The Haunted Mine

"Could not the sound they heard have been occasioned by bats that had been disturbed while trying to take a rest?" asked Julian. "He had a light, of course."

"Bats!" exclaimed Banta, with deep disgust; "it was a great deal larger than bats. And he could have seen them if he had a light, could he not?"

"And, besides, bats don't shriek that way," said a miner who had not spoken before. "There used to be a miner who was working that pit along with Winkleman – "

"You hold your yawp," exclaimed Banta, fiercely; "I am telling the boys nothing but facts. I want them to know just what they have to face. I don't go into any of this cock-and-bull story about a dead miner. If that man died up there, and was buried, he's there yet, and he can't come out to work in the pit any more."

"What about him?" asked Julian. "We want to know everything connected with the mine, then we will be prepared for anything."

"But this thing is not connected with the mine," said Banta; "it is some sort of a story the miners have, and there is not a word of truth in it. They tell about a miner being seen there by everyone who goes down, and when you try to get up to him, he is not there. He goes farther and farther away every time you approach him."

"We have heard that story before," said Julian, with a smile; "Mr. Fay knows all about it."

"Then of course you don't believe it. I have told you the truth about the mine, and now you can go up with me next spring or stay away, just as you have a mind to."

"Oh, we will go with you," said Julian. "I never was interested in any property yet that I was afraid to work just on account of some things you could not see. When we bid you good-bye at Dutch Flat we shall know what there is in that mine before we come back."

"I like your pluck," said Banta; and the look of admiration he bestowed upon Julian more than confirmed his words. "If you live up to that, I hope you will get some gold."

"They say that gold is plenty up there," said another miner. "They say it is lying around under your feet."

"And you never went there to get it!" exclaimed Julian with surprise.

"It isn't as thick as that," said Banta. "Probably every bucketful you send up to be washed will yield you from ten to fifty dollars. You will get rich at that rate."

"Well, I guess we have troubled you long enough," said Julian, rising to his feet. "We are really obliged to you, Mr. Banta, for offering to take charge of us, although we are nothing but tenderfeet. There are no Indians out there, are there?"

"Indians! – no; and if there were some on the warpath, we have miners enough up there to make them hunt their holes."

"I am glad of that; we don't want anything to do with those savages, after what we have read about them. We will see you again, Mr. Banta."

"Do so, and the next time I will tell you what things you want to buy, to make your enterprise successful. Good-morning."

"There's two boys that have gone plumb crazy," said one of the miners, after the door had closed upon Julian and Jack. "I wonder how they got that mine, in the first place?"

"The boys are bound to get gold there, if they can stick it out," said another. "One of the men who came down from there showed me a piece of metal as big as a marble, which he had picked up on the bottom of that pit; but the trouble is, can they stick it out?"

"I believe they will," said Banta, settling down in his chair once more. "That boy who did most of the talking is one who has plenty of 'sand' to see him through. After they get fairly settled, I believe I'll go up and see how they are getting along."

"Then you will go without me," said Pete; "I am as close to that mine as I want to be."

"Well, Jack," said Julian, as he buttoned his coat, "what do you think of our mine? Shall we go up and try it? The miners all think there is gold up there."

"We will have plenty of time to talk about that between this time and spring," returned Jack. "Mr. Haberstro may come up before we get ready to start, and demand his money."

"I have no fears on that score," replied Julian. "Did not the lawyer say that he did not look for that? But, Jack, I really believe you are afraid of that mine."

"You need not be. When we get up there, and get things fixed, I will be the first to go into it."

"All right. I'll stand back and let you. Now, Jack, what are we going to do this winter? We can't sit around all the time without something to occupy our minds."

"I have been thinking about that. Let us call on Mr. Fay, and see what he says."

Julian thought this a piece of advice worth acting upon, and they bent their steps toward Mr. Fay's office, where they found him seated, as before, with his feet on the desk in front of him. When he saw who his visitors were, he jumped up hastily and seized each of them by the arm with a firm grip.

