Castlemon Harry
The Haunted Mine

CHAPTER XXIX
A TRAMP WITH THE ROBBERS

"Oh, it is gold!" exclaimed Jake, as Bob took the bag and bent over it; "it is not iron pyrites."

"Stow that about your clothes, Jake, and then we'll go on," said Bob; "and we want you boys to gather up provisions enough to last you for three or four days. But, in the first place, where are your revolvers?"

"Don't you see them hung up there, in plain sight?" asked Jack, pointing to the articles in question, which were suspended from the rack of the lean-to, in plain sight. "What are you going to do with us?"

"We are going to take you a three days' journey with us, and then turn you loose."

"Why can't you let us go now?" queried Julian. "We have nothing else that is worth stealing."

"No, but you are too close to Dutch Flat," Jake replied. "We haven't got anything against you, and when we get out there in the mountains – "

"You might as well shoot us on the spot as to lose us among these hills. I pledge you my word that we will not stir a step – "

"That is all very well," interrupted Bob with a shake of his head which told the boys that he had already decided on his plan; "but, you see, it don't go far enough. If you don't go to the miners, the miners will come here to you, so we think you would be safer with us. Gather up your grub and let us get away from here."

The boy saw very plainly that Bob and Jake wanted to make their escape from the miners sure; so Julian collected some bacon and hard-tack, which he wrapped up in a blanket and fixed to sling over his shoulders. There was one thing that encouraged him – "if he did not go to the miners, the miners would come after him" – and proved that they must in some way have had their suspicions aroused against Bob and Jake. Jack also busied himself in the same way, and in a very few minutes the boys were ready to start.

"I must say you are tolerably cool ones, to let ten or fifteen thousand dollars be taken from you in this way," remarked Bob, who was lost in admiration of the indifferent manner in which the boys obeyed all orders. "I have seen some that would have been flurried to death by the loss of so much money."

"If Claus, here, told the truth, they have a whole block of buildings to fall back on," answered Jake. "But maybe that is a lie, too."

"No, he told you the truth there," said Julian. "He tried to cheat us out of those buildings while we were in St. Louis – "

"I never did it in this world!" declared Claus, emphatically.

"Did you not claim to be our uncle?" asked Julian.

"Uncle!" ejaculated Jack. "Great Scott!"

Claus did not attempt to deny this. Bob and Jake were almost within reach of him, and they looked hard at him to see what he would say, and he was afraid to affirm that there was no truth in the statement for fear of something that might happen afterward. He glanced at the boys, who were looking steadily at him, and Jack moved a step or two nearer to him with his hands clenched and a fierce frown on his face, all ready to knock him down if he denied it; so Claus thought it best not to answer the question at all.

"You won't think it hard of me if I hit him a time or two?" asked Jack.

"Come here and behave yourself," said Julian, walking up and taking Jack by the arm. "I think, if the truth was known, he is in a worse fix than we are."

"But he claims to be my uncle!" exclaimed Jack.

The tone in which these words were uttered, and Jack's anger over the claim of relationship, caused Bob and Jake to break out into a roar of laughter.

"We'll take your word for it," said Bob, as soon as he could speak; "but we can't waste any more time here. Follow along after me, and Jake will bring up the rear."

Bob at once set off to the spot where they had left their provisions, and, having picked them up, led the way down the almost perpendicular side of the ravine until they reached the bottom. Now and then he would look over his shoulder at Jack, who was following close behind him, and would break into another peal of laughter.

"So you didn't want that fellow to claim relationship with you?" said he. "Well, I don't blame you. He has done nothing but tell us one pack of lies after another ever since we met him. The only thing that had the least speck of truth in it was that we should find you here at the haunted mine."

This remark was made in a low tone, so that it did not reach the ears of Claus, who was following some distance behind. If Claus had not seen already that he was in a "fix," he ought to have seen it now.

"Now, perhaps you wouldn't mind telling us what you are going to do with us," Jack ventured to say, in reply.

"Well, the men there at Dutch Flat are hot on our trail now," asserted Bob.

"How do you know that?"

"Because our mule got away from us when we tried to shove him over the bluff. We wanted to destroy everything we had that we could not carry on our backs, but he got away from us. Banta warned us against coming up here, and we fooled him by making him believe we were going straight down to Denver; but he will be after us now. If he comes, he had better take us unawares; that's all."

