Well, you can ask somebody else to answer that question," said the miner, getting upon his feet. "I don't know what is up there, and I don't want to know."

The miner walked off and left Claus sitting there alone. He was certain that he was on the right track at last. As soon as Banta came back they would know something about the haunted mine.

CHAPTER XXVII
BOB TRIES STRATEGY

"Well, what did you hear this time?" asked Bob, who lay on his blanket with his hands under his head and a pipe in his mouth. "Everybody kept still about the haunted mine, I suppose?"

"No, sir; I heard about it to-night for the first time," answered Claus. "Banta is going up there to-morrow."

"Then we will know something about it when he comes back," remarked Bob. "I hope the boys have got the better of those ghosts in some way, and that they are working their mine. Go on, and tell us what you have heard."

Claus did not have much to tell, for the miners had cut the conversation short; but what little he did say created great excitement between those who heard it now for the first time. The boys had got the better of those unearthly spirits in some way, for if the ghosts had driven them out and not allowed them to work their mine, the miners would have found it out long before this time.

"I don't see why Banta put it off for two weeks," said Jake; "I reckon he was afraid of them spirits."

The next day was one which Claus often remembered. There was much excitement in the camp, although it did not show itself. There was none of that singing and whistling going on, but every man worked in silence. Banta and his partner had got off at daylight, and ten hours must pass away before they could look for their return; but evening came on apace, the camp-fire was lighted, and the miners gathered around it and smoked their pipes without making any comments on the long delay of Mr. Banta and the man who had gone with him. There was one thing that troubled them, although no one spoke of it – the mule which had carried their pack-saddle came home alone, and was now feeding in company with the old bell-mare. That looked suspicious, but the men said nothing. For an hour they sat around the fire, and then one of them broke the stillness. He was an old, gray-headed man, experienced in mining, and of course all listened to what he had to say. He spoke in a low tone, as if there had been a patient there and he was afraid to arouse him.

"Ten miles in ten hours," said he, knocking the ashes from his pipe. "Boys, something's got the better of those two men. I remember that several years ago I was waiting for a partner of mine who had gone away to prospect a mine – "

"What was that?" exclaimed a miner, jumping to his feet.

"I heard something, but I don't know what it was," said another.

It was done quicker than we could tell it. In less than a second two hundred men sprang to their feet, and two hundred hands slipped behind them and laid hold of as many revolvers. Of all those men, there was not one who would have hesitated to fight Indians with the fear of death before their eyes, but there was not a single instance of a miner who did not change color at the sound of a noise which seemed to come upon them from no one could have told where.

"Which way did the noise come from?" asked a miner.

"What did it sound like?" queried another.

"There it is!" said the miner who had at first detected it – "it sounds like a horse's hoofs on the rocks. There! Don't you hear it?"

And so it proved. The noise was heard plainly enough by this time, and in a few moments more two men came out of the willows and rode into the circle of light that was thrown out by the camp-fire. They were Banta and his partner; and one look at their faces was enough – they were fairly radiant with joy.

"Halloo! boys," cried Banta. "I declare, you act as though you had lost your best friend; and some of you have revolvers drawn on us, too!"

"Say, pard," said one of the miners, shoving his revolver back where it belonged and extending a hand to each of the newcomers, "where have you been so long? Your pack-mule has been home all the afternoon, and has kept the camp in an uproar with her constant braying. She acted as though she wanted to see your horses. Did you see the boys?"

"Yes, sir, we saw the boys," answered Banta. He did not seem in any particular hurry to relieve the suspense of his friends, which was now worked up to the highest degree, but dismounted from his horse very deliberately and proceeded to turn him loose.

"Well, why don't you go on with it?" asked another miner. "Were the boys all right?"

"The boys were all right and tight, and digging away as hard as they could."

"Did they – did they see the ghosts?"

"Of course they did; and the ghosts are now lying up there with their skins off."

"Were they animals?"

"You are right again. Now, hold on till I light my pipe and I'll tell you all about it. Tony, you ought to have gone up there; you would be ten thousand dollars better off than you are this minute."