"Oh, boys, you surely haven't made up your minds to go up to that mine next spring, have you?" he asked, almost in a whisper.

"Why, yes, sir," said Julian, somewhat surprised by the man's actions. "I reckon it is ours, and we want to see what gold is to be found in it."

"But think of the ghosts you will have to contend with," said Mr. Fay. "You will hear scurrying of feet – What was that?" he continued, looking toward a distant part of his office and pulling the boys around in front of him. "I am certain there is a ghost there."

Julian and Jack began to see into the matter now. The man was so full of his fun that he could not keep it in under any circumstances, and it had come to the surface when he saw the boys come into his office. Perhaps a lingering smile around his mouth had something to do with it.

"I don't believe you heard any ghost there," said Julian; "they are so busy up there at the mine that they have no time to come down here to trouble you."

"All right, boys; sit down. What did Banta say the spirits looked like?"

Julian replied that he could not tell, for he had not seen them; and with this as an introduction he went on and repeated the miner's conversation as nearly as he could recall it. Mr. Fay listened, highly amused, and when Julian ceased speaking he said.

"If you can see them, what's the use of your being afraid? And as for that phantom miner, that happened a long ways from here. I ought to be kicked for trying to frighten you."

"It will take something more than that to scare us out," said Julian. "Now, Mr. Fay, we want to ask your advice."

"I am ready to give it. Do you want to invest some property in a gold-mine?"

No; Julian assured him that it had no reference to their property, which was not theirs yet until the court had passed upon it, but it was in regard to their going to school in order to learn something. Mr. Fay was all attention now, and when Julian spoke of joining some mercantile academy, he slapped his hands down upon his knees as if that was the best thing the boys could do.

"I have no fears that your money will not prove useful to you," said he; "the idea of your wanting to go to school is a big feather in your caps. Some young men, with such an amount of money as you have coming to you, would loaf around and do nothing until their funds were all gone; but you don't act that way. Believe me, there is an end to that hundred thousand dollars somewhere."

"That is just what the president of the bank told us when we called upon him," said Julian. "We have worked so hard for the little money we have that we intend to take care of it. But, Mr. Fay, we don't believe that Mr. Gibson did right in giving us these funds."

"What's the reason you don't?"

"Why, he said he would have to get word from the court before all the property could be turned over to us – "

"Oh, that's all right; Mr. Gibson knew what he was doing. You will find it all right when the Judge hears the case. Now, do you know where the business college is situated?"

Julian was not so sure about that, but he received certain instructions from Mr. Fay that made him think he could find it; so the boys put on their caps and went out.

CHAPTER XIX

GOING TO SCHOOL

"Is the boss mechanic anywhere about?" asked Jack, who chanced to be the first who entered the college when they found it.

They had opened a door, and found themselves in one of the study-rooms of the school. There were fifty men and women there, all interested with their books, and the best of order prevailed. A young man, whose seat was near the door, on seeing that the boys were strangers, had arisen and asked them what he could do for them.

"The boss mechanic?" he repeated, in a surprised tone.

"He means the man who is at the head of this institution," said Julian. We want to see him for a few minutes, if you please."

"Oh, yes," said the young man, as he gave Jack a looking over. "I guess you have worked at manual labor all your life."

"Yes, I have," replied Jack; "I have done nothing but lift heavy iron for a good many years, and now I want to find an easier way of making a living."

"You have come to the right place to find it. Step this way."

The student led the way around the room, passing close to the scholars, some of whom merely glanced up, others paying not the least attention to them, until he opened a door and ushered them into a private office. He introduced the boys as persons who had come there to see the "boss mechanic," and then went out; while a pleasant-faced, elderly gentleman replied that he was the "boss mechanic" of that school, and asked them what they wanted. Jack, who had made a blunder by the first question he asked, remained silent, leaving Julian to do all the talking.

"We want to get an education," said Julian.

"Well, that is what this school can give you," said the man. "What do you want to study?"

"Stenography and type-writing."

"And you?" he added, turning to Jack.