"We don't want to see that fight," remarked Jack. "You'll let us go before that comes off?"

"Oh, yes; when we get you so deep in the mountains that you can't find your way back readily, why, then we'll let you go. If you behave yourselves, you won't get hurt."

Bob led the way at a more rapid pace when they reached the bottom of the gorge, jumping from rock to rock, and climbing over fallen trees that lay in their road, and Jack followed his example. He knew that Bob was making the trail more difficult to follow, but it was done in order to keep out of argument with his charge; for Bob often stopped, whenever he came to a place that took some pains to get over, and saw that those who were following him left no tracks behind them.

"There!" said Bob, pulling off his hat and looking back at the way they had come; "I reckon Banta will find some trouble in tracking us up here. I am hungry, and we'll stop here and have something to eat."

After they had satisfied their appetites they took a little time to rest, and then set off again at a more rapid pace than ever. It was almost dark when they stopped to camp for the night. The boys were tired, and they showed it as soon as they had disposed of their bacon and hard-tack by wrapping their blankets about them and lying down to sleep, with their feet to the fire. Their slumber was as sound as though they were surrounded by friends instead of being in the power of those who had robbed them of their hard-earned wealth.

It seemed to them that they had scarcely closed their eyes when they were awakened by the sound of footsteps moving about, and threw off their blankets in time to see Bob cutting off a slice of bacon. It was as dark as pitch in the woods, and the boys did not see how Bob was to find his way through them.

"It will be light enough by the time we have our breakfast eaten," said he, in response to the inquiry of Julian. "You have a watch with you. What time is it?"

Julian had a watch with him, it is true, but he had been careful how he drew it out in the presence of Bob and Jake. It had no chain attached to it, and the boy was not aware that Bob knew anything about it; but he produced the gold timepiece and announced that it was just five o'clock. This was another thing over which Julian had had an argument with Jack, who believed that, with the money he had at his disposal, he ought to have the best watch that could be procured, and, in spite of Jack's arguments, he had purchased the best American patent lever he could find. Jack's watch was an ordinary silver one, and he said that by it he could tell the time when dinner was ready as well as he could by a good timepiece.

"Do you want this watch?" asked Julian, because he thought the man who would steal his money would not be above stealing his watch also.

"Oh, no," replied Bob, with a laugh; "you can keep that. I wanted your money, and, now that I have it, I am satisfied."

By the time breakfast was cooked and eaten there was light enough to show them the way, and Bob once more took the lead. There was no trail to guide them – nothing but the gully, which twisted and turned in so many ways that Julian almost grew heart-sick when he thought of finding his way back there in company with Jack. More than once he was on the point of asking Bob if he did not think they had gone far enough, but the man had been so friendly and good-natured all the time that he did not want to give him a chance to act in any other way. So he kept with him during that long day's tramp, looking into all the gullies he crossed, and once or twice he slyly reached behind him and pulled down a branch of an evergreen that happened to come in his way.

"That's the way our women used to do in old Revolutionary times when they were captured and wanted to leave some trail for their rescuers to follow," soliloquized Julian; "but Bob doesn't take any notice of it."

"Well, I reckon we'll stop here for the night," remarked Bob, when it got so dark that he could scarcely see. "This is as far as we shall ask you to go with us, Julian. I suppose you are mighty glad to get clear of us."

"Yes, I am," assented Julian, honestly. "If you will give us what you have in your pockets, you can go your way and we will make no attempt to capture you."

"Oh, we couldn't think of that! You have wealth enough to keep you all your lives, and I have struggled for ten years to gain a fortune, and to-day I have just got it."

"What would you do if somebody should catch you along the trail, somewhere? You would come in for a hanging, sure."

"Don't you suppose we know all that? It is a good plan for you to catch your man before you hang him. We have two revolvers apiece, and you know what that means."

"You don't count Claus worth anything, then," remarked Jack.

"Eh? Oh, yes, we do," exclaimed Bob, who wondered what Claus would think of him for leaving him out entirely. "But Claus is not used to this sort of business, you know. He could make a noise, and that is about all he could do."

"We know we should come in for a hanging if those fellows at Dutch Flat should ever get their hands on us, but when they do that we'll be dead. You need not think we are going to stay in this country, where everybody has got so rich, and we be as poor as Job's turkey all the while. We have just as good a right to be rich as they have."