Tony was a man who was noted far and near for his success in killing the lions which were so abundant in the mountains. He would rather hunt them than dig for gold, because he was almost sure to get the animal he went after. He was filling his pipe when Banta was speaking, but he dropped it and let it lay on the ground where it had fallen.

"It is the truth I am telling you," declared Banta. "If you don't believe it, you can go up there to that haunted mine and find out all about it. The boys killed them with nothing but revolvers."

Banta had his pipe lit by this time, and the miners crowded around him, all eager for his story. Bob and Jake were there, and no one seemed to pay the least attention to them; but they were impatient to learn all the particulars of the case. There was one question they wanted answered immediately, and that was, Did the boys really have a bagful of dust, or was Banta merely joking about that? Fortunately Tony recovered his wits and his pipe at the same time and asked the question for them.

"Did the boys get ten thousand dollars in two weeks?" he asked.

"Well, they brought a bag out for us to examine, and they thought it was nothing but iron pyrites," said Banta; and then he went on smoking his pipe.

"We took one look at the bag," said his partner, "and we took a big load off the boys' minds when we told them it was gold, and nothing else. Yes, sir – they have it fair and square."

"The boys are going ahead as though there had never been any ghosts there," said Banta; and then he went on to tell the miners everything that had happened during their trip to the haunted mine; and when he got started, he followed Julian's narrative, and paid no attention to Jack's. It was certain that the story did not lose anything by passing through his hands.

"Jack pulled off his shirt," said he, in conclusion, "and he has some wounds on his back that will go with him through life."

"And is the gold as thick as they say it is – so thick that one can pick it up with his hands?"

"It is not quite as thick as that," replied Banta, with a laugh. "But every time one washes out a cradleful he finds anywhere from a teaspoonful to three or four which he wants to put in his bag. I tell you, the boys have been lucky."

"I am going up there the first thing in the morning," said a miner. "Here I have been slaving and toiling for color for six months, and I can hardly get enough to pay for my provisions, but I'll bet it won't be that way, now, much longer."

"Wait until I tell you something," answered Banta. "Neely, you can go up there, if you are set on it; there's no law here that will make you stay away. There are plenty of places where you can sink a shaft without troubling the boys any, but whether or not it will pay you is another question. The boys will be down here themselves in less than two weeks' time."

"How do you account for that?"

"Their vein is giving out. It will end in a deep ravine that is up there, and there their color ends."

"Why don't they go back farther and start another?" asked the miner.

"It won't pay. The man who started that shaft upon which they are now at work was a tenderfoot, sure enough. There is not the first sign of color about the dirt anywhere. He thought it was a pretty place and so went to work, and the consequence is, it has panned out sixty thousand dollars. But go ahead if you want to, Neely."

Neely did not know whether or not he wanted to go ahead with such a warning in his ears. Banta was an experienced prospector, and he could almost tell by looking at the ground if there was any gold anywhere about there. A good many who had been on the point of starting for the haunted mine with the first peep of day shook their heads, and concluded they would rather stay where they were than go off to a new country. There were three, who did not say anything, whose minds were already made up as to what they would do. They waited until the miners were ready to go to their blankets, and then Bob attracted the attention of those nearest him by saying.

"What Banta says throws a damper on me. The haunted mine is going to play out in a day or two, this place here is not worth shucks, and we are going off somewhere at break of day to see if we can't do better than we are doing here."

"Where are you going?" asked one.

"I don't know, and in fact I don't care much. I'll go to the first good place I hear of, I don't care if it is on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. I came out here expecting to get rich in a few days, and I am poorer now than I was ten years ago. These mountains around here have not any gold in them for me."

"And I say it is good riddance," whispered the miner to some who stood near him. "If you had acted as you did last year, you would have been sent out before this time."

Having paved the way for the departure of himself and companions, Bob joined them and led the way into his own cabin. They seated themselves close together, for they did not want to talk loud enough to be heard by anyone who was passing their camp.

"Well, they have it!" exclaimed Claus, who was so excited that he could not sit still.

"And it is gold, too," declared Jake. "Banta says so, and that is enough."

"In the morning, after we get breakfast," said Bob, "we'll hitch up and take the back trail toward Denver. We will go away from the haunted mine, and that will give color to what I told them a while ago."

