CHAPTER XIII
DEEPER INTO THE WONDERLAND
"OH! it must all be true, Dick!"
These words burst from Roger's lips as he stood gazing at the wonderfulsight. Of course he referred to the strange tales which they had heardfrom some of the Mandans, and which also passed current among thefrontiersmen connected with the expedition.
Dick was hardly less staggered than his cousin, and, as for Mayhew, hehad the look of one who believed himself face to face with the spiritworld.
As they shrank back and watched the amazing fountain pour its floodtoward the sky, and heard the thunder of the falling water, strangethoughts flitted through their minds.
"Look, Dick, it's slackening now!" cried Roger, presently, though hehad to exercise his vocal cords considerably in order to make himselfheard above the tumult of the gushing geyser.
"Yes, I believe it is about to stop!" echoed the other boy, notwithout perceptible relief in his tones.
All at once they realized that the flow of steaming water had ended asabruptly as it had begun. The pool was still agitated at the spot wherethe base of the pillar of water had been located, but the terriblegeyser had ceased to flow. (Note 3.)
By degrees the two boys began to recover from the stagnation of mindand body into which they had been thrown.
"Come, the danger seems to be past,--for the present, at least,"remarked Dick; "let us look into this thing while we have the chance."
"Just as you say," replied Roger, eagerly. "After this, when any onespeaks of these unbelievable things, we can tell what we have seen withour own eyes; and how we were saved from the Indian attack by thatfountain of hot water."
With considerable uneasiness, however, the two approached the spotwhere the base of the water-spout had been. As for Mayhew, nothingcould tempt him to advance a single step. Indeed, he shook his headseveral times in a doubtful fashion, as though he believed it theheight of folly for the others to take their lives in their hands insuch a reckless way.
"Why, there's a hole in the solid rock, Dick, and it all came out ofthat!" Roger exclaimed, after they had drawn close enough to be able tosee.
"It had to come from some sort of cavity, of course," remarked Dick,"and that hole is the place. I think it must ascend once in so often,for here is a regular runway where the water passes off. And to thinkthat this same thing may have been going on for years!"
They listened to ascertain whether they could detect any sign of agreat disturbance down in the aperture, but without very much success.Now that it was all over, the boys began to regain their courage, whichhad in fact been greatly shaken by the gushing of the mighty geyser.
"The Indians have all fled, which is one comfort," observed Roger,presently.
"Yes, it was too much for them," added his companion. "They believethese things are caused by the Evil Spirit that dwells inside theearth, and that he must have been angry at them because they tried tocapture or kill us."
"As usual, we have been lucky; when even the water-spouts stand back ofus, what have we to fear?"
"But now that all is quiet, the Indians may pluck up courage enough toreturn," Dick suggested. "We must not take too many chances by stayinghere. Another time the water might not come in time to save us."
"I would like to stay long enough to watch it rise again," Rogerobjected; "but then you are right, and it would be folly. There may beothers like this in this Wonderland. If half the Indians tell is true,we have many more things to see that will make us open our eyes. I amready to believe almost anything after this."
"Watch Mayhew, Roger, and you will see that we cannot get away fromhere any too soon to suit him."
"No, he keeps standing first on one foot and then on the other, whilehe looks to the right and left. I really think he has already pickedout which way he will run if it should break loose again."
"And neither of us can blame him," added Dick, "for you know that mostof his life he has associated only with Indians, and such rough men ofthe border as ignorant fur-takers and half-breeds. He thinks about thesame as they do about all things hard to understand, and that spiritscan come back after death. Our mothers taught us differently, but weshould not condemn those who do not know any better."
"He is a brave man, and he means to stand with us to the end," saidRoger. "Only for that he would have run away as swiftly as the Indiansdid. But, Dick, do you believe this was the cause of that heavyrumbling we heard some time back?"
"I couldn't say. It may have been, for you remember that the noiseseemed to come and go, at intervals."
"And the trembling of the rocks under our feet, too! That must havebeen caused by something like this. The hot spring where we said wecould have cooked an egg, or made our tea, that may have been theoverflow from here, or another fountain like it."
"All we know is that those stories told by the Indians had a foundationin fact. And yet, most people will believe we have simply imaginedthese things when we tell them what we have seen and heard."
"Yes," sighed Roger, "I only wish there was some way to show them.Seeing is believing, mother always says."
But unfortunately this all happened early in the nineteenth century,and the camera, by which those amazing geysers might have been caughtin action, and displayed to people at the other side of the world, hadnot even taken form in the brain of the most advanced inventor.
