CHAPTER XVIII.
ON THE COLONEL'S TRAIL AGAIN.
The day after the conversation recorded in the last chapter happened tobe Sunday--a day which at Antler differed very little from any otherday, except that a few tenderfeet, mostly Britishers, struck work onthat day, and indulged in what some of their friends called a "goodsquare loaf." Ned Corbett was one of these Sunday loafers. Of coursethere was no church at Antler, nor any parson except upon very rareoccasions. But Ned had an ear for the anthems which the mountain breezesare always singing, and an eye for nature's attitude of reverencetowards her Creator.
Every Sunday it was Ned's wont to go out by himself, and lie on a rockin the sun out of hearing of the noise of the great mining-camp, sayingnothing at all himself, but thinking a good deal, and keeping quitequiet to hear what nature had to say to him.
As he was coming away from such a loaf as this, he met Lilla wanderingup the banks of a mountain stream, gathering berries and wild flowers.
Ned thought that his little friend had never looked prettier than shedid at that moment--her soft yellow hair blown out by the breeze, herlittle figure moving gracefully amongst the boulders, the colour of wildroses in her cheeks, and a deep strong light in her blue eyes, like thelight of the stars when there is frost in the northern sky.
For a little while he watched her, as she hummed a song amongst theflowers and added fresh treasures to the already overgrown bouquet inher hand.
"If she would take a man just as he is, she would make a sweet littlewife for a Cariboo miner," thought the young man; "that is, if he meantalways to remain a Cariboo miner. But, poor child! I'm afraid she'd finda Shropshire welcome rather chilly even after Cariboo. Ah! well," headded to himself as he went jumping over the boulders to meet her,"luckily I don't want a wife, and Lilla doesn't want a husband."
The next moment Lilla and he stood face to face.
"Did I frighten you, Lilla?" he asked, picking up some flowers which thegirl had dropped. "Did you think I was a grizzly?"
"Not so bad as that, Ned. But what do you up here?"
"I'm taking a 'cultus coolee,'" replied he, using the Indian phrase inuse among the miners for a walk which has no object. "You are doing thesame, I fancy. Let us do it together."
"What! you wish to come with me? Well, come then," replied Lilla. "Youcan help me carry these."
Ned took the bouquet, and after a while said, "I have been wanting tohave a good talk with you, Lilla, for some time."
"So, Ned! what is it about?" She tried hard to speak in an unconcernedoff-hand way, but in spite of her, her colour rose and then paled, andher voice had an unnatural ring in it. Ned looked at her. Could there beanything in what Steve suggested the other night? he asked himself, andthen almost in the same second he repented him of the thought. NedCorbett was not one of those men who twist their moustachescomplacently, and conclude that every woman they meet must fall in lovewith them.
"I want you to tell me about Pete and his creek again," he said. "SteveChance is awfully keen to go prospecting, and to go and look for thisgold-mine of yours."
"And why not, Ned? I wish you would, for my sake."
"I would do a good deal for your sake, Lilla," he answered; "but I can'tbelieve in this creek, you know."
"Not believe in it! Why not, Ned?"
"There was too much gold in it; the whole story is too much like a fairytale. And then, you know, when you took him in, Pete was as penniless asI was."
"Penniless! What's that?"
"Hadn't a cent to his name, I mean, and you fed him and took care ofhim."
"Ach, so. Well, what has that to do with the creek?"
"People who find gold-mines ought not to be dependent upon good littlegirls like you for their bread and cheese. It's not natural, you know."
"Ach, now you make me to understand. But you yourself, you don't knowCariboo ways. Pete had plenty of dust, oh, lots and lots of dust, whenhe came down; but, of course, he blew it all in before I saw him."
To anyone not conversant with mining life that "of course" of Lilla'swas delicious. To the steady-going collector of hard-earned copper andsilver it seems anything but a matter of course to "blow in" a fortunein a fortnight; but then things were not done in an ordinary jog-trotfashion either in California in '49 or in Cariboo in '62.
"Oh! of course, of course!" returned Ned with a smile which he could nothide. "I beg your pardon, Lilla. I had forgotten for a moment that I wasin Cariboo, and thought as if I were at home again. Well, and what wasthe matter with your beggared Croesus when you found him?"
"If you mean what was the matter with Pete, I have before told you. Hedrink too much one night, and then he fall asleep in the snow, and whenhe wake in the morning he have the pleurisy, I think you call him."
It was a long sentence for Lilla, who was getting a little bit roused bythe young scoffer at her side; and, moreover, her English was alwaysbest when produced in small quantities.
"And why did they bring him to you?"
"Where else could they take him? The boys can't leave their claims tonurse sick men, and at night they are too tired to nurse anyone. Andbesides--"
"And besides," interrupted her companion, "Lilla is never tired. Oh,dear, no! Her eyes never want sleep, nor her limbs rest after dancingwith all those roughs on a floor like a ploughed field."
