It Is Never Too Late to Mend — Chapter LII, part 2
“Never!
I'd rather not find gold than part with honesty.
There, I'm coming--let us go--quick--come, let us leave here.
” And the two men left the road and turned their faces and their steps across the ravine.
During all this dialogue the men in the cave had strained both eyes and ears to comprehend the speakers.
The distance was too great for them to catch all the words, but this much was clear from the first, that one of the men wished to stay on the spot for some purpose, and the other to go on; but presently, as the speakers warmed, a word traveled down the breeze that made the four ruffians start and turn red with surprise, and the next moment darken with anger and apprehension.
The word came again and again; they all heard it--its open vowel gave it a sonorous ring;
it seemed to fly farther than any other word the speaker uttered, or perhaps when he came to it he spoke it louder than smaller words, or the hearers' ears were watching for it.
The men interchanged terrible looks, and then they grasped their knives and watched their leader's eye for some deadly signal.
Again and again the word “g-o-l-d” came like an Aeolian note into the secret cave, and each time eye sought eye and read the unlucky speaker's death-warrant there.
But when George prevailed and the two men started for the valley, the men in the cave cast uncertain looks on one another, and he we have called Jem drew a long breath and said brutally, yet with something of satisfaction, “You have saved your bacon this time.
” The voices now drew near and the men crouched close, for George and Robinson passed within fifteen yards of them.
They were talking now about matters connected with George's business, for Robinson made a violent effort and dropped his favorite theme to oblige his comrade.
They passed near the cave, and presently their backs were turned to it.
“Good-by, my lads,” whispered Jem.
“And curse you for making us lose a good half hour,” muttered another of the gang.
The words were scarce out of his mouth before a sudden rustle was heard and there was Carlo.
He had pulled up in mid career and stood transfixed with astonishment, literally pointing the gang; it was but for a moment--he did not like the looks of the men at all; he gave a sharp bark that made George and Robinson turn quickly round, and then he went on hunting.
“A kangaroo!
” shouted Robinson, “it must have got up near that bush;
come and look--if it is we will hunt it down.
” George turned back with him, but on reflection he said, “No!
Tom, we have a long road to go, let us keep on, if you please;” and they once more turned their backs to the cave, whistled Carlo, and stepped briskly out toward the valley.
A few yards before them was the brook I have already noticed--it was about three yards broad at this spot.
However, Robinson, who was determined not to make George lose any more time, took the lead and giving himself the benefit of a run, cleared it like a buck.
But as he was in the air his eye caught some object on this side the brook, and making a little circle on the other side, he came back with ludicrous precipitancy, and jumping short, landed with one foot on shore and one in the stream.
George burst out laughing.
“Do you see this?
” cried Robinson.
“Yes; somebody has been digging a hole here,” said George very coolly.
“Come higher up,” cried Robinson, all in a flutter--“do you see this?
” “Yes; it is another hole.
” “'It is.
Do you see this wet, too?
” “I see there has been some water spilled by the brook side.
” “What kind of work has been done here?
have they been digging potatoes, farmer?
” “Don't be foolish, Tom.
” “Is it any kind of work you know?
Here is another trench dug.
” “No!
it is nothing in my way, that is the truth.
” “But it is work the signs of which I know as well as you know a plowed field from a turnpike-road.
” “Why, what is it then?
” “It is gold washing.
” “You don't say so, Tom.
” “This is gold washing as beginners practice it in California and Mexico and Peru, and wherever gold-dust is found.
They have been working with a pan, they haven't got such a thing as a cradle in this country.
Come lower down; this was yesterday's work, let us find to-day's. ” The two men now ran down the stream busy as dogs hunting an otter.
A
little lower down they found both banks of the stream pitted with holes about two feet deep and the sides drenched with water from it.
“Well, if it is so, you need not look so pale; why, dear me, how pale you are, Tom!
” “You would be pale,” gasped Tom, “if you could see what a day this is for you and me, ay!
and for all the world, old England especially.
George, in a month there will be five thousand men working round this little spot.
Ay!
come,” cried he, shouting wildly at the top of his voice, “there is plenty for all.
GOLD!
GOLD!
GOLD!
I have found it.
I,
Tom Robinson, I've found it, and I grudge it to no man.
