The camp has never astonished the mining world, but it has furnished employment for a number of people, and that is good and shows that the West and the whole world is richer and better because of the discoveries of Creede.
Creede now determined to see a little, and learn something of mining in other sections of the West. Leaving Colorado, he traveled through Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California, prospecting and studying the formation of the country in the different mining camps. The knowledge gained on this trip proved valuable to the prospector in after years. This was his school. The wide West was his school-house, and Nature was his teacher.
CHAPTER XVI.
A BEAR STORY—THE BEAST INFURIATED—A NEW DANGER CONFRONTS HIM.
AN old prospecting partner of Mr. Creede’s told the following story to the writer, after the discovery of the Amethyst, which lifted the discoverer into prominence, gave him fame and a bank account—and gave every adventuress who heard of his fortune, a new field:
A man by the name of Chester, Creede and I were prospecting in San Miguel County, Colorado, in the 80’s. We had our camp in a narrow cañon by a little mountain stream. It was summer time; the berries were ripe, and bear were as thick as sheep in New Mexico. About sunset one evening I called Creede out to show him a cow which I had discovered on a steep hillside near our cabin.
The moment the Captain saw the animal he said in a stage whisper: “Bear!” I thought he was endeavoring to frighten me; but he soon convinced me that he was in earnest.
Without taking his eyes from the animal, he spoke again in the same stage whisper, instructing me to hasten and bring Chester with a couple of rifles. When I returned with the shooting irons I gave the one I carried to Creede, who instructed me to climb upon a sharp rock that stood up like a church spire in the bottom of the cañon. From my high place I was to signal the sharp-shooters, keeping them posted as to the movements of the bear.
“You come with me,” said Creede to the man who stood at his side. It occurred to me now for the first time that there was some danger attached to this sport. I couldn’t help wondering what would become of me in case the bear got the best of my two partners.
If the bear captured them and got possession of the only two guns in the camp, my position on that rock would become embarrassing, if not actually dangerous. I turned to look at Chester, who did not seem to start when Creede did. Poor fellow, he was as pale as a ghost. “See here,” he said, addressing the man who was looking back, smiling and beckoning him on as he led the way down toward the noisy little creek which they must cross to get in rifle range of the bear, “I’m a man of a family, an’ don’t see why I should run headlong into a fight with a grizzly bear. I suppose if I was a single man, I would do as you do; but when I think of my poor wife and dear little children, it makes me homesick.” Creede kept smiling and beckoning with his forefinger. I laughed at Chester for being so scared. He finally followed, after asking me to look after his family in case he failed to return. Just as a man would who was on his way to the Tower.