The Golden Canyon | Page 8

where we were working
six months ago; they said he had been fossicking all over Arizona, and
that he was the only one who ever came back out of a party who went
to locate a wonderful rich spot it was said he knew of.
"'He tried over and over again to get up another party, but no one would
try after that first failure. We may just as well search him all over; it
may be he has got a plan of the place somewhere about him, and it is
like enough those fellows have killed him on the chance of finding it.'
"So we searched him pretty thorough, and at last we found a paper
sewn up in the collar of his jacket. Sure enough it was a plan. We did
not examine it then, for someone might have come along, and we might
have been accused of the chap's murder; so I shoved it into the inside
pocket of my shirt, and we went on. We looked at it that night; there
was several marks on it and names, one of which we had heard of,
though we had never been so far in the Indian country. Well, as you

may guess, we had some big talks over it, and at last we reckoned we
would have a try to find it.
"We had been lucky, and had struck it rich at the last place we had been
at, and we agreed, instead of spending our money in a spree or at the
monte tables, we would fit out an expedition and try it. Now I believe
that attack was made on me to try and get that piece of paper. The chap
who bolted may like enough have hid himself and watched us, and may
have seen us find it and me take charge of it. We thought more than
once since we came down here that we were being dogged by a greaser,
but we never thought about the paper. That evening I had been out by
myself, which I did not often do, for we in general went about together,
and was going back along that street, and was pretty nigh home, when
someone said in Spanish, 'That is the fellow,' and then five men jumped
out with knives in their hands. I had just time to whip out my
six-shooter and fire once. One fellow went down, but at the same
moment I got a clip across my wrist with a knife, and down went the
pistol. Then I got a slice across the head, and another on the shoulder,
and down I went. Two of them threw themselves on me, and I
shammed dead, knowing that if I moved it was all over with me. One of
them shoved his hand in my trousers pockets, and the other tore my
shirt open. I heard a sudden row, a blow, and the fall of a body; then
one of them came tumbling down on the top of us and knocked the two
fellows over, then they jumped up, and I heard your pistol crack twice
and two falls, and as I got up on to my feet to lend a hand I saw one of
the fellows bolting down the street, running off in another direction.
That was the one, I think, that came down on the top of us.
"I have been wondering since then how it was that that fellow fell, for
you did not fire till they jumped up."
Dick explained that he had felled one with a blow from the stick, and
not having time to strike with it again, had sent the second staggering
over the group with a blow of his fist; "those are the two that got away,
I expect," he said.
"I expect so; there were four bodies on the ground--yours, the two
fellows you shot, and the one I wiped out to begin with."
"Has there been any row about it?" Dick asked.
"No; they take these things quietly. If it had been one of my mates and
me who had killed three Mexicans, our story that we had been attacked

might not have been believed, but as it was certain a young ship's
officer would not have joined me in falling foul of three natives, they
just took and buried them, and there was an end of it."

Chapter IV.
--More Plans.
"I suppose this is Dave's room?" Dick Said when he and his friend were
alone.
"Yes, from what he said they lodged here together, but the other two
went somewhere else the day after you were brought in, so that the
place should be quiet, but they come in by turns to sit up with you at
night. I wish they would