CHAPTER X.
GIDEON PRAWLE AND HIS ASSOCIATES TAKE POSSESSION OF THE MINE.
“Now, boys,” said Gideon Prawle, after the party had reached Trinity and returned the rig to the stable where it belonged, “I’ve been considering your proposal that we make arrangements to go by water to the mine—which is now ours past all doubt—camp there, and with suitable tools start in to dig out a carload or two of copper, in order to show what the yield of the mine looks like.”
“I hope you’ve looked at it in a favorable light, Mr. Prawle,” said Jack Howard, eagerly. “Charlie and I have talked the matter over, and Meyer has also had his little say, and it is agreed between us that we’d like nothing better than a four or six weeks’ whack at the copper deposit, which seems to promise such handsome results.”
“Well, I don’t know as I have any special objections to falling in with your idea,” replied the big prospector, heartily. “The experiment won’t cost such a lot of money, and as the copper is right in sight on the ground level, why, so long as you are aching for a bit of hard work to limber up your muscles, and are satisfied to rough it and take things as they come, you can consider the matter settled, as far as I am concerned.”
“Hurrah!” shouted Charlie, throwing his cap in the air.
“Shimmany cribs! I like me dot,” chipped in Meyer. “I vould sooner monkey mit dot gobber mines den I vould gone back to Sackville und vork apoud der drug shops.”
“Then the sooner we get down to business the better, I think,” said Jack, in his breezy way. “Of course you will make all the preparations, Mr. Prawle, as you are well acquainted with such matters. We shall want a flat boat, I should think, to float our cargo of copper to this town, and afterward reship it east to market. We ought to be able to get a good bit of ore out of the mine before Charlie has to return home.”
“We shall have to have a couple of good, serviceable tents, a small cook stove, cooking utensils, blankets, shovels, picks, a couple of iron barrows, and a lot of other things which I needn’t mention,” said Mr. Prawle.
“Don’t forget some fish lines. You said there was fish in the north branch,” said Charlie, who prided himself on being a first-class disciple of Isaak Walton. “We could go down there about sunrise mornings and catch our breakfast fresh from the river.”
“Yaw, I ped you,” assented Meyer, who imagined he was a great fisherman, too, though he had been known to spend many an afternoon fishing in the stream which flowed by Sackville and yet come home without a solitary shiner.
“That’s right. It will be some amusement for us,” agreed Jack. “All work and no play——”
“Makes Yack a dull poy, I ped you!” grinned Meyer, taking the words out of Howard’s mouth.
“Dutchman, you are right,” laughed Gideon Prawle.
“Sure ding. Vhy not?” retorted Meyer, opening his mouth to its full extent.
“Don’t do that again,” remonstrated Jack, with a sober face. “One of us might get in and be lost.”
“So-o-oo!”
“Well, Mr. Prawle,” said Charlie Fox, “you buy what you think we ought to have. Do you think you will have any trouble finding a suitable flatboat?”
“Not at all. I know where I can hire one. We can float down the river and pull it up the creek ourselves. When we’ve loaded it with copper, however, we’ll have to charter a small steamer to tow it back here.”
“With the first money we make I think it would be good policy to put a smelter up on the ground. We ought to get things in good running order before we start out to form a company and take outsiders into the enterprise. You may perhaps know what capitalists are. They want to get the cream of everything they are asked to back, and I, for one, don’t believe in letting too much of a good thing get away from us,” said Jack, earnestly.
“You’ve a pretty level head, Jack,” replied the prospector, who had imbibed a considerable amount of respect for the boy’s ideas and good practical sense.
“Thank you for your good opinion,” answered the bright boy. “One has got to keep his eyes open and his wits on edge to get along in these days of close competition.”
“I move we adjourn,” chipped in Charlie, with a laugh. “I’m getting hungry, and would sooner discuss a good dinner than anything else at present.”
“Second der motions,” put in Meyer, licking his chops at the suggestion of something to eat.
“A motion to adjourn is always in order,” laughed Jack. “Those in favor of making a beeline for the hotel dining-room will say aye.”
“Aye—aye!” from Charlie and Meyer.
“It is carried unanimously, and the meeting stands adjourned pro tempore.”
“Vot is dot?” asked Meyer.
“What is what?”
“Bro demporay—dot’s a funny words.”
“That’s Latin, and means ‘for the time being’—see?” and Jack fetched the German boy a dig in the ribs that made him jump.
“So-o!”
Two days later the setting sun saw the prospector and the three boys, now attired in regular mining outfits, toiling up the bank of Beaver Creek with a small flatboat in tow.
It was no easy work, the reader may well believe; but the boys were strong and hearty, and stuck to their labor like good fellows, the only kick so far coming from Meyer, who was fatter and less able to hustle than the others.
“By shinger,” he said, after they had accomplished about a mile of the way, “vhen do ve got py der ends of dis yob? Dere vill be noddings but a wet spot left off me py der dimes ve shall be done mit id,” and he dashed the perspiration from his face.
“The trouble with you, Meyer,” said Charlie, who was pulling on a line right back of him, “is that you’re too fat. It will do you good to get rid of some of your surplus flesh.”
“Is dot so? It vill done me goot to make a skelingtons off mineseluf you dink? Vell, I differ mit you.”
“Why, you chump,” exclaimed Charlie, “you’ve been doing nothing else but getting fat ever since you came to work for us in Sackville.”
“Don’d you fool yourself mit any such idea as dot,” retorted Dinkelspeil. “I don’d peen half so fat as vhen I landed py Ellis Island in New York, I ped you.”
“You must have been as round as a billiard ball then,” laughed Charlie.
“Get ouid mit your shokes. Dere’s some more off mine fat gone already yet,” as he mopped his round countenance again.
It was nearly dark when they reached the head of the creek.
Meyer at once flopped down on the ground and began to fan himself with his soft hat.
After a short rest all hands got busy carrying the tents ashore and putting them up.
Then the next thing in order was to rig up their culinary department, so supper could be got under way.
Meyer volunteered to act as cook.
His services were accepted, as Charlie vouched for his possessing some ability in that line.
“Yust vait a liddle vhiles,” he said to Prawle. “I vill make you lick your shops over vot I puts pefore you, I ped you.”
And every one declared he was not such a bad cook after all, when they saw and tasted the fried fish and potatoes, backed up by a steaming pot of fragrant coffee, which the German boy prepared in short order.
“I move that Meyer Dinkelspeil be appointed chief cook and bottle washer of this camp,” said Jack, when the meal was concluded.
And the motion was carried by acclamation.