I, a thief that was, make a present of it to its rightful owner, and that is all the world.
Here GOLD!
GOLD!
GOLD!
” Though George hardly understood his companion's words, he was carried away by the torrent of his enthusiasm, and even as Robinson spoke his cheeks in turn flushed and his eyes flashed, and he grasped his friend's hands warmly, and cried, “GOLD!
GOLD!
blessings on it if it takes me to Susan; GOLD!
GOLD!
” The poor fellows' triumph and friendly exultation lasted but a moment;
the words were scarce out of Robinson's mouth when to his surprise George started from him, turned very pale, but at the same time lifted his iron-shod stick high in the air and clinched his teeth with desperate resolution.
Four men with shaggy beards and wild faces and murderous eyes were literally upon them, each with a long glittering knife raised in the air.
At that fearful moment George learned the value of a friend that had seen adventure and crime; rapid and fierce and unexpected as the attack was, Robinson was not caught off his guard.
His hand went like lightning into his bosom, and the assailants, in the very act of striking, were met in the face by the long glistening barrels of a rifle revolver, while the cool, wicked eye behind it showed them nothing was to be hoped in that quarter from flurry, or haste, or indecision.
The two men nearest the revolver started back, the other two neither recoiled nor advanced, but merely hung fire.
George made a movement to throw himself upon them; but Robinson seized him fiercely by the arm--he said steadily but sternly, “Keep cool, young man--no running among their knives while they are four.
Strike across me and I shall guard you till we have thinned.
” “Will you?
” said Black Will, “here, pals!
” The four assailants came together like a fan for a moment and took a whisper from their leader.
They then spread out like a fan and began to encircle their antagonists, so as to attack on both sides at once.
“Back to the water, George,” cried Robinson quickly, “to the broad part here.
” Robinson calculated that the stream would protect his rear, and that safe he was content to wait and profit by the slightest error of his numerous assailants; this, however, was to a certain degree a miscalculation, for the huge ruffian we have called Jem sprang boldly across the stream higher up and prepared to attack the men behind, the moment they should be engaged with his comrades.
The others no sooner saw him in position than they rushed desperately upon George and Robinson in the form of a crescent, and as they came on Jem came flying knife in hand to plunge it into Robinson's back.
As the front assailants neared them, true to his promise, Robinson fired across George, and the outside man received a bullet in his shoulder-blade, and turning round like a top fell upon his knees.
Unluckily George wasted a blow at this man which sung idly over him, he dropping his head and losing his knife and his powers at the very moment.
By this means Robinson, the moment he had fired his pistol, had no less than three assailants; one of these George struck behind the neck so furiously with a back-handed stroke of his iron-shod stick that he fell senseless at Robinson's feet.
The other, met in front by the revolver, recoiled, but kept Robinson at bay while Jem sprang on him from the rear.
This attack was the most dangerous of all; in fact, neither Robinson nor George had time to defend themselves against him even if they had seen him, which they did not.
Now as Jem was in the very act of making his spring from the other side of the brook, a spear glanced like a streak of light past the principal combatants and pierced Jem through and through the fleshy part of the thigh, and there stood Jacky at forty yards' distance, with the hand still raised from which the spear had flown, and his emu-like eye glittering with the light of battle.
Jem, instead of bounding clear over the stream, fell heavily into the middle of it and lay writhing and floundering at George's mercy, who turning in alarm at the sound stood over him with his long deadly staff whirling and swinging round his head in the air, while Robinson placed one foot firmly on the stunned man's right arm and threatened the leader Black Will with his pistol, and at the same moment with a wild and piercing yell Jacky came down in leaps like a kangaroo, his tomahawk flourished over his head, his features entirely changed, and the thirst of blood written upon every inch of him.
Black Will was preparing to run away and leave his wounded companions, but at sight of the fleet savage he stood still and roared out for mercy.
“Quarter!
quarter!
” cried Black Will.
“Down on your knees!
” cried Robinson in a terrible voice.
The man fell on his knees, and in that posture Jacky would certainly have knocked out his brains but that Robinson pointed the pistol at his head and forbade him; and Carlo, who had arrived hastily at the sound of battle, in great excitement but not with clear ideas, seeing Jacky, whom he always looked on as a wild animal, opposed in some way to Robinson, seized him directly by the leg from behind and held him howling in a vise.
