The Peril Finders

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

  OFF AGAIN.

  A short halt of a day or two only was made by the lake at first, andthen an excursion which had been made successfully in search of gamehaving resulted in the discovery of a more suitable spot higher uptowards the mountains, a week was spent there in a beautiful littlevalley, where an abundant stream of crystal purity emptied itself intothe wide-spreading lake. Pasturage was there for the horses and mules,and almost without effort food was to be had at the expense of a fewcartridges, while very little skill was needed for Griggs and the boysto draw salmon-like and trout-like fish to the banks.

  In a day or two the perils and sufferings of the journey across the saltplains were forgotten, and careful searching for signs of Indians havingproved that they were the sole occupants of the district, the wholeparty gave themselves up to the pleasures of the peaceful life they wereenjoying. But not for long.

  Griggs had entered into the spirit of the chase, the fishing and thesearch for vegetable food. He was as eager too when the doctor ledexcursions into gully and up hill-sides of a part of the world thatseemed to the adventurers as if it had never before been trodden by thefoot of man, and ready to point out fresh flowers, or indications ofmetal or other minerals where the cliff was bared or splintered by somefall from above. But over the camp-fire at night, in some rocky nook,or beneath the spreading boughs of a gigantic spruce-fir, a hint or aword or two brought him back to the prime motive of their journey.

  "I'm ready when you are, gentlemen," he cried. "I don't say this isn'tgrand, and that we oughtn't to be as happy as the day is long in a placelike this, but we didn't come out here only to enjoy a hunting-party.There's that map, you know."

  "Yes," said the doctor gravely, "there's the map. But you don't thinkthis is a likely part of the country?"

  "Not down here, sir; but from where we stood to-day after stalking thosebirds, I could see the mountains opening out in gulch and rift andhollow, beyond which there was peak and point and pass that looked asmuch like the sort of country as could be."

  "I noted the grand scenery too," said the doctor.

  "And I," added Wilton. "It's made me long to begin exploring again, forthere was no sign of desert that I could see."

  "It's a grand country," said Bourne, "and the wonder to me is that ithas not been settled. Why do you laugh, boy?"

  "Oh, it was only at something I thought, sir," said Chris.

  "What was it?"

  "That the salt plains were enough to keep anybody from coming as far asthis."

  "That's it, my lad," said Griggs. "Men may have come prospecting inthis direction for gold, but I shouldn't be a bit surprised to find thatthis is only a patch of good land round and about these mountains, andthat if we went far enough in any direction we should come to the saltplains again, shutting it in and keeping people back."

  "It is possible," said the doctor.

  "It's more than likely, sir. If it were not so, wouldn't people havesettled here?"

  "It is very far from civilisation, Griggs," said Bourne.

  "Most new places are far from civilisation, sir," cried Griggs. "Butlook all round here, sir; if a good strong party of men came here withtheir wives and children they'd make their own civilisation, for itseems to me that we can find here already pretty well everything a mancould want. See what it would be after a few years of farm-stockrearing and gardening."

  "Then why not stop and settle here?" said the doctor, smiling.

  "Because we've got gold on the brain, sir," replied Griggs grimly. "Weset ourselves to see if that poor old fellow's story was a fact, andhaving started, I say let's carry out our work. If we don't find outthat his map told the truth, I'm ready to come and open out this bit ofcountry, if you like, for it's ten times the place that we came from.Even now if you say we'll go no further, I'll set to work with you; butbecause it's so beautiful ought we to forget how we're cutting ourselvesoff from the rest of the world?"

  "No," said the doctor emphatically. "I propose we make a fresh startto-morrow farther up into the mountains, and see what there is yonder."

  There was a murmur of agreement at this, in which the boys joined.

  "Yes," said Chris, as he sauntered away soon after with his eyes roamingin every direction in search of danger or something new. "Griggs isright. It's as fine as fine here, and I don't like leaving the fishing;but I am beginning to want a change, aren't you?"

  "No going down-hill again to be roasted and choked with thirst."

  "Of course not," said Chris; "we've had enough of that. I want to dosome of that shooting Griggs was talking about last night."

  "What, the goats up in the mountains?"

  "Yes, and those big horned sheep; but I feel sure he was laughing at usabout their jumping about the precipices, and running along ledges fullgallop when they're only a few inches wide."

  "Oh, I don't know; he hadn't got that queer cock of the eye that he haswhen he's spinning a yarn."

  "Well, no; but it was a good deal like throwing the hatchet. Didn't yousee how serious your father looked?"

  "Yes, but not so serious as your father did when Griggs declared thathe'd seen flocks of those sheep running away from people stalking themtill they got to the edges of the precipices where they could go nofarther; and then jump down head first so as to come on the great thicktwisted horns which cover their foreheads, and bounce up again, and goon running along a lower part."

  "Yes, I saw. Why, a big, heavy sheep if he came down like that wouldbreak his horns."

