Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 20, 2025
And Smoke knew he was right, for he had long since learned his comrade's phenomenal walking powers. "I've been holding back to give you a chance," Smoke jeered. "An' I'm plum troddin' on your heels. If you can't do better, let me go ahead and set pace." Smoke quickened, and was soon at the rear of the nearest bunch of stampeders. "Hike along, you, Smoke," the other urged.
Many who were too poor to get away became enormously rich, afterward, from that very fact, for they became possessed of the ground, and when the Kansas Pacific railroad was projected, and afterward constructed, Denver took on such a boom that real estate nearly went out of sight in value. The poor ones became wealthy, and nearly all of the Cheyenne stampeders returned.
The partners had spent a day of visiting and gossip, and in the evening met in the temporary quarters of the Monte Carlo a large tent were stampeders rested their weary bones and bad whisky sold at a dollar a drink. Since the only money in circulation was dust, and since the house took the "down-weight" on the scales, a drink cost something more than a dollar.
The stampede had been a failure; no gold was found; there was much indignant assertion that no gold ever had been found and that the reported "strike" was a "fake," though to what end or profit such a "fake" stampede should be caused, unless by some neighbouring trader, it is hard to understand; and here were the stampeders streaming out again, a ragged, unkempt, sorry-looking crowd in every variety of worn-out arctic toggery, many of them suffering from acute snow-blindness.
And Smoke knew he was right, for he had long since learned his comrade's phenomenal walking powers. "I've been holding back to give you a chance," Smoke jeered. "An' I'm plum troddin' on your heels. If you can't do better, let me go ahead and set pace." Smoke quickened, and was soon at the rear of the nearest bunch of stampeders. "Hike along, you, Smoke," the other urged.
Pierce had seen them last at Linderman, engaged in prosecuting a stampeders' divorce; he was surprised to find them reunited. "I never dreamed you'd get through," he told them, when greetings had passed. "Did you come in one boat or in two?" Jerry grinned. "We sawed up that outlaw four times. We'd have split her end to end finally, only we run out of pitch to cork her up."
Scores of graders dropped their tools and started off on a trot. The prospector who had told the fable had thrown his thumb over his shoulder to indicate the general direction. Nobody had thought to ask how far. Many forgot to let go; and Heney's picks and shovels, worth over a dollar apiece, went away with the stampeders.
We watch them as they come, and as the last laggers pant by the mound we look westward and see the stampeders halting. We soon understand the cause. They have come up with the main herd. Yes, there, in full sight of us, is the buffalo army, extending its deep line as far as the western horizon. The whole earth is black with them.
In some mysterious way Wunpost had acquired a horse and mule, both sharp-shod for climbing over rocks, and he had dallied at Hungry Bill's until the first of the stampeders had come in sight on the Panamint trail. Then he had set out up the ridge, riding the horse and packing the mule, and even an Indian trailer had given out and quit without ever bringing them in sight of him again.
When travel had changed to the river trail, leaving the house lonesome and high as though left by a receding wave, Struve had taken it over on a debt, and now ran it for the convenience of a slender traffic, mainly stampeders, who chose the higher route towards the interior. His hireling spent the idle hours in prospecting a hungry quartz lead and in doing assessment work on near-by claims.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking