If Any Man Sin

by H. A. Cody

He now believed that all the ground up and down the creek was rich with gold. The magnitude of his discovery almost overwhelmed him. He dropped upon the bank and tried to think it all out. He longed to express himself to some one, in order to relieve his feelings. Gold! Gold! He was wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, and there was no one to interfere with him. Gathering up the gleaming ore, he placed it all in his cap.

"Look, Nance!" he cried, as he ran his fingers lovingly through his treasure, "this is gold! You will be the richest woman on earth when you grow up!"

"Pretty, pretty," the child replied, picking up several of the largest nuggets. "Let me play with them."

"Yes, Nance, when you get home. We will both play with them then, eh?"

That night outside the cabin door the gold was all carefully examined, and the little stones picked out. This they did each night, for every day the work of washing out the gold was continued. It was then placed in a strong moose-skin bag and hidden away in the cabin.

After he had been working for some time in the stream Martin turned his attention to the bank above. He believed that gold in large paying quantity could be found by digging down through the earth and if possible reaching bed-rock. This he accordingly began to do, and with pick and shovel he made good progress until he struck frozen earth. This needed to be thawed, so, gathering dry wood, he kept a fire burning all through the day. While this thawing process was going on he prepared other shafts over which fires were also built. Every day he dug out the softened earth and ere long had several excavations from six to ten feet in depth. The farther he descended the richer became the ground. At times he would wash out a pan full of earth to find a most gratifying amount of gold.

One afternoon he came to gravel which led him to believe that he was now not far from bed-rock. In this he was not mistaken, for, digging with feverish haste, he struck at last upon solid rock. He could see that the gravel was full of gold, and every shovelful he threw out sparkled with the golden ore.

The bed-rock, which was soon exposed, sloped downward, and as Martin continued his shovelling, he came to a crevice, and here he found gold which caused him to drop his shovel and to stare in amazement. Then he rubbed his eyes to be sure that he was not mistaken. He stooped for a better inspection. He sank upon his knees and tore at the treasure with his hands. Some of it was loose, but for the most part it was packed and wedged into the split of the bed-rock. How far this ran underground he could not tell. But right in sight was a fortune in itself. Compared with this new discovery his past efforts seemed ridiculous. He recalled how he had hoarded the smallest grains with the greatest care. But here it was as plentiful as dirt, nuggets large and small all jammed between the rocks.

Although this gold was of no more use to Martin than the gravel lying around, yet it filled him with intense excitement. There was the joy of discovery, and the happy feeling that so much wealth was his with none to dispute his claim. He understood now for the first time something of the fascination of the quest which lures men into the wilderness to endure untold hardships for the golden treasure. The mere finding the gold, looking upon it, and fondling it, form the great reward.

Nance was not with Martin the day of his great discovery. She had stayed at home with Quabee as she generally did now, for the trips up the river had lost their fascination for her. She had been left much to herself and had found no interest in the big holes which Martin had dug in the ground. Her sand houses were of more importance to her, and she had cried at times when Martin would not play with her. To her the gold was nothing more than so many pretty little stones. She did not know that to obtain such things men and women in the far-off world would be willing to sacrifice almost everything; that for those common things men were sweltering, fighting, and dying; or that if the richness of the Quaska valley became known a vast army of gold seekers would pour into the place and change peace into chaos.