By the Great Horn Spoon!

As the days pass, and “Bullwhip’s” fame continues to spread, Praiseworthy begins to “enjoy his notoriety” (136). Soon, he stops shaving, as if to transition into his new, rough image. He and Jack buy a canvas tent, so they can live close to Billy and his claim. One day, Jack finds his first nugget of gold. It’s only the size of an acorn, but he’s wildly excited. That evening, the pair receive a letter from Dr. Buckbee, who is in Panama, weak from yellow fever. He asks them to act as his agents in the matter of his stolen gold map. If they can retrieve it from the highwaymen who stole Cut-Eye Higgins’s coat, he’ll give them 50% of the proceeds. Praiseworthy has doubts, reasoning that the bandits probably lost no time in tearing open Cut-Eye’s coat and digging Buckbee’s claim. Billy agrees, laughing that in these parts, alleged treasure maps are a dime a dozen.

Jack and Billy visit an auction by the trader Cheap John, who starts the bidding for an item he says was sent to him by “mistake”: a bushel of neckties. By way of another mistake, Jack accidentally buys them, for eight dollars. Bowties aren’t part of the wardrobe of any miner, and Jack is mortified by his purchase. Praiseworthy, however, declares it a “brilliant” purchase, adding cryptically that in a day or two the bowties will be a hot item.

The next day, Billy shows Jack and Praiseworthy how to dig a “coyote hole,” a well-like shaft used to reach gold dust that has settled deep into the soil. The trio shovels the dirt from the hole into a Long Tom, a wooden sluice box with iron riffles on the inside to catch gold. The following morning, Praiseworthy is issued a challenge: A man from the rival town of Grizzly Flats has heard of his fighting prowess, and would like to box him. This man, the Mountain Ox, can barely write his own name, but is large and strong. Praiseworthy agrees without hesitation. Since he and Jack are due to leave on a prospecting trip, he sets the date of the match for some weeks later, in August. Jack looks “at Praiseworthy as if a complete stranger had been hiding for years under the elegant manners of a butler” (148). Billy thinks Praiseworthy has lost his mind, and suggests he write his last will and testament.

Soon afterward, a commotion sweeps through the diggings: Quartz Jackson has come to Hangtown with his new bride. It’s been months since any of the men have seen a woman, and they are suddenly self-conscious about their appearance, much as Quartz was before his haircut and shave. As the miners drop their picks and shovels and rush off to groom themselves, Praiseworthy gives Jack a knowing look. Jack fetches his bushel of neckties, and a bidding frenzy ensues. Within 20 minutes every necktie is sold, and Jack and Praiseworthy have more than enough gold dust to buy themselves a burro.

As they leave Hangtown on their trip to seek a claim, Jack asks Praiseworthy if he truly intends to return in mid-August to fight the Mountain Ox, and the butler reaffirms himself. Ashamed at having won his reputation as “Bullwhip” with a weighted glove, he looks forward to fighting the Mountain Ox bare-knuckled. He also has a secret weapon: his literacy. Once, in Arabella’s library, Praiseworthy read an illustrated guide to “the fine art of fisticuffs,” which he found “fascinating” (157). He expects that, with a little practice, he’ll have a decisive edge over the Mountain Ox.

For days, Jack and Praiseworthy follow the mountain streams on their burro. Their findings are meager, but Praiseworthy doesn’t seem to mind: Jack often catches him “gazing at some distant view as if it didn’t matter if they ever got back to Boston” (160). One fateful night, they meet a miner on his way to Shirt-Tail Camp to have a tooth pulled by a dentist named “Doc Higgins.” Praiseworthy jokes that the good “doctor” (Cut-Eye Higgins) probably extracts his customers’ gold pouches along with their teeth.

One evening, while Praiseworthy practices his shadowboxing, Jack goes hunting for jackrabbits. He comes across a grizzly bear, and while backing away, falls down a 20-foot coyote hole. To summon help, he shoots his squirrel gun into the air, and immediately, a man’s face appears overhead. The man lowers a rope to pull Jack out of the hole, and says his squirrel gun almost shot his hat off. Jack recognizes the man’s white linen coat as Cut-Eye’s—marking his savior as one of the highwaymen who robbed the stagecoach.

The man doesn’t deny the theft, but says he is now “retired.” He says his accomplices were all caught and had their ears cut off. He alone managed to escape, but not without a “load of buckshot” in his backside; he hasn’t “been able to sit down in a month” (166). Jack levels his squirrel gun at the man, and demands the coat, which (presumably) still has Dr. Buckbee’s map in the lining. The former bandit laughs, and reminds Jack that his one-shot squirrel gun is empty. Still, he strips off the coat and throws it to Jack, saying that it gives him a “bad conscience” to wear it. After the man leaves, Jack discovers that the map isn’t in the coat, and never was: Cut-Eye has deceived them again. Praiseworthy consoles Jack, as they at least know where Cut-Eye is: at Shirt-Tail Camp, pretending to be a dentist. Furthermore, the butler believes Cut-Eye hasn’t found the gold mine on his stolen map, otherwise he wouldn’t be wasting his time pulling teeth.