The Cave of Gold | Page 7

the devil!--Hello,
what is the matter now?" and Thure jumped up quickly from the hide,
over which he had been bending counting El Feroz's old bullet wounds,
at a sudden exclamation of alarm from Bud.
"There! There! Look there!" Bud was pointing excitedly up the valley.
"Mother of men, they are murdering him!" "Come on!" and Thure,
grabbing up his rifle, made a jump for his horse, followed by Bud.
Three-quarters of a mile up the valley from where our young friends
had slain the big grizzly, a spur of rocks projected down into the valley,
reaching like a long finger almost to the fringe of trees along the creek;
and around this spur of rocks three men had slowly ridden, and, just as
they had come in sight from where the boys stood, Bud, whose eyes
had happened to be turned in that direction, had seen two of the men
suddenly and apparently without warning set upon the third man and,
after a short struggle, knock him off his horse. It was this sight that had
caused his sudden cry of alarm, followed by Thure's exclamation of
horror, "They are murdering him!" and the quick jump of both boys for
their horses.
It took Thure and Bud less than a minute to reach their horses and to
spring up into their saddles; but, in that brief time, the unequal struggle
up the valley was over, and the two men were bending over the
prostrate body of their victim, apparently searching for valuables, when
the two boys, with loud yells, spurred their horses at full speed toward
them.
At the sound of their voices, the two men looked suddenly up, saw
them coming, hastily grabbed up a few things from the ground,
evidently taken from the man they were robbing, jumped to their feet,
sprang on the backs of their horses, and, before either boy was near

enough to shoot, both had disappeared around the spur of rocks, lashing
and spurring their horses frantically.
Thure and Bud jerked up their horses by the side of the fallen man and,
jumping from their saddles, bent quickly over him.
"They've murdered him!" cried Bud, the moment his horrified eyes saw
the white face and the bloodstained breast of the stricken man. "They
have stabbed him! The cowardly curs!"
"No, he is not dead! I can feel his heart beat. The stab was too low to
reach his heart. Quick, we must do something to stop this flow of blood,
or he soon will be dead," and Thure tore open the bosom of the rough
flannel shirt, exposing the red mouth of a knife wound from which the
blood was flowing freely.
Thure and Bud were both familiar with the rough surgery of the plains
and the mountains; and soon their deft hands had swiftly untied the silk
scarfs from around their necks, plugged the wound with one of them
and used the other to tightly bind and hold it in place.
"There, I think that will stop the blood! Now, let's see what other hurts
he has," and Thure passed his hands gently over the man's head. "Two
bumps--whoppers! Either enough to knock the senses out of an ox; but,
I reckon, they've done no mortal damage. It's the stab wound that I am
most afraid of. What do you make out of it all anyway?" and Thure
turned to Bud.
"Plain robbery and attempted murder," Bud answered gravely. "The
man is evidently a miner," and his eyes rested on the long unkempt hair
and beard, the weather-bronzed skin, and the rough worn clothing of
the wounded man; "and was, probably, on his way from the mines to
San Francisco with his gold-dust, when those two cowardly curs met
him and, finding out that he was from the mines, attempted to murder
him for his gold."
"Reckon you're right," agreed Thure. "Leastwise there's no use of
speculating over it longer now. The thing to do is to get him home as

soon as we can. Mother is powerful good doctoring hurts. Just see if
you can get him up on the saddle in front of me. I reckon that'll be the
safest way to carry him," and Thure mounted his horse, while Bud
thrust his sturdy young arms under the body of the insensible man and,
as gently as possible, lifted him to the saddle, where the strong arms of
Thure held him as comfortably as possible.
"Now, I'll strike out straight for home," Thure said, as he started Buck
off on a walk with his double burden; "and you can ride back and get
the hide of El Feroz, and soon catch up with me."
"All right. I'll be with you again as soon as I can," and Bud sprang on
the back