“Hold your cursed noise, all of you,” roared Robinson.
“D'ye ask quarter?
” “Quarter!
” cried Black Will.
“Quarter!
” gurgled Jem.
“Quarter!
” echoed more faintly the wounded man.
The other was insensible.
“Then throw me your knives.
” The men hesitated.
“Throw me them this instant, or--” They threw down their knives.
“George, take them and tie them up in your wipe.
” George took the knives and tied them up.
“Now pull that big brute out of the water or he'll drown himself.
” George and Jacky pulled Jem out of the water with the spear sticking in him; the water was discolored with his blood.
“Pull the spear out of him!
” George pulled and Jem roared with pain, but the spear-head would not come back through the wound; then Jacky came up and broke the light shaft off close to the skin, and grasping the head drew the remainder through the wound forward, and grinned with a sense of superior wisdom.
By this time the man whom George had felled sat up on his beam ends winking and blinking and confused, like a great owl at sunrise.
Then Robinson, who had never lost his presence of mind, and had now recovered his sang-froid, made all four captives sit around together on the ground in one little lot, “While I show you the error of your ways,” said he.
“I could forgive a rascal but I hate a fool.
You thought to keep such a secret as this all to yourselves--you dunces--the very birds in the air would carry it; it never was kept secret in any land and never will.
And you would spill blood sooner than your betters should know it--ye ninny-cumpoops!
What the worse are you for our knowing it?
If a thousand knew it to-day would that lower the price of gold a penny an ounce?
No!
All the harm they could do you would be this, that some of them would show you where it lies thickest, and then you'd profit by it.
You had better tie that leg of yours up; you have lost blood enough I should say by the look of you; haven't you got a wipe?
here, take mine--you deserve it, don't you?
No man's luck hurts his neighbor at this work; how clever you were, you have just pitched on the unlikeliest place in the whole gulley, and you wanted to kill the man that would have taught you which are the likelier ones.
I shall find ten times as much gold before the sun sets as you will find in a week by the side of that stream; why, it hasn't been running above a thousand years or two, I should say, by the look of it; you have got plenty to learn, you bloody-minded greenhorns!
Now I'll tell you what it is,” continued Robinson, getting angry about it, “since you are for keeping dark what little you know, I'll keep you dark; and in ten minutes my pal here and the very nigger shall know more about gold-finding than you know, so be off, for I'm going to work.
Come, march!
” “Where are we to go, mate?
” said the leader sullenly.
“Do you see that ridge about three miles west?
well, if we catch you on this side of it we will hang you like wild cats.
On the other side of it do what you like, and try all you know; but this gully belongs to us now; you wanted to take something from us that did not belong to you--our blood--so now we take something from you that didn't belong to us a minute or two ago.
Come, mizzle, and no more words, or--” and he pointed the tail of his discourse with his revolver.
The men rose, and with sullen, rueful, downcast looks moved off in the direction of the boundary; but one remained behind, the man was Jem.
“Well!
” “Captain, I wish you would let me join in with you!
” “What for?
” “Well, captain, you've lent me your wipe, and I think a deal of it, for it's what I did not deserve; but that is not all.
You are the best man, and I like to be under the best man if I must be under anybody.
” Robinson hesitated a moment.
“Come here,” said he.
The man came and fronted him.
“Look me in the face!
now give me your hand--quick, no thinking about how.
” The man gave him his hand readily.
Robinson looked into his eyes.
“What is your name?
” “Jem.
” “Jem, we take you on trial.
” Jem's late companions, who perfectly comprehended what was passing, turned and hooted the deserter; Jem, whose ideas of repartee were primitive, turned and hooted them in reply.
While the men were retreating Robinson walked thoughtfully with his hands behind him, backward and forward, like a great admiral on his quarter deck--enemy to leeward.
Every eye was upon him and watched him in respectful, inquiring silence.
“Knowledge is power;” this was the man now, the rest children.
“What tools have you?
” “There is a spade and trowel in that bush, captain.
” “Fetch them, George.
Hadn't you a pan?
” “No, captain; we used a calabash.
He will find it lower down.