"Bookkeeping and writing; I write a fearful hand."

The superintendent, having made a start with the boys, invited them to sit down, and in a few minutes he learned something of the boys' history, and what occupation they had been engaged in previous to coming to Denver. Without telling him anything of their circumstances, they chanced to mention the names of Mr. Fay and Mr. Gibson, and after that Julian thought he seemed to take more interest in them. After a little conversation the boys pulled out their roll of bills and paid for six months' instruction and the books they would need, and then arose to go, after telling him they would be on hand in the morning, ready to go to work.

"I'll tell you what's a fact," said Jack, pausing on the stairs and pulling out his diminished roll of bills; "we will have to go to the bank and get some more money, the first thing you know."

"That is so," replied Julian. "And I have just thought of another thing. Did you see how neatly all those students were dressed? I am going to draw two hundred dollars – "

"Man alive!" said Jack, appalled by the sum mentioned. "Suppose Mr. Haberstro comes up – "

"I don't bother my head about him. We will go and get some money, and then we will go to a tailor's and get some clothes worth having. If Mr. Haberstro is going to appear, Mr. Gibson will show us the way out."

Jack was not convinced by any means, but he kept close by Julian's side until he reached the bank. Julian made out the check for him and he signed his name, and the money was paid to each of them without a word of protest. Jack felt a little uneasy after that. He did not like to have so much money about him. He carried his left hand in the pocket where he had placed the bills, and looked at every roughly-dressed man he met, as if he were afraid that somebody would rob him.

"I don't feel exactly right," said he to Julian. "As soon as we get home I'll put this money in my trunk, and then I know it will be safe."

"Don't keep your hand on it all the while, or you will lead somebody to suspect something," said Julian. "Now, here is a tailor shop; let us go in and see what we can do."

Jack fairly gasped when Julian said he wanted the finest suit of clothes there was in the store. He wanted two suits – one for every day and one for Sundays. Of course the merchant was eager to show them to him, and the result was that he ordered the best suits he had ever had in his life. Jack did not believe in expensive clothes, but Julian urged it upon him, telling him that he would look as though he came from the country among all those nicely-dressed students, and Jack finally yielded to him.

"That's the worst expenditure of money that I was ever guilty of," said he, when they were fairly on the street.

"Grumbling again, are you?" was Julian's comment. "Never mind; you will get used to it after a while."

The next thing the boys had in view was to join the Young Men's Christian Association, so that they could get some books to take home with them; and when that was done they considered themselves settled for the winter. They went to school the next day, and from that time until spring opened they never missed a lesson. Jack was rather awkward at first. The hands which had been in the habit of lifting heavy bars of iron could not accommodate themselves to a pen very readily; and oftentimes, when Julian sat in his room, of nights, reading, Jack was there learning to write. No two boys ever behaved themselves better than they did, and it was not long before they became favorites, both with the boarders and others who came there to visit. Jack soon got used to his fine clothes, and wore them as if he had been accustomed to them all his life. They took an evening now and then to call upon Mr. Banta, and they always found him as talkative as ever. Sometimes they became so interested in his tales of life in the gold-camps that it was ten o'clock before they returned home. Mr. Fay and Mr. Gibson also came in for visits occasionally, and once the latter took out a bundle of papers, which he handed to Julian.

"What are these?" he asked.

"They are your property," said the lawyer. "You can keep the papers yourself, or you can let me keep them, and I will put them in my till in the bank."

"Do you mean that all comes to us?" inquired Julian, while a thrill shot all through him.

"Yes, sir; the court decided so a week ago."

"Jack," said Julian, turning to his companion, "are you sorry, now, that I went to the express office and invested in that 'old horse'?"

Jack could not say anything. He remembered how he had scolded Julian for that, and he did not want it thrown up to him so often. Julian then went on and told Mr. Gibson what had happened in their room the night he brought the "old horse" home, and the lawyer laughed loudly at his description of it.

