Year: 1879

big excitement, hut all TO no good. There
was a hole where ne swore he had cached il
three months before, and the hole was emp
". Johnny was most crazy, but had no
idea of the thief who robbed him Ii seem
ed that ne would have to give up goin' to
Australia for lac couldn'; start broke but
he was good fellow, and the other fellows
wouldn't leave him behind, 50 they Clipped
in ali around enough to give him as much
as any Of them had; and that fixed it. But
the day they were 10 start Just as they
were desertiu' their cabin, Billy Cantield-
you must have heard of him-como over
from Coulterville, and when they told him
how Johnny had heen robbed, "lRobhed be
blowed !! says he lie asked about where the
gold had been buried, and Johnny told
him il was in the floor, just below nick
he'd made in one of the logs that the cabin
was built of Billy went into the empty
cabin and looked around, SAYS he:


Where's the niclll'


"rhey had got high-toned when their
luck was good, and lined their walls with
muslin, 50 the nick was covered up.


Its just there, says Johnny, pointin'
10 "A spot above where he had been diggn'


"Bill said nothin' but ripped down the
muslin, when, 10, and behold the nick
was good five feet from where Johnny
had thought it was and when they dug
down under it they found his gold all right
You see, he had clean disremcmbered the
location of his mark


but the queerest thing ever did know
of | was interested in myself, and ii was a
real robbery, with no person guilty after all.
Two men named Vescy and Kiddcr-at
least them were the names out thcre-were
working partners with me ON "A claim at the
city of Iuolumue, i'm Sonoma county, in
1854 We were doin real well. and each
of Us had his share of several thousand dol
lars. in coarse gold and little nuggets, hid
away in what we considered safe place
We lived together i'm "A little cabin next To
the United States Hotel, that Greenwood
used To keep then, and Nescy thought the
safest place for his pile was to bury il in
the dirt under the pork barrel. One day he
went To il, To add IA good handful TO what
hc already had, and when he came to dig il
he turned white AZ IA sheet and said 10 MS:


Boys, it's gone. I've been robbed =


cit was mighty unpleasant for us. for e
supposed We were the only ones, as We
thought, that knew of his hidin' place, and
hc might very readily have suspected us
Whether he did or not never knew At
all events he said nothin of the sort, and
went right ON with his work hut he found
some new place to hide his gold, which he
didn't happen 20 mention 10 either of as
The rainy season came on, and one day
when We were all three in the cabin, unable
To work because of the rain, which was pour
in down all as if the fumes aloft was turned
loose, our little adobe chimney got soaked
with water and tumbled down. OF course,
we had to go out with shovels and picks
and fix it up the best we could, without re
gard for the rain, or else bc smoked out of
the cabin ] was diggin' up some earth at
the corner of the cabin near the chimney,
TO patch it up, when my eye caught the
glcam of little yellow nugget picked
it up, and saw several more. In minute
more we were all three down on our knees
in the mud, forgcttin' all about the rain
and the chimney, scrapin' up the gold and
cOngratulatin' ourselves on having struck
the richest kind of claim. But directly
Nesey got some of the nuggets i'm his hand
he knew them, and says he:


Why Blast my eyes, if it isn't my
own gold!'


''Ile recognised the buttons he had melted
down and broken up himself and right lac
was, as we made no manner of doubt
If we'd had any doubts, though, they would
soon b we been set at rest by our discovery
Of how he had been robbed A gopher had
bmrowed its hole along under the corner of
the cabin, and beneath the solid dirt floor,
and accidcntly struck his gold, which was
put down in buckskin bag. If it had
been ina tin can, it would have been safe
enough, for the gopher wanted neither tin
cans nor gold, but it did want the buckskir
bag; so it gnawed the bag and dragged il
away along It's burrow scattering the gold as
it went and that was how we came 10
strike the trail We followed up the hole,
and recovered within half an ounce at most
] guess of all that had been lost; and ] dc
believe that Kiddcr and me were sight
more glad than Ncsey himself was.