"What if you should chance to miss your way?" asked Claus.

"You can't lose me in these mountains; I have prospected all over them, and I have seen where the haunted mine is located a hundred times. What a pity it was that I did not stay there. Sixty thousand dollars! Jake, if we had that sum of money we would be rich."

Jake did not say anything – that is, anything that would do to put on paper. He stretched himself out on his blanket and swore softly to himself, so that nobody but his companions could hear him.

"That will be three thousand three hundred dollars apiece," said Claus, who did not like the way that Bob and Jake left him out entirely. "Remember, I am to have a third of it."

"Of course; and it will be more than that. The boys will have some time to do more digging, and maybe they'll have another bagful. I understood you to say that the boys were pretty plucky."

"You may safely say that," replied Claus. "The way they stood up against those lions, when they did not know what was onto them, is abundant proof of that. You will have to go easy when you tackle them, or some of you will get more than you want."

The three continued to talk in this way until they grew tired and fell asleep – that is, all except Claus, who rolled and twisted on his blanket for a good while before he passed into the land of Nod. But he was out before daybreak and busy with breakfast, while the others brought up the animals and packed them for their journey. There was only one man who came near them, and that was Banta, who wanted to make sure they were not going toward the haunted mine.

"Well, boys, are you going to leave us?" he inquired. "Where are you going?"

"Not giving you a short answer, we don't care much where we go," replied Bob. "There is nothing here for us, and we will go elsewhere. We are going to take the back track."

"Are you not deciding on this matter suddenly?"

"We determined on it yesterday. We decided to go up to the haunted mine if you came back with a favorable report of the condition of things, but you say the lead is played out, and of course that knocks us. Wherever we go, we can't find a much worse place than this."

"Well, boys, I wish you luck, and we'll all go away from here before a great while."

"Why are you so anxious to find out about where we are going?" asked Bob.

"Because I wanted to remind you to keep away from that mine up the gully," answered Banta, looking hard at Bob while he spoke. "The boys have that mine all to themselves, and we are going to stand by them."

"We have no intention of going near that haunted mine," asserted Bob, rather sullenly. "If those boys have gold, let them keep it."

"All right! Then I have nothing further to say to you."

So saying, Banta turned on his heel and walked away. There was nothing insulting in what he said, but Bob and his companions knew that he was in earnest about it. They all kept watch of him as long as he remained in sight, and then looked at each other with a broad grin on their faces.

"I guess Banta didn't make anything by trying to pump me," said Bob. "When we get a mile or two down the gully, we'll save what little provisions we want, push our horses over the bluff – "

"What do we want to do that for?" exclaimed Claus, in great amazement. "Can't we turn them loose?"

"Yes, and have them come back here and join the old bell-mare," said Jake, in disgust. "We have to be in a hurry about what we do, for we must get a long start of the men here. If our nags appeared among the other horses here, the miners would know we had been fooling them and would start for the haunted mine at once."

"Couldn't we tie them up?" asked Claus; "or, we could shoot them. That would be an easier way than pushing them over the bluff."

"But there's the report our pistols would make," replied Bob, turning fiercely upon Claus. "The easiest way is the best. Now, if we have everything we want, let us dig out from here."

The men in the camp saw them when they mounted their horses and started down the gully toward Denver, but there was not one who shouted a farewell after them. When they disappeared from view, Banta drew a long breath of relief.

"It is just as well that they took themselves off before we had a chance to tell them that their room was better than their company. I do not like the way they have been acting since they have been here."

CHAPTER XXVIII
AN INHUMAN ACT

"I'll bet no men ever went away from a camp before without somebody said good-bye to them," said Jake. "They don't care where we go, or what luck we have, provided we don't go near the haunted mine. If they will just stay that way until to-morrow, they can all come on at once, if they have a mind to."

Claus was the soberest man in the party. He was waiting and watching for that bluff at which their faithful steeds were to give up their lives to make it possible for their owners to get away with the amount they expected to raise at the haunted mine. There was something cold-blooded about this, and Claus could not bring himself to think of it without shivering all over.

"I don't see why you can't tie them there," Claus ventured to say; "they won't make any fuss until we are safely out of the way. It looks so inhuman, to kill them."

