Indian and Scout: A Tale of the Gold Rush to California

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Brereton Frederick Sadleir. Indian and Scout: A Tale of the Gold Rush to California

CHAPTER I. Tusker Joe

CHAPTER II. Jack Kingsley's Dilemma

CHAPTER III. A Rude Awakening

CHAPTER IV. The Road to California

CHAPTER V. On the Railway

CHAPTER VI. A Hold-up

CHAPTER VII. Friends and Hunters

CHAPTER VIII. Out on the Prairie

CHAPTER IX. Only a Youngster

CHAPTER X. A Buffalo Hunt

CHAPTER XI. Surrounded by Indians

CHAPTER XII. A Tight Corner

CHAPTER XIII. Dodging the Enemy

CHAPTER XIV. An Attack in Force

CHAPTER XV. Giving 'em Pepper

CHAPTER XVI. The Bashful Jacob

CHAPTER XVII. Black Bill to the Rescue

CHAPTER XVIII. The Gold Rush

CHAPTER XIX. Tom makes a Find

CHAPTER XX. An Ambuscade

CHAPTER XXI. The Outwitting of Tusker

CHAPTER XXII. A Double Recognition

CHAPTER XXIII. Steve Leads the Way

CHAPTER XXIV. A Great Acquittal

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Mary Kingsley may be described as an eminently unfortunate woman. Married at an early age, it was not long before her husband fell out of employment, and found himself hard put to it to make a living. That was in or about the year 1848; and presently, when a fever for gold digging in California spread over the United States of America, Tom Kingsley became badly bitten with the desire to try his own fortune. A town-bred man, he fared but ill at first; but in a little while his fortunes mended, so that he was able to send money to his wife. Then had come a partnership, bringing great profit at first, and later on the disaster with which the reader is acquainted.

Five years after the death of Tom Kingsley, Mary married again – a man of uncertain temper, who quickly began to look upon his stepson Jack as an encumbrance. There were quarrels between himself and his wife with regard to the boy, and very soon Jack himself came in for ill-feeling and frequent chastisement.

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At six o'clock our hero shut the forge, took his tea in the house closely adjacent, and, having washed himself and put on a suit of respectable clothes, he went down into the town and out to the other side. He was fond of a sharp walk after being cooped up in the forge all day long, and often went off into the country. It was dark when he had covered six miles, and by then he was almost in the wilderness. The road had almost ceased to exist, while there was forest land on every side. On the left, however, as he faced home again, the country was divided by the Hudson River, beside which the road wound, but elevated from its surface. Indeed, it stood three hundred feet above the water.

"A fine place for a house," thought our hero, as his eyes were attracted by lights ahead and to the left. "The man who selected that site had an eye to beauty. They say he started without a dollar, and made all he has by hard work. I wonder if I shall ever be able to do anything like that. It doesn't seem possible, and yet I dare say he thought the same. It would be grand to have a big house overlooking the Hudson, and give mother a home there."

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