The “jedge,” he of the damaged head gear, claret nose and judicial bearing, confirmed Mr. Purdy’s statement with regard to the abundant natural resources of Nugget Bar, in a manner admitting no doubt of his sincerity, so that Julius did not require the concurrent statements of the other members of the party, which were nevertheless given.
Julius now felt his troubles to be at an end. A few days more and he would be a comparatively rich man. He expressed his astonishment that fortunes were picked up so easily.
“Ya-a-h, minin’ ain’t what ’t chused to be,” went on Mr. Purdy. “Why, when I was first out, ther was four uv us a prospectin’ up on the divide one time, ’n she set in to snow fer all git out, ’n we got lost ’n wandered eround ther fer ’leven days, all uv us on foot, ’n not a blamed horse in the crowd. The on’y thing we had to eat was snow and stewed saddle, yessir, fact. We cut up that (dashed) saddle ’n biled ’er ’n used to chew on’t fer hours ’t a time, ’n she saved all our (dashed) lives too. Nowadays these yur people kim in yur ’n git it jest fer pickin’ it up.”
This tradition of Mr. Purdy’s had come to be looked upon as apocryphal, inasmuch as he had never been able to explain satisfactorily how the party had obtained the saddle, since they were all on foot and had no horse. His reply to any question touching upon the source of that appetizing article was always conceived in a spirit of the profoundest irritation, and delivered with vehemence, disgust, scorn and contempt. But the present recital being solely for the delectation of Julius Anderly, this defect was not touched upon.
Julius was duly impressed by the incident and said as much, and again expressed a willingness to be directed to some spot close at hand where untold gold, easy to access, was waiting to be put to good use by deserving mortals.
“Wal,” said Mr. Purdy, “I s’pose the jedge there knows a more good places to find gold eround yur than a’most any ether man. I ekspects he’s prob’ly the best man fer yu.”
The judge, who was usually drunk, and commonly thought to be incompetent on that account, had got himself elected as Justice of the Peace by keeping the coming election and his candidacy a secret from all save his most intimate friends, and so long as he had nothing to do he was permitted to do it.
With the worried air of a man who controlled the affairs of the universe, and withal, a look of pretended sagacity, the judge opined that there was a “splen’d place to dig out there,” with a sweep of his right hand comprehending most of the western hemisphere.
Mr. Purdy, at this striking proof of the soundness of his judgment, assumed a triumphant expression and said, “Ther! wha’d I tell yu?”
Julius gazed blankly out over the bar and up the gulch, and down over the trail he had traveled, and then with the utmost delicacy, and with all due deference to the dignity of the bench, suggested that perhaps the direction given by the judge was not sufficiently definite to be of any practical utility; but he was none the less hopeful for all that.