XIV. Pat Casey Helps Out 161 XV. Horace Greeley Comes to Town 171 XVI. Two Tenderfeet Arrive 180 XVII. Another Call for Hustle 192 XVIII. Never Say Die! 201 XIX. To the Pound-a-Day 211 XX. Millions in Sight 224 XXI. Terry Makes a Deal 233 XXII. The "Virginia Consolidated" 241 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS DRAWINGS BY H. FISK. PAGE "None of that, Mr. Ike Chubbers!" repeated Harry, stoutly forcing the muzzle upward (frontis) "Terry flew to the cart ... flew back again with the precious fluid" 65 "The giant sat down with an explosive grunt, and Harry stood over, scarcely panting, revolver dangling in hand" 167 "You dare to lay hand on this or interfere in any way and I'll show you what a Californy Forty-niner knows about protecting property" 245 THE GREAT PIKE'S PEAK RUSH CHAPTER I TO THE MOUNTAINS OF GOLD "Twenty-five thousand people--and more on the way! Think of that!" exclaimed Mr. Richards, Terry's father. It was an evening in early April, 1859, and spring had come to the Richards ranch, up the Valley of the Big Blue, Kansas Territory. Excitement had come, too, for Harry (Harry Revere, that is, the clever, boyish Virginia school-teacher who was a regular member of the family) had been down to the town of Manhattan, south on the Kansas River and the emigrant trail there, and had brought back some Kansas City and St. Louis papers. They were brimming with the news of a tremendous throng of gold-seekers swarming to cross the plains for the new gold fields, discovered only last year, in the Pike's Peak country of the Rocky Mountains. "Do you suppose it's true, Ralph? So many?" appealed Mrs. Richards, doubting. "Whew!" gasped Terry--the third man in the family. At least, he worked as hard as any man. "I believe it," asserted Harry. "Manhattan's jammed and the trail in both directions is a sight!" "So are Kansas City and Leavenworth, according to the dispatches," laughed Terry's father. "People from the east are flocking across Iowa, to the Missouri River, and the steamboats up from St. Louis are loaded to the guards--everybody bound for the Pike's Peak country and the Cherry Creek diggin's there. It beats the California rush of Forty-nine and Fifty." "But twenty-five thousand, Ralph!" Mother Richards protested. "Yes, and the papers say there'll be a hundred thousand before summer's over." "Oh, Pa! Can't we go?" pleaded Terry. "And quit the ranch?" "But if we don't go now all the gold will be found."