Boy Scouts in Mexico; Or, On Guard with Uncle Sam

by G. Harvey Ralphson

  CHAPTER XX.

  BLACK BEARS TO THE RESCUE.

  Frank Shaw drew Nestor aside as the boys searched about the cavern fornuggets. As a small one was occasionally discovered, the quest wasconducted with an enthusiasm which left the two to themselves.

  "It is a strange chance that has brought us to this mine," Nestor said,thoughtfully. "It seems like a fairy tale come true."

  "Do you really think this is the long lost Tolford mine?" asked Frank."I think it is," was the reply. "The location is right, at least."

  "It is remarkable," Frank said, "but we can talk of that at anothertime. I called you over here to ask you more about the fourth man--theone you referred to, but a short time ago, as having visited theCameron suite that night. I didn't think much of the idea when yousuggested it, but, somehow, I can't get it out of my head. Do youstill believe there was a fourth man? If so, what was he there for?"

  "That will show in time," replied Nestor, with a little pause aftereach word.

  "But," insisted Frank, seeking to argue the matter in order to bringout the opinion of his chum, "these other men had strong motives indoing what was done there, and you don't indicate any motive the fourthman might have had!"

  "I have a faint hint of a motive humming in my brain," Nestor answered,"but it is not sufficiently well developed to talk about now. Therewas something afoot in the building that night that has not yet come tothe surface."

  "You surely don't believe the tales told by Scoby and Felix, or by DonMiguel, either?" asked Frank.

  "They may be telling the truth, or part of the truth. However, Scobyand Felix are not sincere in their statements. There is something theyare not telling."

  "Well," Frank observed, "we ought to be getting down to brass tacks. Ifwe get Fremont away from those ruffians to-night he'll want to bejumping at something right away, and there ought to be a line of worklaid out."

  "Don't get excited," laughed Nestor. "We're getting along pretty well.We've found the mine, and we've taken three prisoners. If there was afourth man in the mixup that night, we'll soon know who he was and whyhe was there."

  "I wish I knew whether the munitions of war got across the border,"Frank said, after a pause.

  "The mountain has been remarkably quiet to-day," suggested Nestor.

  "What does that mean?"

  "Don't you think the men would be making a lot of noise if they hadarms in their hands?" Nestor asked.

  "Perhaps they are making noise somewhere."

  "They may make all the noise they want to, if they keep off Texassoil," replied Nestor.

  "I have been talking with Stevens," Frank went on, "and he gives adoleful account of the situation in New York. They left nearly twodays after you did, you remember. It is said that Cameron is notlikely to recover, and that he still, in a rambling way, talks ofFremont as the person who assaulted him. That looks bad."

  "It is fortunate that we got the boy out of New York," replied Nestor."Even the temporary captivity he is undergoing is better than theTombs."

  "I'm afraid he's on the way to the Tombs now," Frank said. "He surelyis unless we can do something immediately. The big rascal may comeupon a band of outlaws any minute that would be too strong for us toattack."

  During this talk Jimmie had been searching for nuggets on the easternside of the chamber, finding a small one occasionally when the lightwas turned toward him. As Shaw finished speaking the boy foundanother, and the watcher was wondering how rich the earth was.

  Then he saw the boy, stooping to the floor of the cavern, evidently inquest of more gold, he being at that time close to the east wall,suddenly throw up his arms and disappear, apparently through the veryfloor of the chamber.

  Frank stood for a second looking toward the place where this strangedisappearance had taken place, rubbed his eyes to make sure that he waswide awake, and then uttered a cry which brought the others hastily tohis side.

  When the boys reached the point of disappearance they looked for afissure in the rocky floor, but found none. Instead, they saw a round,smooth opening into what seemed to be another tunnel. The light, whenheld into the dark break in the rock, revealed a landing about six feetdown, but Jimmie was not in sight. Presently, however, the alarmedboys heard his voice, coming up out of the darkness.

  "Hey, there!" he said. "Get a rope and a light! I'm on a toboggan!"

  "In a second," Harry replied. "Are you falling?"

  "No, I'm hangin' on with me toes!" was the reply. "Hurry up, youfellers! I'll drop clear into the middle of the world if I let go!"

  Harry darted away to the outer chamber and brought a line from hiscamping outfit. Tying a piece of stone to one end, to act as a sinker,he dropped it into the mouth of the tunnel.

  "Catch it!" he called to the boy.

  "Nothin' doin'!" returned Jimmie. "I'm hangin' out in space. If Ishould let go with one finger or one toe I'd take a tumble through toChina. One of you fellows come down on the rope. Hurry!"

  "Are you hurt?" asked Nestor, anxiously.

  "Not on your life, only in me feelings," replied Jimmie. "It breaks metender heart to get into a hole I can't help meself out of! Come ondown with that rope!"

  Nestor drew up the line, tied one end about his waist, and, wonderingwhat might lie within the forbidding place, and where it might lead to,was slowly lowered into the tunnel. The flashlight showed a levelspace about two yards in extent at the bottom of the shaft, directlyunder the opening, but beyond that the tunnel dropped away toward theeast and the middle of the Chinese empire, as Jimmie declared. Thefall of the passage, which was not more than six feet in diameter, wasat least fifty degrees.

  As soon as his feet struck the little landing Nestor saw Jimmie lyingflat on his stomach on the incline below, hanging on with his fingersfor dear life. As Nestor looked the boy's fingers slipped on thesmooth rock and he started, feet foremost, down the dark passage.