” George, after a little search, found all these objects, and brought them back.
“Now,” cried Robinson, “these greenhorns have been washing in a stream that runs now, but perhaps in the days of Noah was not a river at all; but you look at the old bed of a stream down out there.
That was a much stronger stream than this in its day, and it ran for more than a hundred thousand years before it dried up.
” “How can you tell that?
” said George, resuming some of his incredulity.
“Look at those monstrous stones in it here, there and everywhere.
It has been a powerful stream to carry such masses with it as that, and it has been running many thousand years, for see how deep it has eaten into its rocky sides here and there.
That was a river, my lads, and washed gold down for hundreds of thousands of years before ever Adam stood on the earth.
” The men gave a hurrah, and George and Jacky prepared to run and find the treasure.
“Stop,” cried Robinson, “you are not at the gold yet.
Can you tell in what parts of the channel it lies thick and where there isn't enough to pay the labor of washing it?
Well, I can--look at that bend where the round pebbles are collected so; there was a strong eddy there.
Well, under the ridge of that eddy is ten times as much gold lying as in the level parts.
Stop a bit again.
Do you know how deep or how shallow it lies--do you think you can find it by the eye?
Do you know what clays it sinks through, as if they were a sieve, and what stops it like an iron door?
Your quickest way is to take Captain Robinson's time--and that is now.
” He snatched the spade, and giving full vent to the ardor he had so long suppressed with difficulty, plunged down a little declivity that led to the ancient stream, and drove his spade into its shingle, the debris of centuries of centuries.
George sprang after him, his eyes gleaming with hope and agitation; the black followed in wonder and excitement, and the wounded Jem limped last, and, unable through weakness to work, seated himself with glowing eyes upon that ancient river's bank.
“Away with all this gravel and shingle--these are all newcomers--the real bed of the stream is below all this, and we must go down to that.
” Trowel and spade and tomahawk went furiously to work, and soon cleared away the gravel from a surface of three or four feet.
Beneath this they found a bed of gray clay.
“Let us wash that, captain,” said Jem eagerly.
“No!
Jem,” was the reply; “that is the way novices waste their time.
This gray clay is porous, too porous to hold gold--we must go deeper.
” Tomahawk, spade and trowel went furiously to work again.
“Give me the spade,” said George, and he dug and shoveled out with herculean strength and amazing ardor; his rheumatism was gone and nerves came back from that very hour.
“Here is a white clay.
” “Let me see it.
Pipe-clay!
go no deeper, George; if you were to dig a hundred feet you would not find an ounce of gold below that.
” George rested on his spade.
“What are we to do, then?
try somewhere else?
” “Not till we have tried here first.
” “But you say there is nothing below this pipe-clay.
” “No more there is.
” “Well, then.
” “But I don't say there is nothing above it!!!
” “Well, but there is nothing much above it except the gray, without 'tis this small streak of brownish clay; but that is not an inch thick.
” “George!
in that inch lies all the gold we are likely to find; if it is not there we have only to go elsewhere.
Now while I get water you stick your spade in and cut the brown clay away from the white it lies on.
Don't leave a spot of the brown sticking to the white--the lower part of the brown clay is the likeliest.
” A shower having fallen the day before, Robinson found water in a hole not far distant.
He filled his calabash and returned; meantime George and Jacky had got together nearly a barrowful of the brown or rather chocolate-colored clay, mixed slightly with the upper and lower strata, the gray and white.
“I want yon calabash and George's as well.
” Robinson filled George's calabash two-thirds full of the stuff, and pouring some water upon it, said good-naturedly to Jem, “There--you may do the first washing, if you like.
” “Thank you, captain,” said Jem, who proceeded instantly to stir and dissolve the clay and pour it carefully away as it dissolved.
Jacky was sent for more water, and this, when used as described, had left the clay reduced to about one-sixth of its original bulk.
“Now, captain,” cried Jem in great excitement.
“No, it's not now, captain, yet,” said Robinson; “is that the way you do pan-washing?
” He then took the calabash from Jem, and gave him Jacky's calabash two-thirds full of clay to treat like the other, and this being done he emptied the dry remains of one calabash into the other, and gave Jem a third lot to treat likewise.