"Look here!" said Bob, so fiercely that Claus resolved he would not say anything more on the subject – "if you don't like the way we are managing this business, you can just go your way, and we'll go ours."

"But you can't go yet," interrupted Jake; "we are not going to have you go back to Dutch Flat and tell the men there what we are going to do. You will stay with us until we get that money."

"Of course he will," assented Bob. "When we get through with that haunted mine we'll go off into the mountains, and then you'll be at liberty to go where you please."

"Of course I shall stay with you," said Claus, not a little alarmed by the threat thus thrown out. Then he added to himself, "I reckon I played my cards just right. If I can keep them from searching me, I'll come out at the big end of the horn, no matter what happens to them."

For the next hour Claus held his peace; but he noticed that his horse turned his head and looked down the gully as if he feared they were not going the right away. He did not remember that he had come that route before, but concluded that Bob was gradually leaving the trail behind them, and was veering around to get behind the camp at Dutch Flat. Then the mule which bore their pack-saddle began to be suspicious of it, too, for he threw up his head and gave utterance to a bray so long and loud that it awoke a thousand echoes among the mountains.

"Shut up!" exclaimed Jack, jerking impatiently at his halter. "I hope that bluff is not far away. We'll soon put a stop to your braying when we get there."

In another hour they came upon the bluff, one side of which was bounded by a deep ravine that seemed to extend down into the bowels of the earth, and the other was hemmed in by lofty mountains which rose up so sheer their tops seemed lost in the clouds above. Here again the mule became suspicious, for, in spite of the jerks which Jake gave at his halter, he set up another bray that sounded as if the mountains were full of mules.

"Hold fast to him, Jake, until I take his saddle off," said Bob, hastily dismounting from his horse; "I can soon stop that, if you can't. There – his pack is off. Take him by the foretop – don't let him get away from you. Now, then, look at you!"

The mule got away in spite of all Jake's efforts to hold fast to him. The moment the bridle was out of his mouth he dodged the grab that Jake made for his foretop, and with a flourish of his heels and another long bray made for the gully by which he had entered the bluff. The horses made a vain attempt to follow him, and the animal on which Claus was mounted seemed determined to go away, but he was finally stopped by his rider before he reached the gully. Bob and Jake were fairly beside themselves with anger. Bob stamped up and down so close to the ravine that the least misstep would have sent him over the brink, and Jake sat down on the ground and swore softly to himself.

"I tell you, this won't do!" said Bob, coming back to the horses. "Let us put them over without the least delay; and, mind you, we won't take their bridles off at all. That mule will be in camp in less than an hour, so we must make tracks. Let their saddles go, too."

The men went to work at pushing the horses over into the ravine as if they were in earnest. First Bob's horse went; then Jake's; and finally they took Claus's bridle out of his hands and shoved his horse over, too. Claus did not see any of this work. The animals went over without making any effort at escape beyond putting out their feet and trying to push themselves away from the brink; but the miners got behind them, and all their attempts to save themselves amounted to nothing. He heard the horses when they crashed through the branches of the trees below him, and then all was silent.

"What else could we do?" exclaimed Bob, who thought Claus looked rather solemn over it. "Dutch Flat is not a mile from here, and some one there would have heard their whinnying. I am sorry to do it, too, but when there is ten thousand dollars in sight, I don't stop at anything. Now pitch that mule's things over, also, and then we'll get away from here."

This being done, the three, with a small package of provisions on their shoulders, set out once more at a rapid pace, Bob leading the way.

For a long time no one spoke, the travelling being so difficult that it took all their breath to keep pace with Bob; but finally he turned about and made a motion of silence with his hand, and then they began to pick their way through the bushes with more caution. After a few moments he stopped, pushed aside the branches of an evergreen, and after taking a survey of the scene presented to his gaze he made another motion, which brought his companions up beside him.

"We have caught them at it!" said he. 'Julian is on top, and Jack is down below, shovelling dirt. Where are your revolvers?"

"Those fellows from the Flat have not come yet," said Jake, looking all around to make sure that the boys were alone. "Lead ahead, Bob, and remember that we are close at your heels."

