Chapter 21

CONCLUSION

Professor Zepplin had been closeted in his tent for an hour when he beckoned Tad Butler to enter.

“Boy, this rusty stone that you picked up is a gold nugget, worth, I should say, all of five hundred dollars!” cried the Professor excitedly. “Are there more of them, Tad?”

“I can’t say. I found this one on a bar where it was probably washed down. The place was once a stream, but it changed its course and is now some distance to the west. I’ve an idea that there’s gold in that sand-bar.”

“Then we’d better go after it. It probably belongs to no one.”

“I’m not sure of that. Others may have a juster claim than we have, Professor.”

“You suspect something, Tad, without knowing fully. We’ll look at the place and decide what to do later.”

The others were in bed, but still awake when Tad left the Professor’s tent, but to their questions he gave evasive answers.

It seemed to Tad that he had been asleep but a few minutes when he felt a touch on his shoulder. He sat up, instantly wide awake. Anvik was bending over him.

“Somebody come,” muttered the guide. “One, two, three, four, maybe more.”

Day was just breaking. Tad awakened his companions, giving each instructions as to what he was to do. Then he hurried to the Professor’s tent to give Anvik’s news.

“Look out!” yelled Stacy shrilly.

A series of quick, sharp reports punctured the stillness of the morning. Tad and Professor Zepplin dashed out, and so did Walter Perkins. Ned Rector and Stacy Brown were nowhere to be seen. Anvik stood against a rock, his blanket drawn about him, the muzzle of a rifle protruding from the lower end of it.

Four men appeared in the open, each holding a rifle. The rifles were aimed at the members of the Pony Rider outfit.

“It’s Darwood!” gasped the Professor. It was Darwood, accompanied by Sam Dawson, Dill Bruce and Curley Tinker. “What’s the meaning of this outrage, gentlemen?” he demanded.

“I gave you warning to mush back to where you came from,” answered Darwood.

“And I told you we’d do nothing of the sort!”

"You're going now, and in a hurry!"

“What will you do if we refuse again?”

“You’ll find out what we’ll do. We’re north of fifty-three now. You know what that means. Put down those guns, and do it quick.”

“Suppose you set the example,” said Tad quietly. He had not spoken up to this point.

“Keep still!” commanded Darwood. “Put down those guns.”

“Don’t be in a hurry,” advised Tad. “Before you do anything that you’ll regret, let me say that every man of you is covered. The slightest hostile motion on your part is your death warrant.”

“The Indian’s got away!” cried Dawson.

Darwood for the first time realized that all the Pony Rider outfit was not in sight.

“Either your friends will put down their guns and come out or we’ll shoot,” snarled Darwood, fixing his gaze on Tad Butler.

“Are you so anxious to die, Curtis Darwood?” asked the lad calmly.

Darwood flushed, but the four men lowered their rifles to the ground.

“Mr. Darwood, I have something to tell you. Sit down,” went on the boy.

“I reckon we’ll do nothing of the sort.”

“Sit down, I say!”

The men obeyed reluctantly.

“Keep them covered until they come to their senses, boys,” directed Tad. Then he went on to the men: “We don’t blame you for feeling that every man’s hand is against you; but I’m going to prove to you that ours are not. See this?” and Tad tossed to Darwood the rusty stone that he had found in the sand-bar.

“Gold! A nugget of pure gold,” breathed Darwood. “Where did you get it?”

“Perhaps we found the Taku Pass.”

“And we’ve lost it,” groaned Dawson.

“We’ll fight for it, then!” shouted Darwood.

“You might wait until there’s need for fighting, Mr. Darwood,” said Tad contemptuously. He then went on to describe the totem pole, while his listeners became more and more excited. They got out an old map, and after studying it Tad said:

“It is the Taku Pass that Stacy and I discovered. As it is undoubtedly yours, we relinquish all claim to the land.”

“How much do you want for the relinquishment?” asked Dawson.

“Nothing. Sit down and have breakfast with us and then we will lead you to the place.”

“I can’t say much,” said Darwood falteringly. “We’ve been a bunch of driveling idiots.”

After breakfast Anvik was sent to the men’s camp for pans and implements and supplies, and the others set off in Tad Butler’s wake to explore the gulch.

At one point the party found a slender vein of pure gold, enough to give hope that the vein broadened out farther on. Tad, in a cavelike niche, saw a gray streak of ore that reached for a long distance. A piece of this about the size of a goose egg lay at his feet. It was heavy, and he put it in his pocket to show to the others.

Anvik came in with the tools, surveying chains, and pans, and Darwood and the others staked off their claims, taking in enough to give each boy a claim, putting up heaps of stones to mark the boundaries.

“Of course, if anyone else were to file a prior claim we’d have a hard time to substantiate ours. But there’s not much danger.”

The claim staked, Darwood proposed that they pan in the bar to see what they could find. To the delight of all, sparkling particles of rich yellow dust lay in the bottoms of the sieves, and they felt convinced that there was gold in paying quantities.

Once more back in the camp, the Professor disappeared into his tent. When he emerged he looked excited.

“Boys!” he shouted. “Tad! Your sample is platinum! Gentlemen, you have indeed a fortune! The platinum is worth about double its weight in gold!”