  "Break his horns!" cried Ned. "He'd break his neck."

  "I should like to shoot one of those fellows," said Chris.

  "Or be below when one of them jumped, came down on his head, and brokehis neck," said Ned. "I say, mutton--neck of mutton--leg of mutton!Wouldn't a good roast joint be a treat?"

  "Oh, what a fellow you are for thinking about eating!" cried Chrisimpatiently.

  "And so are you for drinking," replied Ned. "You're always on thelookout for water."

  "Well, we must drink a great deal in such a thirsty land."

  "Yes, and we must eat a deal to keep up one's strength," said Ned. "Ican't help getting hungry when we're walking about so much. I supposeit's because I'm growing fast."

  "Yea, that's it," said Chris, smiling. "I get very hungry too. It'sall right; I won't laugh at you any more. I say, what lots of thoselittle gophers there are here. Look there; why, there must be about ahundred up on that patch of sandy ground. Watching us to see if we'recoming, and ready to pop into their holes."

  "I see them. There's one of those little round tots of owls sittingthere too just outside the burrow. It's quite comic to see the gophersliving so sociably with the little owls."

  Chris gave a shout just then, and the colony of little burrowing animalsresembling the marmots of the Alps disappeared into their holes with anaccompaniment of angry warning whistles, just as a huge eagle camesailing along overhead, swooping so near that a good marksman couldeasily have brought it down.

  "Seems a pity to go away from a place where there's so much to see,"said Chris, after a time. "And what for? To find gold. Well, it'sonly yellow metal. We might stay here and find some."

  "Or silver," said Ned.

  "Yes, or lead, or antimony."

  "Or coal," cried Ned.

  "Ah, that would be useful for making our cooking fire," said Chris."But there's plenty of wood everywhere, and I won't complain. I want togo on and see more. Every place we come to seems more wonderful thanthe last, and there's no knowing what we may find next."

  "We shall see," said Ned, yawning, for the darkness was sweeping up thesides of the hills, leaving the hollows black, and they had had a longand tiring day. "I suppose we shall start, then, to-morrow."

  "For a certainty. I wonder what our next camping-place may be like."

  "That ruined city described by the old prospector, perhaps," said Ned,laughing. "But what are we going to do then--load th
e mules with gold,and go back again?"

  "I hope not," cried Chris. "I don't want to go back. Why, we haven'tshot a buffalo yet."

  "So much the better for the buffalo," said Ned, yawning again.

  "I say, don't do that," cried Chris querulously.

  "I wasn't doing anything."

  "Yes, you were; opening your mouth as wide as you could, just like oldSkeeter when he's getting ready to bray."

  "Whinny," said Ned correctively. "He isn't a donkey."

  "I know that. He can't bray. He whinnies and squeals; but he tries tobray, and opens his mouth just like you do."

  "Perhaps so," said Ned, changing the conversation at once. "I say,doesn't that peak look beautiful? It's just as if it is red-hot."

  "You'd find it pretty cold if you were up there," said Chris, giving upmaking rude allusions to his companion's yawning.

  "Yes; that always seems to me so strange," said Ned.

  "What does?"

  "That the nearer you get up to the sun the colder it is. It ought to behotter."

  "Don't find fault with nature," said Chris dogmatically. "I wasn'tfinding fault. I only say it seems queer. I want to thoroughlyunderstand why it is."

  "Ask your father, he knows."

  "I did," said Ned, "and he said it was because the atmosphere wasthinner, the higher you get."

  "Then the lower you get I suppose the thicker it is," said Christhoughtfully, "and that's why it's so thick and hot down there on thesalt desert. Oh, my word, how it used to scorch! It was just as if thehaze was one great burning-glass."

  "Oh, I say," cried Ned dolefully, "I wish you wouldn't."

  "Wouldn't what?"

  "Talk about the heat on the salt plains. We're going to start offafresh to-morrow morning, and I shall begin dreaming about what we wentthrough over yonder."

  "Poor old chap!"

  "Ah, you may laugh, but it'll all come back like a nightmare, with theburning thirst and giddiness, and the black spots before one's eyes."

  "That's biliousness," said Chris, speaking authoritatively, like adoctor's son.

  "I don't care what it is. It's very horrible," said Ned, "and if Ithought we were going through a time like that again I should want tostop at home."

  "Where's that?" said Chris dryly.

  "Ah, to be sure," said Ned, with a sigh. "I forgot where we were. Isuppose there'll be no home again till we've found the gold."

  "And that won't be to-night," said Chris, as a shrill whistle rang outthrough the clear evening air. "There's old Griggs calling us just asif we were dogs. I've a good mind not to hear."

  But Chris answered the whistle all the same, and the boys were soonafter joined by the American, who had come to meet them, and his firstwords were--

  "Now, boys, bed and a good long sleep. We're off again at daybreak."