Slowly the lads walked back to where the guide awaited their coming.Mayhew looked relieved when they rejoined him. Apparently he had beendubious as to whether they would be allowed to return; he may even havesuspected that the angry gods who sent that gushing fountain soaringtwo hundred feet into the air might stretch out their arms and drag thelads into the yawning crater, to be served as a sacrifice.
Which way to head now was rather a difficult question to answer. If itwere left entirely to the discretion of Mayhew, Dick feared the guidemight take it into his head to veer around and start back toward thecamp, believing that in so doing he would be serving the interests ofthe boys best by possibly saving their lives.
Consequently Dick meant to keep his hand on the helm, and do most ofthe directing. Captain Clark had instructed the guide to put himselfentirely at the disposal of the boys, so that in reality it was Dick'splace to do the ordering.
Looking around them, it was hard to tell which way they had bettergo. Everything was so strange that although, of course, they knewthe points of the compass, and in a general way could understand thatthey must have come in from the east, still who could say whether thebeckoning west was their wisest goal, or some other direction?
"We had better try to keep on, and find that valley toward whichJasper Williams was headed," urged Dick, after they had consulted. "Heis a stubborn man in his way, and, even though deserted by both hiscompanions, I believe he would push straight on, so that he might boastof having reached the place he started for."
"And if the Blackfeet have failed to capture or kill him," venturedRoger, "we may find him there--of course granting that we reach thatHappy Valley ourselves."
That point having been decided, they started. It was not long, however,before they began to realize that amidst those remarkable cones andthickets and rocky defiles it was a most difficult thing to keep theirbearings.
"It seems as though we had come over this part of the ground before,"admitted Dick, "for familiar objects turn up on every hand; and yet howcan that be when we have kept going straight into the northwest fornearly an hour now?"
"There is something wrong about it all, I'm afraid, boys," declared theguide, with a distrustful shrug of his broad shoulders. "I'm thinkingwe will meet with some queer experiences before we see another sunrise.As for myself, I am wondering whether any of us will get through italive."
It was not the hostile Indians that caused Mayhew to say this, nor yetthe fact that all sorts of wild beasts doubtless roamed these wildplaces by night. He was accustomed to taking his chances with suchordinary perils, and scorned them as a true-hearted borderer must. But,de
ep down in his honest heart, Mayhew feared the supernatural. What hecould not understand stood for something dreadful, that sent the coldchill of apprehension up and down his backbone.
"Listen, there is the spouting water at it again!" exclaimed Roger.
True enough, they could catch a deep-throated rumbling sound thatseemed to make the very atmosphere vibrate. But Dick immediately made adiscovery which he voiced in excited words:
"If that be so," he told them, "what miracle is this; for we surelyhear that sound ahead of us, and all this while we have been in thebelief that the great water-spout lay back yonder toward the east!"
That afforded Mayhew another opportunity to look worried.
"It's black magic, that's what I believe. The east has become the west!We have all been turned around, and right now I cannot say which wayI am looking, although I can see the sun hanging up there above thatglittering peak."
"Dick, what can it mean?" demanded Roger, uneasily.
"I can think of but one explanation!" declared the other, steadily."That is not the same spouting water we heard just now! You rememberthat we decided there might be others of the same kind in this countryof wonders."
It almost seemed as though nature took delight in proving the accuracyof Dick Armstrong's surmise; for, hardly had he said this, than theyheard once again the remarkable throb of rushing waters pouring forthfrom a fissure in the crust of the earth and, what was more, it camefrom some point toward the rear!
Roger smiled faintly, while even Mayhew condescended to let some of theworried look pass away from his face.
"I should not like to roam about this terrible country afternightfall," said Roger, shuddering; "for there is too much danger ofstepping into some bottomless pit, or having a deluge of boiling waterthrown over your head. It's a question up here in the winter-timewhether you are going to be frozen to death in a bitter storm, orroasted by the fires that are under the earth. I think we must begetting pretty close to where the Evil One lives, Dick. His workshopmay be around these hills, for all we know."
Dick, however, shook his head. He was proof against all belief in thesupernatural. Such wonders as had been encountered on the trip he feltsure were after all but the products of an eccentric nature. Thoughthey might strike one as bewildering at first, familiarity would dullthis feeling of amazement, though it could never breed contempt.
"We have a short time still before the sun sinks," remarked Dick;"shall we go on further or spend the night here?"
"I'd rather find a better place if it's the same to you," Roger startedto say, when to his astonishment Dick suddenly clutched him by thearm, and started to drag him away.
At the same moment Roger became aware of a peculiar and alarming sound,as though loose rocks and shale were slipping down an abrupt slope.
The Pioneer Boys of the Yellowstone; or, Lost in the Land of Wonders Page 16