Marshall now stood for a moment, irresolutely, his eyes fixed on Thure and Bud; and then, suddenly, he thrust one of his hands deep into his trousers pocket and drew out a little roll of buckskin, carefully folded and tied. This little packet he at once untied and unrolled and brought to light two small gold nuggets. With one of these in either hand he now approached Thure and Bud.
"My young friends," he said, "I do not know as the life you saved is of much value; but still I prize it, being the only life I have; and I want to show you that I appreciate the quickness and the bravery of your action, and to leave with you some memento of the deed and of the man you saved from a horrible death. I am poor, others have grown rich off my misfortunes—" Again that bitter look of mingled discontent and useless rebellion swept over his face—"but I still have left these two little nuggets of gold, the very two pieces of gold that I picked up from the mill-race on that cold January morning, the first two nuggets of gold found in California! I prize them above everything else that I possess; and, because they are so dear to me, I now most willingly give them to you, to keep in memory of this day and of the unfortunate man whose life you saved," and he handed one of the nuggets to Thure and the other to Bud. "Keep them carefully. They will be valuable mementos some day, Good-by," and without another word or waiting for a reply, he whirled about and walked swiftly away.
Thure and Bud both ran after him, and told him that, although they would prize the nuggets above anything else he could give them, they did not wish to take them from him, the one who first picked them up, that they belonged to him, that he ought to keep them; but Marshall would not listen to them, would not take the nuggets back, would not even stop to hear the boys' thanks, and strode on down the trail to where the lights of Hangtown were beginning to twinkle through the gathering shadows of night.
In after years these two little gold nuggets became the most valued treasures in the possession of the families of our young heroes; and their grandchildren still cherish them among their most prized heirlooms.
"I reckon thar's somethin' jest a leetle out of kilter in th' top of Marshall's head," Ham commented, as he watched the man hurrying down the trail. "He's smart enough when it comes tew th' use of tools; but outside of them 'bout everything that he touches 'pears tew go wrong with him, an' ginerally it goes wrong because of th' fool way he tackles it, though he lays his bad luck all on th' ingratertude of his feller mortals."
Thure and Bud very carefully stowed away the two nuggets in their pockets, and hurried on after their companions, who were hurrying up the trail leading to the log house.
As they passed the Dickson log cabin Mr. and Mrs. Dickson both came out. Mrs. Dickson's eyes were red from crying, and the face of Dickson was white and set, with a look of despair in his eyes not good to see.
"Hello! What has happened?" and Mr. Conroyal, who was in the lead, stopped suddenly and stared in astonishment at the woe-begone faces of the erstwhile happy couple.
"Robbed," Dickson answered sententiously. "Robbed and the mine has played out."
"Yes, robbed of all but about fifty dollars' worth of gold-dust that we took out this afternoon before the mine gave out," and Mrs. Dickson's voice trembled. "And not a thing to tell us who did the robbing. Robbed of a good forty thousand dollors' worth of gold-dust! Enough to have taken us both back to New York state and enabled us to have lived the rest of our lives in comfort," and Mrs. Dickson's voice broke into sobs.