They reached Chicago before the “Boss,” as they called Mr Rawlings, as that gentleman had several business arrangements to make in New York.
At Chicago, Seth met an old western friend of his, Noah Webster, who had just returned from a mining expedition in Arizona.
After much talk of their Californian days, Seth told him that he was going as lieutenant to an English gentleman who was getting up a mining expedition to Dakota.
“I want eight or ten good miners, afraid neither of work nor Indians.”
“What pay?” Noah asked laconically.
“Two dollars a day each, and all grub; double to you, Noah, if you will get a good gang together and come with us.”
“It’s a bargain,” said Noah. “I could put my hand on twenty good men to-morrow; half of ’em were out with me. I will pick you ten of the best. And they ought to be that, for it will be no child’s play; the Injins of Dakota are snakes upon miners.”
Seth had received full authority from Mr Rawlings to engage a strong party, and the “Boss” was greatly pleased upon his arrival to find that a band of stalwart and experienced miners had already been collected.
Previous to quitting Chicago, Mr Rawlings, acting under the advice of Seth and Noah Webster, purchased a complete outfit of mining tools, and stores of all kinds: picks, drills, pumps, buckets, windlasses, ropes—and, indeed, everything that would be required in carrying out their undertaking properly.
They did not overburden themselves, however, with provisions, or any such things as they would be likely to get cheap in the back settlements at the end of the point where they would have to leave the railway—not far off the town of Bismark, on the Missouri, the extremest station of the northern branch of the Union Pacific line.