Fifteen miles from Alpine, as a cannon would shoot; high up in the
hills, where a creek flowed down through a saucerlike basin under
beetling ledges fringed all around with forest, they came, after much
wandering, upon an old log cabin whose dirt roof still held in spite of
the snows that heaped upon it through many a winter. The ledge showed
the scars of old prospect holes, and in the sand of the creek they found
"colors" strong enough to make it seem worth while to stop here--for
awhile, at least.
They cleaned out the cabin and took possession of it, and the next time
they went to town Cash made cautious inquiries about the place. It was,
he learned, an old abandoned claim. Abandoned chiefly because the old
miner who had lived there died one day, and left behind him all the
marks of having died from starvation, mostly. A cursory examination of
his few belongings had revealed much want, but no gold save a little
coarse dust in a small bottle.
"About enough to fill a rifle ca'tridge," detailed the teller of the
tale. "He'd pecked around that draw for two, three year mebby. Never
showed no gold much, for all the time he spent there. Trapped some in
winter--coyotes and bobcats and skunks, mostly. Kinda off in the upper
story, old Nelson was. I guess he just stayed there because he happened
to light there and didn't have gumption enough to git out. Hills is full
of old fellers like him. They live off to the'rselves, and peck around
and git a pocket now and then that keeps 'm in grub and tobacco. If you
want to use the cabin, I guess nobody's goin' to care. Nelson never had
any folks, that anybody knows of. Nobody ever bothered about takin' up
the claim after he cashed in, either. Didn't seem worth nothin' much.
Went back to the gov'ment."
"Trapped, you say. Any game around there now?"
"Oh, shore! Game everywhere in these hills, from weasels up to bear and
mountain lion. If you want to trap, that's as good a place as any, I
guess."
So Cash and Bud sold the burros and bought traps and more supplies, and
two window sashes and a crosscut saw and some wedges and a double-bitted
axe, and settled down in Nelson Flat to find what old Dame Fortune had
tucked away in this little side pocket and forgotten.