"Don't you call the boys roughs, Ned. They are not rough to me. Ofcourse I had to nurse old Pete. What are women meant for?"
"Something better than camp-life in Cariboo," replied Corbett warmly;"but it is just as well for me that you don't think so."
"Well, and so I nursed him," continued the girl, disregarding Ned's lastspeech altogether; "and sometimes he told me where he had been, and howmuch gold he had found, and at last one day when he knew that he mustdie he told me of this creek in Chilcotin with gold in the bed ofit--free gold, coarse gold in nuggets and lumps, and as much as ever youwant of it."
"Why did he not bring down more of it, instead of letting you keep himas you kept me?" asked the doubter.
"_Ach, himmel!_ Keep you! I didn't keep you. You are too proud, andwill pay for every little thing; but old Pete, he understood Caribooways. To-day you strike it rich and I am stone-broke. Very well. I lendyou a handful of dollars and start you again. You don't need to thankme. Any gambler would do as much. By and by I strike it even rockierthan you struck it. All right, then you 'ante' up for me. That'sCariboo."
"Is it?" asked Ned, looking into the eager friendly face of thisexponent of a new commercial creed. "Is that Cariboo? Well, Lilla, Iexpect Samaria must be somewhere in Cariboo. But finish your story aboutPete."
"Oh, Pete! Well, Pete just died quietly, and he knew it was coming, andbefore it came he pulled out this," and the girl drew from her bosom anold frayed bill-head which we have seen before, "and gave it to me, andtold me that as soon as I found--Ach, what am I saying? I forget." AndLilla suddenly brought her story to an abrupt conclusion, with stumblingtongue and flaming cheeks, for as a fact the old man had told her thatthis map of his was the key to much gold, and that when she should havefound a man worthy of her, she was to send him to bring it to her, andit should be to her for a dowry. But this was not quite what the honestlittle hurdy girl cared to tell Ned Corbett at present. However, Nednever noticed her embarrassment. His eyes were busy with the document inhis hand.
"It seems a good clear map, and looks as if the man who made it wasquite sane," he muttered.
"Sane? What is that--'sane?'" asked Lilla.
"Level-headed" answered Ned shortly.
"You bet he was level-headed, Ned. _Ach, mein freund_, how you doubt! Itell you there are not many men in Cariboo who would not go to look forthat creek, if I would let them."
Again Ned remembered Steve's words, "She'll only trust you because shehas lost her heart to you."
"Did you ever give anyone a hint as to where the creek was, Lilla?"
"No, never. At least no, I didn't tell him, but one man nearly guessedonce."
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"Nearly guessed once?"
"Yes. He said he knew more than I thought and I had better trust him,and wasn't the creek at the head of the Chilcotin? And I said, 'Well,which side of the Chilcotin?' And then he smiled, and I felt angry. Andwhen he said on the right bank I was glad, and I cried 'No, it isn't, Iknew you didn't know.' And then he smiled more, and I saw that I hadtold him what he wanted to know. But after all that is not much, is it?"
"Who was the man, Lilla?"
"Colonel--Colonel--ach, I forget, there are so many colonels inAmerica."
"True, but what was he like?" Ned had a queer fancy to know who thisclever cross-examiner might be.
"A thick dark man, stout and smooth."
"With a lot of rings on his fingers?"
"Yes, always lots of rings. Oh, he was a fine man, and such a dancer!"
"Cruickshank."
"That is it--Cruickshank, Colonel Cruickshank. But how did you know,Ned?"
"Oh, I have seen him before," replied Corbett quietly.
This was indeed news to him, but he felt that he must be very carefulnot to frighten Lilla, to whom oddly enough the name of the man who hadrobbed Corbett had never yet been mentioned. That he had been robbed ofcourse she knew, but by one of those strange accidents which oftenhappen, she had never heard who had robbed him.
"So that is all you can tell me about the creek is it, Lilla?" said Nedafter a long pause. "Well, if you still wish me to go at the end of thisweek, I will go for you; if I find it you shall pay me ten dollars a dayfor my work, and Phon and Steve the same; and if not,--well, if not, Ishall have earned a right to teaze you if you believe in suchcock-and-bull stories for the future." And Ned gave Lilla her bouquetand prepared to leave her, for they had by this time reached the door ofher little cottage.
"Oh no, Ned, that is not so at all, at all. If you don't find it, ofcourse I pay the cost; and if you do, we go shares in the find."
"As you please, Lilla, but we have got to find the creek first," and sosaying he turned and strode off to his own hut.
There were many reasons now why he should go to look for Pete's Creek,but the belief in Pete's Creek or the hope of finding it was not amongstthem.
Cruickshank knew something of the whereabouts of the creek, Cruickshankwith his insatiable love of gold; and Ned himself had tracked himtowards Soda Creek, where he must cross the Frazer to get to Chilcotin.
Yes, that was it. The tables were turning at last, and if there was sucha place as Pete's Creek, Ned would find Cruickshank there, and shoot himlike a bear over a carcase.