When Jake got to talking this way it was a sure sign that he was rapidly getting toward a point which Bob called "crazy." He was always mad when he spoke of others' wealth and his own poverty; and the boys, who were anxious to get him off from that subject, began their preparations for supper. They were glad to know they had gone far enough with the robbers to insure their escape, and they were disposed to be talkative; but they noticed that Claus was more downhearted than he had ever been. He lit his pipe, leaned back against a tree, and went off into a brown study.

"I suppose he'll get a portion of the money that was stolen from us," said Jack, in a low tone.

"No, he won't," answered Julian in the same cautious manner. "He has been promised some of that money, but I'll bet you he don't get a cent of it. He is here in these fellows' power, and they'll take what they please out of him."

The boys, although as tired as they were on the previous day, were not by any means inclined to sleep. In fact they did not believe they had been asleep at all until they heard Bob moving around the fire. It was five o'clock by Julian's watch, and his first care was to find out what had become of Claus, who lay muffled up, head and ears, in his blanket; but he would not have stayed there if he knew what was going to happen to him during the day.

"Now perhaps you will be good enough to tell us what route we have to travel in order to get out of here," said Jack.

"Have you a compass with you?" asked Jake.

No, the boys had none; they did not think they would need one when they were surrounded by friends who knew the woods, and consequently they had not brought one with them.

"You know which way is east, don't you? Well, place your backs to the sun, and keep it there all the time. Dutch Flat lies directly west of here."

"That will be good if the sun shines all the time," said Julian. "But if it goes under a cloud – then what?"

"Then you will have to go into camp, and stay until it comes out again," replied Bob. "But at this time of the year you have nothing to fear on that score. Are you going already? Well, good-bye. Why don't you wish us good luck with that money we took from you?"

"Because I don't believe it will bring you good luck," said Jack. "We worked hard for it, and we ought to have it. I wish you good-bye, but I don't wish you good luck."

"Shake hands with your uncle, why don't you?" asked Bob.

"Not much!" returned Jack. "If that money doesn't bring him some misfortune I shall miss my guess."

Julian and Jack shouldered the blankets which contained the few provisions they had left, plunged into the thicket, and were out of hearing in a few minutes. The robbers sat by the fire without making any effort to continue their journey, and presently Bob turned his eyes upon Claus.

"Now, my friend, it is time for you to go, too," said he.

CHAPTER XXX
HOME AGAIN

Claus had been expecting something of this kind. It is true he had a revolver, but by the time he could reach back to his hip pocket and draw it he could be covered by Jake, whose weapon lay close at hand. There was but one thing to be done – he had to surrender. Instead of getting three thousand dollars for his share in the robbery, he would be turned loose in that country, two hundred miles from anybody, without a cent left in his pockets – that is, if Bob searched him.

"Well," said Claus, "I suppose you want all the money I have around me. I should think you might leave me a little."

"How much have you?" asked Bob.

Without saying a word, Claus unbuttoned his vest, worked at something on the inside, and presently hauled out a belt, which he handed over to Bob. It did not stick out as though there was much money in it, and when Bob began to investigate it, all he drew forth was twenty-five dollars.

"You are a wealthy millionaire, I understood you to say," exclaimed Bob, in great disgust. "This looks like it!"

"I told you, when I had purchased the pack-mule, provisions and tools, that I should not have much left," answered Claus. "That's all I have, and if you take it from me I shall starve."

"Stand up!" commanded Jake, who was as disgusted as Bob was. "You are sure you haven't got any about your clothes? But, first, I'll take possession of that revolver."

The revolver having been disposed of, Jake then turned his attention to feeling in all Claus's pockets, but he found nothing more there – Claus had evidently given them the last cent he had.

"Take your little bills," said Bob, throwing Claus's belt back to him. "If you are careful of them, they will serve you till you get back to Denver."

"And when you get there, you can go to one of those men who own that block of buildings and borrow another thousand or two. Now, get out of here!" put in Jake.

"I thank you for this much," returned Claus. "But I should thank you a good deal more if you would give me my revolver. I may want it before I reach Denver."

"Give it to him, Jake. He hasn't pluck enough to shoot at us or anybody else. Make yourself scarce about here!"