"Mr. Gibson, we really wish you would take charge of this matter for us," said Julian. "You hope so, too – don't you, Jack?"

"Of course; we don't know what to do with it."

And so the matter was settled, and the boys breathed a good deal easier while they were on their way home. There was one thing that often came into their minds, and that was, What had become of Claus and Casper Nevins? Had they given up all hopes of gaining possession of that hundred thousand dollars? Jack scouted the idea. Casper might have given it up, but Claus would stick to his idea until he got into jail by it. He was not a man who gave up so easily. It is true they had not seen anything of him since they came to Denver, but Jack was sure they would hear from him at some other time.

"You will see," exclaimed Jack, when he confided his opinions to Julian. "You want to be on the watch, or the first thing you know he will jump down on us."

"I guess Mr. Gibson can shut him up very easily," said Julian.

"Yes; but it may happen when Mr. Gibson is not around."

"Eh? Do you mean that he will come down on us while we are up at the mine?"

"Such things as that have happened. When you see a German you want to look out."

Things went along in Denver as they usually did, and when winter fairly opened on them the boys thought they had never experienced such cold weather before. But it did not interfere with their business in any way. It was not long before Mr. Banta began to talk to them about the things that would be necessary for them to have if they were going to operate their mine successfully, and the boys had a lengthy list of things they would have to buy. They thought they could get along without some of them, but Banta assured them that everything they had down would be of use to them sooner or later. As time wore on, the prospect of leaving Denver and going off to the mountains alone, where they were destined to encounter some risks that they did not know whether they could stand up against or not, made the boys silent and thoughtful. In Denver they had friends – they were sure of that; but when they got out to their mine they would be left all to themselves, and Julian and Jack did not know what they would make of it. Jack had less to say about it than his companion, but it was plain enough to see that he was not going to back out.

"I tell you I hate to go away and leave all the kind friends we have gathered about us," said Julian, as they left Salisbury's hotel after Mr. Banta had told them that by two weeks from Monday they must be on hand bright and early, all ready to start for the mountains. "I wish I knew what was in that mine."

"So do I; and the only way we can find out is to go and see," replied Jack. "I don't believe in ghosts, but I have heard so much about the things up there in that mine that I am almost ready to give in to them."

There was another thing that Jack thought of, although he did not mention it. Julian had always been one of the first to talk about going to the mine, and he was ready to accuse Jack of cowardice; but when the time for their departure drew near, Julian did not open his mouth. Jack thought of that, but said nothing.

Mr. Banta told them, finally, that they had better go to work and get their things ready, and they set about it in earnest. The first thing they did was to take leave of the students at the college. The boys were all sorry to see them go, and the superintendent said he hoped Julian and Jack had given up the idea of a gold-mine, for they were getting on so rapidly in their studies that he trusted to see them complete the course. He predicted they would come back poorer than when they went away. He had heard of such things before; and, after the young men had eaten up all their provisions, they would be glad to find somebody to grub-stake them back to Denver.

"You will see us back here in the fall," said Julian, confidently. "We are not going to give up our chances of learning something."

"But you may meet your death up there," said the superintendent. "I have often heard of such things."

"I was awfully afraid you were going to say something about the ghosts in our gold-mine," said Jack, as they went down the stairs. "You looked at me several times as though you wanted to say something about it."

"It was right on the end of my tongue," said Julian, "but I thought I had better keep still about it. If we should come back here before fall, they would say right away that we had been frightened out and dared not go back."

Mr. Banta was busy getting his own things together, but he found time now and then to overlook the boys' expenditures. Under his instructions they bought three horses, – two of them for riding, the other intended as a pack-horse to carry their utensils, – and then he led the boys away to a gun-shop, where they were to purchase rifles.

"Look here, Mr. Banta," said Julian; "we don't need anything in here. We have got a revolver apiece, and, if the truth must be told, we have spent a good deal of time in practicing with them."

"What good will a revolver do you?" asked Banta, greatly surprised. "If we chance to meet any Indians – "

"But you told us there were no Indians," said Julian. "We don't want to shoot at anybody unless they are close at hand. Maybe they will come in handy on the ghosts, you know."