This done, you will observe he had in one calabash the results of three first washings.
But now he trusted Jem no longer.
He took the calabash and said, “You look faint, you are not fit to work; besides you have not got the right twist of the hand yet, my lad.
Pour for me, George.
” Robinson stirred and began to dissolve the three remainders, and every now and then with an artful turn of the hand he sent a portion of the muddy liquid out of the vessel.
At the end of this washing there remained scarce more than a good handful of clay at the bottom.
More water was poured on this.
“Now,” said Robinson, “we shall know this time, and if you see but one spot of yellow among it, we are all gentlemen and men of fortune.
” He dissolved the clay, and twisted and turned the vessel with great dexterity, and presently the whole of the clay was liquefied.
“Now,” said Robinson, “all your eyes upon it, and if I spill anything I ought to keep--you tell me.
” He said this conceitedly but with evident agitation.
He was now pouring away the dirty water with the utmost care, so that anything, however small, that might be heavier than clay should remain behind.
Presently he paused and drew a long breath.
He feared to decide so great a question.
It was but for a moment; he began again to pour the dirty water away very slowly and carefully.
Every eye was diving into the vessel.
There was a dead silence!
Robinson poured with great care.
There was now little more than a wine-glassful left.
DEAD SILENCE!
Suddenly a tremendous cry broke from all these silent figures at the same instant.
A cry!
it was a yell.
I don't know what to compare it to.
But imagine that a score of wolves had hunted a horse for two centuries up and down, round and round, sometimes losing a yard, sometimes gaining one on him, and at last, after a thousand disappointments and fierce alternations of hope and despair, the horse had suddenly stumbled and the wild gluttons had pounced on him at last.
Such a fierce yell of triumph burst from four human bosoms now.
“Hurrah!
we are the greatest men above ground.
If a hundred emperors and kings died to-day, their places could be filled to-morrow; but the world could not do without us and our find.
We are gentlemen--we are noblemen--we are whatever we like to be.
Hurrah!
” cried Robinson.
“Hurrah!
” cried George, “I see my Susan's eyes in you, you beauty.
” “Hurrah!
” whined Jem feebly, “let me see how much there is,” and clutching the calabash he fainted at that moment from loss of blood and fell forward insensible, his face in the vessel that held the gold, and his hands grasping it so tight that great force had to be used to separate them.
They lifted Jem and set him up again, and sprinkled water in his face.
The man's thick lip was cut by the side of the vessel, and more than one drop of blood had trickled down its sides and mingled with the gold-dust.
No comment was made on this at the time.
They were so busy.
“There, he's coming to, and we've no time to waste in nursing the sick.
Work!
” and they sprang up on to the work again.
It was not what you have seen pass for work in Europe, it was men working themselves for once as they make horses work forever.
Work?
It was battle; it was humanity fighting and struggling with Nature for her prime treasure--(so esteemed).
How they dug and scraped, and fought tooth, and spade, and nail, and trowel, and tomahawk for gold!
Their shirts were wet through with sweat, yet they felt no fatigue.
Their trousers were sheets of clay, yet they suffered no sense of dirt.
The wounded man recovered a portion of his strength, and, thirsting for gold, brought feeble hands but indomitable ardor to the great cause.
They dug, they scraped, they bowed their backs, and wrought with fury and inspiration unparalleled; and when the sun began to decline behind the hills these four human mutes felt injured.
They lifted their eyes a moment from the ground, and cast a fretful look at the great, tranquil luminary.
“Are you really going to set this afternoon the same as usual, when we need your services so?
” Would you know why that wolfish yell of triumph?
Would you see what sight so electrified those gloating eyes and panting bosoms?
Would you realize that discovery, which in six months peopled that barren spot with thousands of men from all the civilized tribes upon earth, and in a few years must and will make despised Australia a queen among the nations--nations who must and will come with the best thing they have, wealth, talent, cunning, song, pencil, pen, tongue, arm, and lay them all at her feet for this one thing?
Would you behold this great discovery the same in appearance and magnitude as it met the eyes of the first discoverers, picked with a knife from the bottom of a calabash, separated at last by human art and gravity's great law from the meaner dust it had lurked in for a million years--Then turn your eyes hither, for here it is: [Knife handle drawing]