  Calling to the boys above to cling tightly to the rope and to pay itout slowly, Nestor slid swiftly downward until the slack of the linewas gone, and was then brought up with a quick jerk, with the stillslipping boy's head a foot away from his hands. He whirled about anddropped his feet down the passage.

  There was a second of nervous strain, and then he felt Jimmie's handsclinging to his shoes. He called to the boy to hang on and to theothers at the top to draw the line, and both were soon on the landingat the bottom of the shaft.

  "I wonder where that hole goes?" Jimmie asked, examining his fingers,the ends of which were torn from slipping on the rock.

  "You came near finding out," Nestor replied. "Regular rabbits, theseold-timers were, to dig tunnels!" he added.

  Then assisting Jimmie out of the shaft, Nestor asked the boys to getall the rope they had in their outfits, making a line as long aspossible, and ease him down the steep incline. In five minutes all wasready and, with a line 400 feet long attached to his waist, Nestorstarted down the tunnel.

  As he passed along, half sliding, with the rope holding him back, theflashlight in hand, he saw that the passage had been cut along the lineof a natural fault in the volcanic rock. It was clear that, duringsome seismic disturbance, probably hundreds of years before, thecontinuity of strata, until then on the same plane, had been broken,leaving a fissure where the drop had taken place.

  There was no means of estimating the extent of the verticaldisplacement, but the boy was satisfied that it was the differencebetween the height of the range at the place where the cavern openedand the height to the north, probably three hundred feet or more. Thenorth end of the range had dropped down. The horizontal displacementwas not more than six feet, and it was through this that the tunnel ran.

  The walls of the passage were smooth, and the floor was like polishedglass, a fact which the boy was at first at a loss to account for. Onthe north side the wall was dark and there were no traces of gold,while that on the south showed spots of precious metal.

  Nestor proceeded down the incline until
there was little more ropeleft, as the boys called out from above, and then came to an opening.He was now nearly 400 feet from the gold chamber. When he looked out ofthe round opening to which he had come he saw that beyond ran a deepgully, or canyon. At the point where the opening cut the wall of thecanyon, however, there was a gradual descent for perhaps 400 feet tothe bottom of the break in the mountain.

  Elsewhere the walls of the canyon seemed to stand perpendicular, andNestor was for a moment puzzled to account for the filling of the breakat that particular spot, as if a rude stairway had been laid to theground below. Then the truth flashed upon him. The tunnel had beenbuilt as a chute for the disposition of the rock crushed in the mine.

  There was no knowing how many years the natives had worked in thatunderground mine, crushing out the gold with rude appliances anddisposing of the refuse by means of the tunnel cut through the fault inthe rock. The canyon into which the crushed rock had been cast was awild and almost inaccessible break almost at the top of the mountainrange, and might have been used for years--perhaps forcenturies--without the truth of its gradual filling up becoming knownto hostile peoples.

  Looking down into the canyon, Nestor wondered if an easy route to thebottom might not be found there. He was already more than 200 feetbelow the shelf of rock from which the mine opened. The floor of thecanyon was at least 400 feet below him, and at the south another cut,running east and west, seemed to connect with the first. He heard thetrinkle of water below, and was satisfied that there was a successionof canyons leading to the plain below, in which case descent would becomparatively easy.

  This piece of good fortune, Nestor congratulated himself, would enablethe boys to reach the camping place of the renegade and his men shortlyafter dark, as the approach to the sandy plain would be comparativelyfree of obstruction. This was an important thing, as there might bemany miles to travel before the next day after Fremont was rescued.

  It was not so easy getting back to the shaft, but in a short timeNestor made his way there and was soon in consultation with hisfriends. All were eager to pass through the tunnel, and so, one byone, they were let down until all were at the slope which led to thebottom of the canyon.

  They found it easy to clamber down the heap of crushed rock to thefloor of the canyon, and also to pass along the bottom at the edge ofthe small stream of water which flowed toward the south. The water hadcut a passage under a ledge at the south, and now flowed eastward,toward the plain.

  Following steadily on, now stooping under natural bridges in the rock,now wading through cuts which the water covered, and which must havebeen roaring torrents during time of storm, the boys finally came to alittle shelf looking east from which the renegade and some of hiscompanions could plainly be seen.

  "Fremont is not so very far away now," Jack said, "and we ought toswarm down there and take him back with us. We ought to take the biglobster Jimmie seems to have on his mind back with us, too!" he added.

  Nestor shook his head, for, much as he desired to hasten the hour ofFremont's release, he saw that an attempt at rescue now would bedangerous. It was certain that the outlaws, not suspecting that theyhad been trailed over the mountain by the tireless Boy Scouts, would beoff guard at night.

  "Of course we want to capture that big lobster," Jimmie said. "We wantto know why he was so anxious for Nestor's society!"

  "I think that question can easily be answered now," Nestor said, but hedid not answer it.

  Leaving the view of the spot where Fremont was a captive reluctantly,the boys went back to the gold chamber by the series of canyons bywhich they had left it. It was not an easy journey, for there wereplaces where strength and skill were required, but at last they drewthemselves up the chute by means of the rope, after which they againfell to investigating the provision boxes which the newcomers hadbrought in.

  By the time they had finished a second tolerably satisfactory repast,it began to grow dark, although the sun was still an hour from setting.Black masses of clouds were forming, and now and then flashes oflightning, darting from cloud to cloud, and from cloud-mass to earth,cut the gathering darkness.

  Then a drenching rain-storm came on, and Nestor believed that the timefor the attack on the captors of his friend had arrived. In thedarkness and storm the outlaws would not be expecting danger. The windalmost flung the boys from their feet when they came to open shelves ofrock on their way to the plain below, but they kept steadily on theircourse.