Hard Gold by Avi Read Free Book Online Page B

words on its canvas:
    PIKE’S PEAK OR BUST!
    But someone had crossed off the first three words, then added some letters so that it read
    BUSTED BY THUNDER
    We discovered that these people, all men, looking weary and sadly worn, were coming back from the Pike’s Peak diggings, going home to Ohio state. I was shocked.

    A “go-backer” or “stampeder,” heading back East—if he can make it.
    We made camp nearby, for naturally we wanted to learn their story.
    The men of our train—with Lizzy and me—approached their camp and introduced themselves.
    It was Mr. Bunderly who said, “Gentlemen, we’ve only just begun heading toward the Kansas mining territory and would be pleased to gain from your experiences.”
    These Ohio men, twenty-four in all, were sullen and seemed reluctant to speak. But then one of them said, “Mister, if you want the truth, it’s this: you are fools to go there.”
    “There’s no gold to be had in Cherry Creek,” said another.
    “Nothing?” said Mr. Mawr.
    “Nothing.”
    “But—”
    “We’ve been there,” said another. “It’s all a humbug. A pack of lies.”
    We pressed them for particulars, but the Ohioans would say little, other than to repeat what they had already said.
    Our group retreated, but I stayed behind. There was one old grizzled man in the returning train who kept himself somewhat apart. I went up to him.
    “Sir,” I ventured, “when you were out at the Cherry Creek mines did you ever meet a man by the name of Jesse Plockett?”
    “Jesse Plockett?” he returned, his bleary eyes much more alert than before.
    “Yes, sir.”
    “What makes you ask about him?”
    “He’s my near relation.”
    “Is he now?” He studied me for a while. “Fancy that. You going out to him?”
    “Yes, sir. Is he alive and well?” I asked.
    “Alive? Last I heard, he was. As for being well … I couldn’t rightly say.”
    “Why?” I asked, alarmed.
    The man seemed to consider his words. Then he said, “They say he killed a man.”
    “Killed a man! What happened?”
    “Can’t say I know for sure.”
    No matter how I pressed him he would add nothing. I went back to our camp greatly agitated. The things people were saying about Jesse! That he was a robber. A murderer. All I had to do was close my eyes and I’d see his wild golden hair, his walk, and that smile which always made me glad. I could hear his easy, laughing talk, too. No, what people said was not the Jesse I knew. And since I had no doubt that Jesse had gotten gold, I decided these men were wrongheaded about all the rest they said, too.
    When I got back to our camp I was relieved to see that the men did not believe the go-backers either. We would press on.
    When I returned to our wagon, Lizzy came up to me. “What were you asking that man back there?”
    “Nothing much.”
    “Mr. Early,” she shouted after me, “there are times Apollo says more than you!”
    May 18
    Started at dawn and worked our way up and down through a valley, then up some hills, from which we saw Council Bluffs city. Beyond was the great Missouri River. Knowing that when we crossed the river we would be in the Kansas Territory, I became greatly excited!
    We had made progress, after all.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

    Farewell to Iowa
    C OUNCIL BLUFFS was the biggest town I’d ever seen. A fellow told me that some two thousand people lived there. Plus, the city was stuffed with emigrants (mostly young men, but some women, too), in hundreds of wagons and tents, along with oxen, mules, and horses. I’d never believed you could fit so many people and beasts in one place, a small valley between sandy bluffs that overlooked the Missouri River.
    Seemed most everybody was going to Pike’s Peak. But to get any farther west you had to cross the river. That meant, as some folks said, “leaving civilization.”
    There were three ferries, which went back and forth all day. Even so, they weren’t enough to carry all the people and wagons wanting to cross. It