Such a hurrah as went up! Such an evening of rejoicing and excitement! But early the next morning came the reaction.

Tad, up early, went out to the claim, too impatient to await breakfast. To his amazement instead of finding the markers they had set, he found that they had been removed, and in their places some one had cut off saplings and marked the stumps of them with deep-cut notches.

“It’s that rascal, Sandy Ketcham,” declared Darwood in a strained voice, when Tad reported his discovery. “He’s been on our trail for nearly three years, and now he’s got us! He’s on his way to Skagway now to register the claim in the land office,” the man groaned.

“We’ll get ahead of them, then,” cried Tad. “He hasn’t much of a start. When does a steamer leave Yakutat?”

“This is the twenty-third. The ‘Corsair’ will leave Yakutat on the twenty-seventh. He will just about make it.”

“So will I,” cried Tad Butler stoutly.

Tad won Professor Zepplin’s consent to his plan, and after Darwood had got the papers ready and the boys had gathered provisions together, Tad was off, riding one pony and leading another, that he might change from one to the other, thus avoiding tiring either.

With lather standing out all over his mount, Tad pounded on, eyes and ears alight for Sandy Ketcham. He halted at noon to change horses and let each drink a little from a spring. Then on once more for seemingly countless hours.

There was a brief pause in the evening, to allow the ponies to rest and graze, then on again in the darkness. The second night a longer rest was imperative, while Tad fretted, tired as he was, to be off again.

On the third day he came across the still hot ashes of a campfire, and decided that he was not far behind Ketcham. Still twenty miles from Yakutat, one of the ponies strained a tendon. The boy was forced regretfully to abandon the animal and to go forward on the second mount.

It was about eleven o’clock in the morning of the fourth day that he caught sight of a column of black smoke through an opening between the mountains.

“It’s the ‘Corsair,’” he groaned. “She’s getting ready to sail.”

On and on he rode. He swept through the village on the panting pony and down to the dock to see the ‘Corsair’ weighing anchor.

Tad Butler set up a yell, then drove his pony into the bay. No small boats were in sight, so, throwing himself in the icy water, he grasped the pony’s mane and, swimming with the animal, headed for the ship.

The anchor was up, but Captain Petersen had not yet signaled for slow speed ahead. He ordered a boat lowered and Tad was hauled aboard in a semi-dazed condition. Relieved of its burden, the pony rose and swam for shore. Tad was confined to his cabin, worn out by the hard ride and the icy swim. But he learned that Ketcham was on board, and Ketcham, of course, knew of Tad’s presence.

The morning of their arrival at Skagway was gray and windy. The sea was rolling into the harbor in heavy, boisterous swells. The captain announced that he would not put off a boat until the sea subsided, as capsizing was certain in the heavy seas.

Tad, impatient, was standing at the rail when he saw Sandy Ketcham leap over the rail into the sea. The boy did not hesitate. He sprang to the rail and dived as far out as he could, striking a rod or so behind Ketcham. Then began a desperate race. But youth won, and Tad staggered out of the water a few moments ahead of his adversary and ran for the land office, Ketcham close behind him.

"I File the Claim!" shouted Tad.

“I file the claim to Taku Pass in the name of Curtis Darwood and others,” shouted Tad, slapping the oilskin parcel on the desk. “That man’s an impostor. He destroyed our markers and erected his own on our claim.”

“It’s a lie!” yelled Sandy, making a leap for the boy.

There was a furious fight, in which the interested bystanders did not interfere. But at last Tad’s fist shot up in a vicious uppercut on the man’s chin, and Sandy Ketcham settled to the floor as the boy leaped out of the way.

“Have you filed the papers?” gasped Tad.

“Sure, boy! You’ve won the first round. The rest will be up to the government, but I guess you’ve got it clinched for all time.”

When Tad returned to Yakutat three government surveyors went with him to run the lines and definitely establish the claim. Sandy Ketcham also filed a claim, but Tad’s being the prior one the case would have to be decided by the proper government officials; though there was really no doubt of the outcome.

For a month after Tad Butler’s return the Pony Rider Boys stayed at Taku Pass, panning over a section allotted to them by the Gold Diggers, each filling a small sack with yellow dust and a few nuggets. In addition the Gold Diggers insisted that the boys and their tutor jointly should have a twentieth interest in the claims, which would undoubtedly give each a comfortable amount of wealth.

It was their last night in the camp and the boys and the Professor were talking over future plans.

“I’m going home to rest and study after my strenuous life of the last few seasons,” the Professor stated. “How about you, Walter?”

“Father has a job for me as messenger in a bank in St. Joseph,” answered Walter Perkins.

“Your turn, Chunky. What’s it to be?”

“Banking. I’m going into Walter Perkins’ father’s bank.”

“Does father know about it?”

“Of course he does!” retorted Stacy. “Did you think I was going to break into the bank?”

“Can’t tell about you,” laughed Tad. “As for Ned and me–Professor Zepplin’s friend, Colonel Van Zandt, who has large timber interests, has used his influence to get us appointments in the United States Forestry Service. We’ll go to work next spring. And now, fellows, I suggest that we give three cheers for the best fellow that ever lived, Professor Zepplin!”

The cheers were given with a will, then all went to their tents for their last night in their camp in Alaska.

THE END.