"They think they are awful smart!" thought Claus, when he had placed some bushes between him and the robbers. "Why didn't they think to look in my shoe? I have three hundred dollars that they don't know anything about. Now I guess I'll go back to St. Louis; and if anybody ever says anything to me about an 'old horse,' I'll knock him down."

We are now in a position to take a final leave of Claus, and we do it with perfect readiness. Did he get back to St. Louis in safety? Yes, he got there in due course, but he had some fearful sufferings on the way. In the first place, he was nearly a week in finding his way out of the mountains; and by the time he reached a miner's cabin he was so weak from want of food that he fell prone upon the floor, and stayed there until the miner came from his work and found him there. Of course he was taken in and cared for, and when he was able to resume his journey he offered to present the miner with every cent he had, – twenty-five dollars, – to pay him for his kindness; but the miner would not take it.

"You will need every cent of that before you get to Denver," said he. "The food and care I have given you don't amount to anything. Good-bye, and good luck to you."

He was nearly three times as long in finding his way back to Denver. He tried to buy a horse on the way, but no one had any to sell. He now and then found a chance to ride when he was overtaken by a teamster who was going somewhere for a load, but the most of his journey was accomplished on foot. His long tramp never cost him a cent, for everybody pitied his forlorn condition.

"I tell you, if I had been treated this way by those robbers I wouldn't look as bad as I do now," Claus often said to himself; "I would have seen California before I went home."

All this while, Claus was on nettles for fear he would see some of the men from Dutch Flat who were in pursuit of him; but the trouble was, the miners all went the other way. They never dreamed that Claus was going home, but saddled their horses at Mr. Banta's command, and, making no attempt to follow the devious course of the robbers through the mountains, took the "upper trail," and did their best to shut them off from the towns toward which they knew the men were hastening to buy some more provisions. What luck they met with we shall presently see.

No man ever drew a longer breath than Claus did when he came within sight of Denver. He went at once to the hotel where he had left his clothes, but the landlord did not recognize him and ordered him out of the house; but he finally succeeded in making himself known; and, now that he was safely out of reach of the miners at Dutch Flat, he had some fearful stories to tell of his experience.

"You know I left my clothes with you on condition that you would keep them for me for a year," said Claus, who thought that was the wisest thing that he ever did. "Well, I want them now. I have the key to my trunk, so everything is all right."

Claus was not long in recovering from the effects of his journey, for he could not help thinking that Mr. Banta, or some other man who belonged to the Flat, would find out that he had gone to Denver and come after him; so he remained there but two days before he took the cars for home.

"Now I am safe," said he, settling down in his seat and pulling his hat over his eyes; "I would like to see them catch me. But what shall I do when I get back to St. Louis? I must settle down into the same old life I have always led, and that will be a big come-down for me."

Claus is there now, spending his time at the pool-rooms, where he makes the most of his living, and ready at any time to talk about the mines and the terrible experience he had there.

And where were Julian and Jack all this while? To begin with, they were in the ravine, making all the haste they could to leave the robbers behind and reach the haunted mine before their provisions gave out. That troubled them worse than anything.

"If our grub stops, where are we going to get more?" asked Jack. "I don't believe there is a house any nearer than Dutch Flat."

"And we can't get there any too soon," returned Julian. "At any rate, we are better off than Claus is. What do you suppose they intend to do with him?"

"I suppose they intend to divide the money with him. What makes you think they would do anything else?"

"From the way they treated him. If we could learn the whole upshot of the matter, you would find that they don't intend to give him a dollar."

"I wish we could see Mr. Banta for about five minutes," said Jack. "I don't like to give up that money. It is the first we ever earned by digging in the ground, and I was going to suggest to you that we keep some of it."

Julian replied by lengthening his steps and going ahead at a faster rate than ever. He, too, did not like to confess that the money was lost, – that is, if they could only get word to Mr. Banta in time. He did not know where the robbers were heading for; but, with two hundred men at his back, Julian was certain he could come up with them before they had left the country entirely.

"But I hope they will not hurt the robbers," said Julian. "If they will just get the dust, that is all I shall ask of them."

About five o'clock in the afternoon, when it began to grow dark in the ravine, Julian, who had been all the time leading the way, stopped and pointed silently before him. Jack looked, and there was the camp they had occupied two nights before.

"We are on the right road, so far," said he. "If we don't miss our way to-morrow we are all right."

