, lest I should take his life; so he had me included in
the first expedition, which consisted o' eighty men, an' was sent to
garrison a Mormon station in Carson Valley, Nevada.

"I've allaws had a nose for gold, an' we hadn't bin there a month
before I'd discovered an' washed out a little dust from a neighbourin'
gulch. I kept my secret to myself, an' when I'd gathered enough,
bought provisions, stole a horse, an' ran away, escapin' over the
Sierras into California, where I hoped that the Mormons, an'
especially my father, would lose all trace o' me an' give me up for
dead. For eight years I drifted along the coast from camp to camp,
but didn't have much luck. I even went so far south as Mexico, where I
laboured in the silver mines an' learned the Mexican method o'
crushin' quartz with arrastras.

"All this time I was haunted by the memory o' the gold which I'd
washed out in Carson Valley; the more I thought about it, the more
certain I was that untold riches lay buried there. However, I was
fearful to return, lest I should fall into the clutches o' the
priesthood o' Melchizedek or o' the spies o' Brigham Young. I was an
apostate, an' my father was my enemy; I knew that, should I once be
recovered by the Mormons, no mercy would be shown me. At last the news
came that the struggle o' the Saints for possession o' Nevada had been
given up, an' that messengers had bin sent out from Salt Lake biddin'
all emigrants return. For eight years I'd bin unmolested; I thought
that I'd bin forgotten, an' that it was safe to turn my steps
eastward.

"I travelled day an' night to get back to my first discovery; I was
tortured wi' the thought that before I got there someone might have
rediscovered it, an' have staked it out. I'd crossed the Sierras, an'
was within a two-days' journey o' my destination, when I came to a
lonely valley as the sun was settin', an' there I camped. The place
looked God-forsaken; there was nothin' in sight but rocks, an' sand,
an' sage-brush. I lit my fire, an' tethered my horse, an', being
dog-tired, was soon asleep. Suddenly I woke up, an' was conscious o'
footsteps goin' stealthily, away from me into the darkness. I jumped
to my feet an' seized my gun; but my eyes were dazed with sleep an'
firelight so that I could see nothin'. I ran out into the shadows,
followin' the footsteps, but, before I could come up with 'em, their
sound had changed to that o' a horse, gallopin' northward, growin'
fainter and fai