Snowed Up; or, The Sportman's Club in the Mountains

by Harry Castlemon

The long hours of the night dragged away wearily enough. Zack pushed ahead at a rapid walk, and the boys being more accustomed to their saddles than travelling on foot, soon became very tired. Dark as it was they managed to keep their bearings, and they knew that Zack was holding straight for the mountains. There was no halt ordered until they reached the foot-hills, and that was just as the day began to dawn. The wagons were driven into the willows out of sight, and the emigrant’s wife, who had not once left her wagon, was instructed to “crawl out and dish up some grub!” an order which she obeyed with a very bad grace. During the meal but little was said by either captors or prisoners, and as soon as it was over the boys took their bundles from the wagon, spread out their blankets, and fell fast asleep almost as soon as they touched them. When they awoke the sun was setting, the emigrant’s wife was preparing supper, and Reuben and Simon, acting under the directions of Silas, who kept guard over them with his rifle, were hitching up the mules and yoking the oxen preparatory to another start, which was made as soon as the supper was disposed of.

This night’s journey was longer and harder than the preceding one, for it was begun at an earlier hour. The boys were not allowed to ride in the wagons, for Silas said they were slippery fellows—he knew it by the glint in their eyes—and he wanted them where he could watch them all the time.

Zack held along the base of the mountains, and at daylight our heroes found themselves travelling over ground that was familiar to them. The gully through which they had passed a few days before, and which led to the valley where the wild horse was captured, was close before them. Being almost ready to drop with fatigue they protested that it was quite impossible for them to go any farther, but Zack did not listen, for he was not yet ready to order a halt. He followed the gully as far as the rocks and fallen trees would allow him to go with the wagons, then turned into another and finally into a third, which was so much worse than any of the rest that, before they had gone a quarter of a mile, one of the wagons, having been shaken nearly to pieces by being hauled over boulders and logs, gave out entirely and came down with a crash.

“Thar’, now, I reckon we’ll stop,” said Zack; and this was welcome news to the boys, who pulled their bundles out of the wagon and threw themselves upon them, completely tired out. But they quickly straightened up again and began to take some interest in what was going on, when they found that the trappers themselves did not intend to make a camp there. The two men held a short consultation, and some words which came to the boys’ ears told them that the object of the undertaking was now about to be realized. The emigrant’s wealth was to be brought to light.

“This is as good a place as any,” said Silas. “They can’t mend the wagon an’ find their way out afore to-morrow, an’ by that time we’ll be miles away.”

The expression on the emigrant’s face showed that he too had overheard the words, and that he understood them, but he made no other sign. He had scarcely spoken for the last twenty-four hours. He seemed to be bewildered, stunned by his misfortunes. When Zack and Silas dismounted and raised the cover of the wagon which contained his treasure, he looked on in a stupid, benumbed sort of way, which almost led the boys to believe that he had taken leave of his senses.

“This must be it,” said Silas, after taking a survey of the interior of the wagon. “It’s the only thing yer that looks like a chist!”

The hunter thrust his hands into the wagon, and when he drew them out again they were grasping the handles of a small black trunk, which, like all the rest of the Pike’s furniture that the boys had seen, looked as though it might have made many a journey between Missouri and California, for it was in a very dilapidated condition. The leather was worn off in a dozen places and the lid was loosely held on by one hinge and a piece of rope.

“There goes the labor of a lifetime, and I am a ruined man,” sighed the Pike, resting his elbows on his knees and gazing at the box as if fascinated.

“They’ve got hold of it, then,” whispered Archie, who would willingly have given everything he possessed to have been able to defend the old man’s property. “How I wish Dick and old Bob would come in here now. It isn’t money, though. It is too light.”