The boys had not stopped to eat any dinner, and for that reason they were hungry. They spent a long time in cooking and eating their bacon, and Julian said there was just enough for two more meals. He did not like to think of what might happen when it was all gone, and, after replenishing the fire, bade his companion good-night, wrapped his blanket about him, and laid down to rest; but sleep was out of the question. A dozen times he got up to see the time, and there was Jack, snoring away as lustily as he had done at the haunted mine. Julian wished that he, too, could forget his troubles in the same way, but when morning came he had not closed his eyes.

Julian proved to be an invaluable guide, for that night they slept in the first camp they had made after leaving the haunted mine. If he had always known the path, he could not have brought his companion straighter to it.

"Now keep your eyes open for the trail we made when we came down from our mine, and then we are at home. But I say, Julian, I shall not be in favor of staying here. All our money is gone, I don't feel in the humor to work for any more, and we will go down to Dutch Flat."

"And we'll stay there just long enough to find somebody starting out for Denver, and we'll go with him," replied Julian. "I don't want anything more to do with the mines as long as I live."

The night passed away, and the next morning, without waiting to cook breakfast, the two boys started to find the trail that led up the bluff to the haunted mine. They were a long time in finding it – so long, in fact, that Julian began to murmur discouraging words; but finally Jack found it; and now began the hardest piece of work they had undertaken since they left the robbers. The cliff was as steep as it looked to be when they gazed down into its depths from the heights above, and they did not see how they had managed to come down it in the first place.

"Are you sure the mine is up here?" asked Julian, seating himself on a fallen tree to rest. "I should not like to go up there and find nothing."

"Didn't you see the trail we made in coming down?" inquired Jack. "Of course we are on the right track; but if you spend all your time in resting, we shall never be nearer the top than we are this minute."

Julian once more set to work to climb the hill, and in half an hour more Jack pushed aside some branches that obstructed his way and found himself in plain view of the mine. Julian was satisfied now, but declared he could not go any farther until he had recovered all the wind he had expended in going up the bluff; but Jack wanted to see that everything in the camp was just as they left it. He walked on toward the lean-to, and the first thing that attracted his attention was that his goods had been disturbed. The skins were gone, some of the blankets were missing, and there were hardly provisions enough to get them a square meal. Julian came up in response to his call, and was obliged to confess that there had been other robbers while they were absent.

"Let us dish up the few provisions left, take those things we want to save, and dig out for the Flat," said Julian. "I am sure there is nothing here to keep us, now."

"And we'll leave the dirt-bucket here for somebody else to use," added Jack. "If he thinks there is a lead down there, let him go and try it. I did not send up enough dust the last time I was down there to pay for the rope."

At the end of an hour the boys resumed their journey, each one loaded with a few things they wanted to save, and in two hours more they arrived within sight of Dutch Flat. Some few of the men had already given up their workings and were sitting in front of the store, smoking their pipes; but one of them speedily caught sight of the boys, and the miners broke out into a cheer. In a few seconds more they were surrounded, shaking hands with all of them, and trying in vain to answer their questions all at once.

"This is no way to do it," declared Julian. "Let us put our things in the cabin and get our breath, and I will tell you the story."

"In the first place," began Jack, as he deposited the things with which his arms were filled and came out and seated himself on the doorsteps of Mr. Banta's cabin, "let me ask a few questions. I won't delay the story five minutes. Where is the man who owns this house?"

"Mr. Banta?" said one of the miners. "He took the upper trail two or three days ago, and rode with all possible speed in the direction of Mendota. He hopes in that way to cut off those villains."

"He will do it, too, for they have no horses," said Julian.

"No horses? What did they do with them?"

"I don't know, I am sure," answered Julian, in surprise. "They were on foot when they came to rob us."

"Why, their mule came up here a few hours after they left, and made the biggest kind of a fuss, and Banta suspected something at once. He called for some men to go with him, and he went as straight as he could to your mine. You were not there, and that proved that those miners had paid you a visit."

"We are going to get our dust again!" said Julian, slapping Jack on the shoulder. "But I hope they won't hurt the robbers after they catch them."

"Well, that is rather a difficult thing to tell. A man who comes into a mining-camp and watches his chance to steal money instead of working for it, takes his life in his hand."

"Then they must have been the ones who disturbed our things," said Jack.

"Probably they were. They brought the skins of the ghosts back, and also some of your provisions. They are there in his cabin now. Now let us have that story."