Leaving his provisions behind him, Bob arose to his feet, stepped out of his place of concealment and advanced toward the pit. Julian was so intent on watching his companion below that he did not hear the sound of their footsteps until they were so close to him that he could not pull his partner up; so he simply raised his head, and was about to extend to them a miner's welcome, when he saw something that made him open his eyes and caused him to stare harder than ever. There was something about that short, fleshy man which he was sure he recognized. It did not make any difference in what style of clothing Claus was dressed in, – whether as a gentleman of leisure or as a miner, – his face betrayed him. He saw that it was all up with him, for he had no time to go to the lean-to after his revolver.

"Pitch that dirt out of the bucket and come up, Jack," called Julian, shaking the rope to attract the attention of his comrade. "Claus is up here."

There was a moment's silence; then Jack's voice came back in no very amiable tones.

"Get away with your nonsense!" he exclaimed. "If I come up there again for just nothing at all, I pity you! If Claus is there, make him show himself."

"Why, he's your uncle," asserted Bob, who began to wonder if that was the first lie that Claus had told them.

"That man?" exclaimed Julian. "Not much, he ain't. Jack, is Claus your uncle?"

"Tell him to come down here and I'll see about it," said Jack, who could not yet be made to see that there was something really going on at the top. "That makes two I have against you, old fellow."

"No, you haven't got anything against me," said Julian. "Here is Claus. Don't you see his face? Any man who would claim such an uncle as that – "

"That is enough out of you!" interrupted Jake. "Fetch that partner of yours up, and then bring out your money – we must get away from here in a hurry."

"Well! well!" cried Jack, who happened to look up and catch a glimpse of Claus's face. "I will come up directly."

"Say, you, down there," called Bob, bending over the shaft, "if you have a revolver down there, be careful that you keep it where it belongs."

"Don't worry yourself," answered Jack; "I haven't anything in the shape of a revolver about me. Hoist away, Julian."

The dirt was emptied out by this time, and Jack stepped into the bucket and was promptly hoisted to the top. Then he stood waiting for the three men to make known their wants; but he devoted the most of his time to scrutinizing the face of Claus, to whom he was indebted for the presence of the other two.

"Do you think you could recognize me if you should chance to meet me again anywhere?" asked Claus.

"Certainly, I could," answered Julian; "I would recognize you if I saw you in Asia. You are bound to have some of that money, are you not?"

"That is just what I am here for," said Claus, with a grin. "You have one bagful and another partly full, and we want them both as soon as you can get them."

Jack was astonished when he heard this, for Mr. Banta had told him to keep the full bag hidden where no one could find it. How, then, did Claus know anything about it? Julian was equally amazed; but, after thinking a moment, he turned on his heel and led the way toward their lean-to. Bob and his companion kept close by the side of the two boys, for they did not want them to find their revolvers before they knew something about it. They had heard from various sources that the boys were fair shots, and they did not want to see them try it on.

"Well, Claus, you slipped up on one thing," said Julian; "you didn't get any of that block of buildings – did you?"

"Come, now, hurry up!" insisted Bob. "Where are those bags?"

"Here's one you have been talking about," answered Jack, pulling the head of his bed to pieces and producing the article in question. "Julian, you know where the other one is."

While Jack was engaged in performing this work the revolvers were kept pointed straight at him, for fear he might pull out another one and turn it loose upon them before they could draw a trigger. But the boys did not seem to care any more about the revolvers than if they had been sticks of wood that were aimed at them. Claus had a revolver, but he did not seem inclined to use it.

"Are you sure it is gold in here, and not something else?" asked Bob.

"You have got the bag in your hands, and you can look and see for yourself," said Jack.

"Go out in front of the lean-to and sit down on the ground so that I can watch you," said Bob. "Jake, go with that boy and dig up the other one. Is this all you have made since you have been here?"

"Yes, that's all. Now, what are you going to do with us?"

"I'll tell you when Jake comes back. Is there much more of that lead down there?"

"Well, you have charge of the mine, now, and there is no law to hinder you from going down and finding out," retorted Jack. "Claus, where are you going? I don't expect to see these gentlemen any more, but I should like to keep track of you."

Claus did not see fit to answer this question, and in the meantime Julian and Jake returned with the other bag.