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"Faix, ye've cotched a live Yankee!" exclaimed a voice there was no mistaking, as the owner slapped Bill on the shoulder. "He'll make yer fortin', av ye only stick by him. He's just cut out for the diggin's, av his mother wos here to take care of him."
The man stepped quickly in front of the barrel; and was sworn, in the same manner the other witnesses had been sworn, to tell the truth. "What is your name and business?" demanded the alcalde. "John Skoonly," replied the man; "an' I'm bound for th' diggin's. Jest got in from San Francisco this mornin'."
An' that hunch wants to go around an' up to the big guns of Pecos. "This Texas Star Ranger was the feller who took me in. I'd of died like a poisoned coyote but fer him. An' he talked to me. He gave me money to git out of Pecos. Mebbe everybody'll think he helped me because he wanted me to squeal. To squeal who's who round these rustler diggin's. Wal, he never asked me.
You can tell, perhaps, that I ain't no Filipino, nor never was one. I'm from Arizona, U. S. A., and I'm fightin' with these rebels for what there is in it just now. I'm mighty curious to find out how you come to be out in these diggin's, youngster." Archie was willing enough to tell all about himself.
Now, I wonder if I was a young, bow-legged cow-puncher with kind of curly hair and lookin' fierce and noble, and they was a gal whose daddy was plumb lonesome for company, and I was to get notice from the boss that I was to vamose the diggin's and go to work, now, I wonder who'd ride twenty miles of trail to talk up for me?" "Why, I would!"
"Well, if we don't we can wash out a lot of gold, anyhow." "What are dry diggings, Charley?" "They're diggin's in dry ground, where you have to bring in the water some way. Wet diggin's are placers in the beds of streams where you're in the water already. Shirt-tail was wet diggin's. They're the hardest because your feet are soaked and get sore, and you catch rheumatism and fever and everything.
From the puckered front peered a woman and two children; the man of the family was walking wearily beside, swinging an ox-goad. "Howdy, strangers?" he hailed, as he halted. "Are these the Californy diggin's?" "Is this Californy?" put in the woman, quaveringly. "You bet your bottom dollar, friends," was the hearty answer.
Any new diggin's discovered?" "A new digging certainly has been discovered," replied McLeod, with a peculiar smile, "but not precisely such a digging as one is wont to search for. The fact is, that in prospecting along the edge of the woods about a mile from this to-day, I came upon the body of a murdered man.
"Thur ain't no palace hotel round these diggin's, ef that's what you mean," the man leered at her. "You c'n come along t' camp 'ith me ef you ain't too stuck up." "To camp!" faltered Margaret in dismay, wondering what her mother would say. "Are there any ladies there?" A loud guffaw greeted her question. "Wal, my woman's thar, sech es she is; but she ain't no highflier like you.
"They had met the stranger and were standing talking to him about his luck in the diggin's. This stranger, who is the other prisoner, was inclined to be sassy, and made a pass at Rawhide with his fist, telling him to mind his own business and not ask so many questions. Rawhide struck back; and Allen, coming out from behind some bushes, began shooting."
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