CHAPTER XXV. THE RELIC OF A FIGHT.
The next morning the three started back to the place where the boys had found the gold. On their way there, Jack explained to Hugh in greater detail, that the dust had really been discovered by Joe, and asked him to whom, in his opinion, it belonged.
"Why," said Hugh, "you two boys are just like a couple of fellows that start out to prospect. You are partners, and whatever either partner finds, belongs to both, share and share alike. It would have been the same if you had found it instead of Joe, half of it would have belonged to him. Now here I'm going out with you this morning, if any of us would find anything to-day, I oughtn't to have as big a share of it as either of you two, because you found the place and are taking me there and showing it to me. I am more like a man that you have hired to work on your claim and so I only get what you choose to give me. You and Joe are the bosses, I'm the hired man."
"Seems to me," said Joe, "that White Bull ought to share in what we found yesterday. Because you see Jack and me didn't know what we'd found and we had to take it to somebody and ask, and maybe if we had taken it to some one else, he'd have cheated us out of it all, so I think we ought to divide that gold into three parts, and all three share it."
"Why, yes," said Jack, "that's the best yet."
"No," said Hugh, "I guess we won't do that, you boys will have to keep your gold, and if we find any more to-day, why, maybe I'll get a chance at it, but what you found is yours and nobody else's."
"Well, but say, White Bull, you know we've got to be asking questions all the time and got to be told what to do with the dust, for neither of us know enough to get along without help. I think you ought to take your share."
"So do I," said Jack, "and I vote that unless Hugh comes in as a partner, you and I say we won't take any of this gold."
"Well, well," said Hugh, "we ain't got no chance to spend that money now, and we needn't decide right off about this. We can't do nothing with it until we get into the settlements, but when we get there, we better get paper for it, unless Joe would rather have the coin.
"Speaking of coin," he went on. "Did I ever tell you that story about Young Dog's father?"
"No. What was that, Hugh?" asked Jack.
"Why," said Hugh, "a good many years, I don't know how long, nor just where it was, Young Dog's father and some of his young men were off on the war path, and they came across a few white men travelling over the prairie, and they fought them for two or three days, and in the end they killed the last one of them and captured all their stock. They got a few horses and two or three mules, and of course some food and a little clothes and the men's arms. But one of the mules was loaded with four wooden boxes, almighty heavy by what they tell. They couldn't get into them but they broke one of them open with an axe, and saw that the box was full of yellow buttons, and after breaking open each one of the boxes, they saw that each one had nothing in it but these same yellow buttons. But the queer thing about these buttons was, that none of them had eyes on to fasten them to the coat with. So they see they could not be used, and just emptied them out on the prairie and just left them there. Queer, wasn't it?"
Hugh cut tobacco, filled his pipe, lighted it and rode on, while the boys waited for him to finish his story. After a while, as he said nothing, Jack said, "Well, what happened then, Hugh?"
"When?" said Hugh.
"Why, after they went off."
"Oh, nothing happened," said Hugh, "they just went off, and after a while they got back to the village."
"Well, but," said Jack, "is that all of the story?"
"Yes," said Hugh, "that's the end."
"Well," said Jack, "I don't see anything queer about that."
"Well," said Hugh, "you see, them buttons was ten dollar gold pieces."
"Oh!" said Jack.
"I often tried," said Hugh, "to find out just where it was that those four boxes of gold were left, but I never managed to find out."
By this time they were almost at the point where they had left their horses the day before, and before long the three were standing about the place from which the sack of gold had been unearthed. Hugh sifted the loose soil at the bottom of the hole through his fingers and discovered a few small nuggets that had escaped the boys, and then they made a careful search of the prairie near at hand. Nothing was discovered, and at length, Hugh told the boys to mount their horses and the three spread out riding back over the prairie, looking carefully over it and into all the ravines, to see if signs of any sort could be seen.
The search was fruitless, and at length, from the top of a high knoll, Hugh rode his horse in a circle to call the boys to him. They came galloping toward him from either hand, but suddenly, Joe, who had disappeared behind a ridge, rode up onto it and in his turn rode in a circle, and Hugh and Jack went toward him. When they reached the ridge, he had ridden down again into the hollow and was standing at the edge of a little green place, and when they got to him, they saw before him, the skeleton of a horse, which had long been dead. Hugh looked at it carefully and then said, "Mule." Fragments of wood, lying by the animal's back-bone, were evidently the remains of a pack saddle, but nothing else was seen.
Hugh stood for a long time, looking at the skeleton, parts of which were scattered over quite a little area, showing where the wolves had pulled the bones about. Suddenly Hugh bent forward, and working his fingers in the grass near the animal's back-bone, drew forth a slender fragment of wood, which he held up before the boys' eyes. It was a part of an arrow, though the bent gray wood seemed little like the straight, clean shaft that they were accustomed to use. But by looking closely, they could see the grooves, and a little search in the soil and among the grass brought to light another piece of the shaft and a rusted sheet iron head long since separated from the wood.
For a long time, Hugh stood staring at the bones of the animal before him, and then walking away a few steps, he sat down on the ground and filled his pipe and began to smoke. He said nothing, but kept his eyes fixed on the ground as if he expected to see, written there, something which would be an answer to his unspoken thoughts. The boys had thrown themselves on the grass by his side, and were watching him and waiting patiently, while the three horses fed about close at hand.
At length the pipe was smoked out, and Hugh raised his eyes and looked at the boys, as if he had just discovered that they were near him. Then his face twisted up into a kindly smile, and he said, "Well, boys, what do you make of it?"
"I don't make anything of it, Hugh. What is it?" said Jack.
"Maybe there's been fighting here," said Joe.
"That's right, my son," said Hugh, "that mule was killed by the arrow that we found, that's sure. I expect you both took notice that that arrow was broken about the same time it was shot, likely it broke when the mule fell. What I want to find out is, who did the fighting, and whether the man that lost the mule was the man that lost the gold, and where that man is now. I expect we've got to do a little climbing and do some more hunting. This is the way I figure it as far as we've got: Somebody was jumped by Indians out here on the prairie, and made a run for the river. He had a pack animal and tried to keep it with him as long as he could, but the Indians caught up to him and shot at him and wounded the animal, and he had to let it go. I reckon he had the dust with him on his saddle, or else tied to his body somewhere, and just before he got to the edge of the bluffs, he dropped it. Maybe it was shot away. Then he went over the bluffs to hide or fight in the Bad Lands. Now I reckon, the best thing we can do, is to go back to where you found the gold and then go down into them breaks and see if we can find there, any sign of where a man got killed. All this happened a good many years ago, as you can see from that skeleton over there and the arrow that's in it, and we won't find any signs at all unless the man dropped something else. Maybe his horse might have been wounded and he had to leave that and it died, and maybe he himself got killed. Anyhow, we'll climb down there if you like, and take the natural way to the river and go a little ways. I don't reckon we'll find nothing, but might be such a thing as we would."
They mounted and rode back the way they had come, and then Hugh and Joe climbed down the bluffs, for Hugh said to Jack, "I want you to stop here, son, and look after these horses. It ain't noways likely nothing would happen to them, but it ain't good to leave your horses alone on the prairie without some one to look after them."
Jack sat for a long time, holding the ropes of the three horses and at length, as the sun sank lower and lower toward the west, he began to wonder whether anything had happened. At length, however, he heard a sound of rolling stones below him, and soon Hugh came in sight, followed by Joe. They were a long way off and could not be seen very distinctly, and every now and then they disappeared in some ravine or behind some point of bluff. But Jack thought that Hugh walked queerly, and with his head bowed forward. At length they came in sight again, and for a little while were in plain view, and then Jack could see that Hugh was carrying some burden on his shoulders. As they climbed the last steep ascent, he could see that this was a young mountain sheep, and as he had heard no shot fired, he felt sure that Joe must have killed it.
So it proved. Hugh and Joe had searched a number of the ravines without seeing anything, and had turned back to climb the hills, when suddenly they came upon an old ewe and her lamb, and Joe's ready arrow had killed the little sheep.
"Well, son," said Hugh, "we didn't find any sign of that man, but your partner here made a mighty good shot with his arrow and we brought a little piece of meat along anyhow."
"Yes," said Jack, "when I saw you killed something, I knew it must be Joe for I hadn't heard any shot. Seems to me, Joe, you're pretty lucky with sheep."
"Yes," said Joe, "pretty lucky this time sure. I just had to fire quick, but I happened to hit him just in the right place."
"Well, boys," said Hugh, "let's tie this on behind the saddle and be moving, it's getting late and I've got a pretty good hunger on. I want to get to camp."
Before long they were riding swiftly over the prairie, and though the sun had set, it was not yet dark when they reached the circle of the lodges.