Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [194]
Oz opened the bag and tipped the nuggets on to his palm, looking up at Jack in shocked surprise.
‘There’s some gold dust too. I didn’t bring that down with me, but I’ll get it for you,’ Jack added.
‘You kept this for me even though you knew you’d have to go?’ Oz asked, squinting up at Jack.
‘Sure I did, it’s not mine to keep.’
‘There’s not many that honest,’ Oz said thoughtfully. ‘Reckon I did the right thing after all.’
‘You did, Oz,’ Jack said, assuming he meant letting him stay and build a cabin on his claim. ‘I’ve been happy here, and since Beth came out, even happier.’
‘So are you gonna get hitched?’
Beth giggled. ‘He hasn’t asked me, Oz. Don’t embarrass him.’
‘A girl who can make pancakes like these and play the fiddle as sweet as you is worth her weight in gold,’ Oz said, stuffing in another mouthful. ‘I’ll ask her meself, Jack, if you don’t look sharp and do it.’
‘I ain’t gonna ask her in front of you,’ Jack said, and grinned. ‘But we’ve got plans to go to Vancouver. I’d better go down the creek and see if someone can row us to Dawson later. We can’t all get in your boat, not with the dogs too.’
‘You can take my boat. I’ve got it in mind to walk with the dogs, maybe drop in here and there on some old pals on the way. But first we got some business to do.’
‘I’ll get the gold dust,’ Jack said.
‘I didn’t mean that, son,’ Oz said, getting to his feet and walking into his cabin.
‘He’ll want me to sign something about giving up the lay,’ Jack whispered to Beth.
Oz came back holding a piece of paper in his hand. ‘There you are, son,’ he said. ‘Your ten per cent.’
Jack looked puzzled as he looked at the piece of paper. Beth came closer and saw it was a banker’s draft for 20,000 dollars, made payable to Jack Child.
She gasped. ‘You sold the claim for two hundred thousand?’ she exclaimed.
‘You didn’t lose it in a poker game to Olsen?’ Jack asked.
‘’ Course I didn’t. I seen too many men go down that way.’ Oz chuckled. ‘I won some money and lost it too, got myself drunker than I thought possible. But I weren’t gonna gamble that away. I sold it to Olsen.’
‘But why give me ten per cent?’ Jack asked, his voice shaking with emotion.
‘Cos you’ve looked after me good all winter. Been like a son to me. Besides, if you hadn’t dug them holes, I’d never have found more gold. Word in Dawson was that I was all washed up. Olsen wouldn’t have given me ten cents for the claim without seeing some gold.’
‘I can’t take it,’ Jack said, tears glinting in his eyes. ‘It’s too much!’
‘You took a lay here, you might a struck gold yerself any time. Only fair I give you a share. We’ve been pardners, ain’t we?’
Jack looked stunned. He kept glancing at the banker’s draft and then back to Oz.
‘You clinched it when you gave me those nuggets,’ Oz said. ‘I’m gonna spread it around Honest Jack is gonna marry Gypsy Queen. Think of it as a wedding present.’
Chapter Thirty-six
‘We’ll stay at the Fairview Hotel tonight,’ Jack said as he tied the boat up at the shore in Dawson. ‘You put on your prettiest dress and later we’ll parade up and down Front Street.’
‘I’ll have to get my good clothes from the restaurant,’ she said absentmindedly, distracted by all the new buildings erected since the fire. It was as though the disaster had never happened except that the replacement shops, saloons and dance halls were more substantial and grander than before.
There were also thousands of people milling around. Many of them were just as shabbily dressed and weary-looking as the newcomers had been the previous year, but it was staggering how many were fashionably dressed, city-type folk. As Oz had said, there were also a great many very respectable-looking women and children.
Beth had heard that a railway had been built to take passengers from Skagway over the White Pass, but she doubted any of these