"Well, you don't know anything about the plains – I can see that, plain enough. If you think revolvers are going to do you, why, I am done with you."

"Then we have purchased everything we want, have we?"

"I think so. Be on hand on Monday morning, because we shall be off before the sun gets an hour high."

The boys drew a long breath when they heard this. If they had not talked so much about visiting their mine it is probable that both of them would have backed squarely out.

CHAPTER XX

WATERSPOUTS AND BLIZZARDS

"Hi! Nellie; get on, there! Strike a trot! We won't get to the mountains in seven years, at this gait."

It was Mr. Banta who spoke, and he emphasized his remarks by making the whip he carried in his hand crack loudly. The old, white bell-mare pricked up her ears and slowly quickened her pace, closely followed by all the pack-mules and horses belonging to the train.

"That old pack-mare knows where we are going as well as we do," said Banta, squaring around and throwing his leg over the horn of his saddle so that he could face the two boys whom he was addressing. "She has been up here so often that she knows every foot of the way. If we get hard up for deer meat, all we have to do is to take her bell off, and then we can go twenty miles out on the prairie, and she will bring us back home again. You can't get lost if you are on her."

"Why do you take the bell off when you want to go hunting with the mare?" asked Julian of Mr. Banta, who, by reason of his age and experience, acted as leader of the company. "Does the noise of the bell frighten the game?"

"That is one reason," replied Banta; "and the other is, we don't want all the pack-mules and horses to follow us. Wherever they hear the bell, they will go to it. If we were on the other side of a wide river, even though it was swimming-deep, and some of these mules don't like water any too well, and should sound that bell a few times, they would all come over. If anything should happen to that old bell-mare, and she should die, we'd send a man on with that bell, and the mules would follow him wherever he went."

It was Monday morning, and the sun was just rising. The cavalcade had been on its way for two hours, for they left the hotel, amid wishes for good luck from all who saw them go, at the first peep of day. They went directly past the hotel at which Julian and Jack had stopped to eat dinner when they first came there, and were now alone in the foothills which arose on all sides of them. There were at least a dozen miners in the company, and they had all set out for Dutch Flat in the hope of digging up a fortune before the winter's storms overtook them. Julian and Jack were there, dressed in rough miners' clothing, and the horse which bore their provisions and tools was with the others who were following the bell-mare.

Anybody could see at a glance that these boys were tenderfeet, and they did not attempt to deny it. Every other miner had a heavy Winchester slung at his back, while the only firearms the boys exhibited were Smith & Wesson revolvers, which they carried strapped to their waists. They did not look forward to the future with as brave hearts as most of the miners did. They could not get the idea out of their minds that the gold they wanted to find was protected by something which they did not want to see. The miners now and then cast curious looks at them, to see if they were not afraid of the prospect before them, but finally came to the conclusion that the boys were "going through with it." The miners were happy, and sang rude songs and cracked jokes with each other; but the boys were busy with their own thoughts, and took no part in what was going on around them.

"And I don't blame them, either," said one miner, in a low voice, to his companion. "I wouldn't take any part in the singing if I were in their place. They are brave enough now, but wait until they have been up to that mine about two days; then we will see them at our camp, frightened to death."

"Banta has rather taken them under his care, judging by the way he keeps watch over them," said the other miner.

"Yes; he was made acquainted with them by some high man in Denver, and so he keeps an eye on them. But he can't go up to their mine with them. More than that, those ghosts will not stop for him or anybody else."

Julian and Jack were not accustomed to being in the saddle from daylight until dark, and the ride was long and wearisome to them. They stopped at noon to eat their lunch and to let their animals crop the grass for a few minutes; but their packs were never removed from them until they halted for the night at a place which showed that there had been a camp before. Lean-to's were scattered around, partly unroofed by the storms of winter, and remnants of fires were to be seen; and Banta said that no one had been there since he and his party made the camp last fall.