CHAPTER XX
Josiah Socket and Mark found it no easy matter to make their way to the trading camp known as Four Monkeys. The distance was only forty miles, but the trail was rough and uncertain, and more than once they were afraid they had taken to a false road.
"If we have gone astray goodness only knows where we will fetch up," groaned Josiah Socket, at the end of the first day's journey. "We'll be hopelessly lost, I reckon."
"I think we are on the right trail or close to it," answered Mark, hopefully.
They encamped that night under some thick cedar trees, building a fire close by, where they cooked such a meal as their rations afforded. They had seen no game but wild ducks that had been too far off to bring down.
At daybreak they were astir again and after a hasty breakfast mounted and pressed on as before.
"We covered all of twenty miles yesterday," said Mark. "And that being so, we ought to reach the trading camp by night."
"Let us keep on till we do," answered Josiah Socket, who had not relished the camp in the open in such wintry weather.
They pushed the horses as much as possible, merely stopping for a short rest and a meal at noon. They soon reached a stream the old miner had mentioned, and just at sundown saw smoke at a distance, coming from the chimney of a log cabin to which was attached a long shack or shed.
"Hurrah! here is the place we are looking for!" cried Mark. "Here we are at Four Monkeys at last."
There were seven cabins in the camp, all located near the river, which was frozen over completely and ridged with snowdrifts. Four of the cabins showed signs of life, the others appeared to be deserted.
"Those cabins must be for the Four Monkeys," said Mark.
Their coming to the camp was not noticed until they rode up to the door of the largest place. Then the barrier was thrown open, and a burly man with a round face and a cheery smile put in an appearance.
"Hullo, strangers!" he sang out. "Where did you drift from?"
"From forty miles up the Yuba," answered Josiah Socket. "Heard tell as how you had a tradin' place here."
"So I have, but I ain't got very much left to trade with."
"But you have something, haven't you?" asked Mark, anxiously.
"Oh, yes,—some flour and beans and bacon, picks, shovels, pans, and such stuff," answered the man. "Take your hosses around to the shed, if you will," he added, and pointed to a door beyond the cabin proper.
They followed his advice, finding three animals already in the building. In the shed was a sign:
Horse feed inside.50 cents a quart.Don't let the animal go hungry.
"Gosh, but hoss feed comes high here," murmured Josiah Socket. "Howsomever, the hosses shall have all they want this trip. They deserve it, they do!"
There was a door from the shed to the main building, and they passed through this, to find themselves in a well-heated apartment, piled high with stores of various kinds. Around a pot stove sat several men, smoking and drinking. All nodded pleasantly to the newcomers and made room for them, that they might warm up.
They soon learned that the proprietor of the place was Abram Monkey and that he had with him three younger brothers,—which state of affairs had given the trading camp the name of the Four Monkeys. The Monkeys were from Chicago and had come over the Rockies with a heavy pack train during the past summer. Two of the brothers were running the trading place while the other two had thrown in their fortunes with the miners and prospectors.
"Come over with your whole family, eh?" said Abram Monkey to Josiah Socket. "Well, you're a pretty brave fellow, I must say. Hope your wife likes it."
"She will, after she gets acquainted," was the answer. "But there ain't none of us likes the winter."
To be sociable, he treated all of the men present, and then began to do his trading. All of the commodities to be had were high in price, flour being fifty dollars per barrel, beans two dollars a quart, bacon and pork a dollar a pound, and even tallow candles fetching "two bits," twenty-five cents, each. But little in the way of clothing was to be had, flannel shirts bringing five dollars apiece and army blankets ten dollars each. The only vegetables were turnips and cabbages, the former worth a dollar a peck and the latter fifty cents a head, and rather wormy at that.
"I am afraid my money won't go far," said Mark. He had twelve dollars belonging to Bob, Si, and himself, and ten dollars that had come from Maybe Dixon.
"Never mind, I'll stake you for fifty dollars," answered Josiah Socket. "You can pay me back when you make your first haul o' nuggets."
"Thank you," answered Mark, gratefully. "You are very kind, Mr. Socket."
"I want to be neighborly, lad. Besides, you boys and Dixon have done us many favors an' I ain't forgetting them."
Josiah Dixon and Mark spent the best part of the evening in picking out the things they wished to take along, including some coffee, tea, sugar and spices, besides the things mentioned above. They also got some cough mixture for one of the Socket children and a bottle of liquor for medicinal purposes. As luck would have it, not one of the men in camp at Four Monkeys was a hard drinker, for which both Mark and Josiah Socket were thankful.
"Can't see how some fellers can spend all they have on liquor," said Socket. "I like an occasional glass, but that's all."
"And I don't want any," answered Mark.
"Well, I reckon as how you're jest as well off without it."
But although Josiah Socket did not care for liquor, he loved his tobacco and took along two plugs of "tar heel," one for himself and one for Maybe Dixon, the plugs of a pound each costing two dollars.
They spent the night in one of the cabins, that belonging to Abram Monkey's youngest brother, and at sunrise were all ready for the trip back to their own camp.
"Wish you luck!" cried Abram Monkey, as they went away. "If you want any more supplies, call again."
"We will," said Josiah Socket.
"I've got to find some gold first," answered Mark, with a grin.
"Well, you'll find it, my boy, as soon as the season opens. This land is full of dust and nuggets."
They took to the trail by which they had come. There had been a light fall of snow during the night, covering their former tracks, but they remembered many of the landmarks, so had no fear of going astray.
"How much did you spend, lad?" asked Josiah Socket, as they rode along.
"Sixty-four dollars."
"And I spent an even hundred. Putty expensive living, eh? But we'll be a heap sight more comfortable for the rest of the cold weather than we have been."
"That is true—even if we didn't invest in luxuries," said Mark.
"We can buy luxuries after we've gathered a little heap o' nuggets."
"Mr. Socket, what do you really think of our prospects?"
"Can't tell, Mark. One day I think we'll get rich, an' the next I think it was a fool move for me to pull up stakes an' come away out here."
"I can hardly wait for spring to come—I am so anxious to try my luck."
"I am the same way. But we have got to be patient."
"Do you think we had better stay where we are, when the season opens?"
"That will depend on the reports we hear. If we hear of a rich find in some nearby locality I think we had best go there."
About noon it began to snow again, and then they hurried on faster than before, fearful of being storm-bound on the trail. They were on foot, the horses being packed with the supplies. The walking was not easy and both wished themselves once more at the cabins.
As they made a turn, about the middle of the afternoon, Mark chanced to glance back, and gave a sudden cry of surprise:
"Indians!"
"What's that?" asked Josiah Socket, quickly.
"I just caught sight of three Indians. They are out of sight now."
"On hossback?"
"No, on foot. As soon as they saw me look back they skipped behind the trees."
"Humph! I don't like that, lad."
"Neither do I."
They hurried on, looking back every few steps, but the Indians did not again show themselves.
"Sure you didn't make a mistake?" asked the man presently.
"No, I am sure I saw them," declared Mark. "One was a little ahead of the others."
"Armed?"
"I didn't notice, but they must be."
"We'd stand a poor show of defending ourselves against a reg'lar band o' redskins," muttered Josiah Socket. "Wish we was to the cabins and safe indoors."
"So do I."
With the Indians on their trail—for they felt certain they were being followed—all thoughts of resting for the night were driven from the mind of each. Yet they felt they could not go two whole days and a night without a stop of some sort.
By nightfall it was snowing harder than ever, and Mark suggested they leave the regular trail and sneak into the forest to the southward.
"The snow will cover our footprints and maybe they will lose us in the darkness," he added.
Josiah Socket was willing to try the experiment, and while passing over a wind-swept turn they left their former trail and hurried in among the trees. Then they passed over some rocks and into something of a hollow, where they came to a halt, with some high rocks behind them.
Here they waited over an hour in the darkness without anything coming to disturb them. Then, worn out, Mark dropped asleep, leaving Josiah Socket on guard for the time being.