A Fortune Hunter; Or, The Old Stone Corral: A Tale of the Santa Fe Trail
Page 16
Chapter XV.
"Why should they have given 'her' the name which was on the locket? andwho was the mysterious female that never had learned of the tragicalcircumstance?" said Maud, with a puzzled face.
"I am unable to answer your question, Maud," Clifford replied; but therewas something in his manner that led the sharp-eyed couple before him tosuspect he had detected some clue which had eluded them in theirinvestigations of the mystery.
"Cliff, what the deuce was that old skull doing in the cask?" said Rob,innocently; but, seeing the look of amusement on his brother's face, headded: "Or I mean to ask, how came it there?"
"To answer your first question I shall have to remind you that a deadman's skull has a very limited field of action, confined principally tothe pastime of rolling over and rattling its teeth when touched; but howor why it was there, seems only known to the ill-natured ophidian whichkept it such close company," Clifford replied, with his usual strain ofjocular sarcasm.
"Oh dear!" said Maud, drearily, while drumming on the misty window-pane."It is very exasperating to be shut up in a house on such a day, whereevery closet is full of skeletons, and not dare to peep into one ofthem," she added.
"But Cliff has been peeping, and with wonderful luck, too," Robobserved, dryly.
"Oh, I am not the first fortune hunter who has found a skull or serpentwhere he had hoped to find gold!" Clifford replied, with perfect goodnature.
"Oh, Clifford, I shudder to think of the danger you passed through onthat terrible night--all alone in that dismal place, fighting thatvenomous monster, with death in its fangs, while the gray-robed demonhovered near with its fiery eyes and blood-chilling scream," said Maud,tearfully, while winding her arm about her brother's neck.
"Now, dear, soft-hearted Maud, you must remember that the path of thosewho strive for pelf is thickly beset by demons and serpents, althoughthey may wear the human guise and lurk in the shadow of friendship.Many, many are the skeletons of dead hopes and buried dreams that startup as the graves of the past are disturbed," Clifford replied.
"But you shall never spend another night alone up at that ill-omeneddwelling, Clifford; for Rob shall go with you hereafter," she said,while drying her tears.
"Well, but suppose I might choose some fair lady to grace myspectre-haunted home--that would answer as well?" he replied, gaily.
"Oh! that would be a capital plan indeed; but I shall insist on theright to choose her," his sister cried, with returning animation.
"Oh! you are growing very liberal, to say the least, Miss Maud. I guessyou will have to be satisfied with second choice," said Cliff.
After talking awhile over the mystery which had woven such a tangled webabout their home in the last few days, Maud exclaimed:--
"Robbie, dear, won't you go and ask father what name was engraved on thelocket? Also learn all that is possible, for I am just dying ofanxiety;" but as he began to smile with derision, she added, coaxingly:"Now do go, Rob, please; that's a man; father never refuses youanything."
"Catch me at it!" cried Rob, with a shrug. "I don't hanker much afterthe dry job of pumping the colonel," he added, winking at Cliffordsignificantly.
"No, no, Maud, that would never do. Let us await the confidence of ourparents, and try, in the meantime, to pick up what facts we can. Whoknows," he added, "but we may stumble on to some great discovery?"
Little, indeed, did he suspect the great revelations which the day heldin store for them, and that events were about to transpire which wouldchange the tenor of their whole lives.
At Mrs. Warlow's entrance the conversation took on a less sombre hue,and when she told of the news confirming the great land-sale which wassoon to be held at the land office--a fact which she had learned fromthe Estills--it was proposed to take a drive out over the countrynorth-east, and find a section for Maud and Rob, which the colonel wouldbuy for their benefit at the sale.
Accordingly, after dinner, as the weather had cleared, the Warlow familydrove out and viewed a well-watered, rolling tract, equal in extent tothe farms of the colonel and Clifford. After an hour spent thus, it wasthought advisable to drive on westward and examine a country which, intheir busy farm-life, had never been viewed, save at a distance.
On arriving at a point about three miles west of their home, they drovedown into a narrow valley or glen, clothed with tall blue-stem and ranksunflowers, now beginning to unfold their golden blossoms. This jungleof vegetation was woven together by the slender, leafless tendrils ofthe love-vine, which threw a veil of coppery red over the brilliantgreen of the other vegetation.
While driving slowly through this almost impervious mass of vegetation,they discovered a winding but well-beaten trail or pathway, leading ondown the valley, and which, out of pure curiosity, they followed untilit disappeared in a thicket of plum-trees at the base of a low cliff ofmagnesian limestone.
As they paused at the scrubby grove, wondering what could have made thepath, Clifford sprang out of the carriage, saying he would like toinvestigate the matter, and disappeared among the trees. He was gone solong that, after they had called him repeatedly, Rob was on the point ofstarting in search, when Clifford reappeared. As he sprang into thecarriage their questioning was forestalled by his saying that the pathwas possibly made by wolves, and that he had been examining the cliff,but had not succeeded in finding their den.
He appeared so pale and agitated, however, that Maud regarded himsuspiciously; and when the horses flew up the glen along the windingpathway and through tangled thickets of blue-stem and sunflowers, shemanaged to ask in a whisper:--
"What have you discovered, Cliff?"
"A clue to the old mystery--but wait," he whispered in reply; and insilence they drove rapidly back to the Warlow homestead.
As the boys were leading the horses into the barn, Maud called for themto assist her in nailing up some of the lattice which the wind hadshaken down in her arbor; and when they joined her a few minutes laterin the vine-clad bower, she cried in a low, eager tone:--
"Clifford--Clifford! what did you see in that thicket?"
"Yes, out with it--quick!" said Rob; "for I know by your looks that yousaw something queer up there."
"The pathway," said Clifford, hurriedly, "plunged into the thicket ofplums; then, after winding about in a mazy labyrinth, it led up to thebase of a low cliff of limestone, and there ended so abruptly that I waspuzzled to know what to make of it, but noticing that the heavy festoonof grapevines that hung down from the soil above, looked as if they hadbeen disturbed, I hastily drew them aside. Imagine my surprise when arough door was revealed, hung in the face of the cliff. Drawing itopen, there was disclosed a low cell or cavern, which had been partlycarved out of the soft magnesian limestone. Peering into the room, Ibecame satisfied that it was empty of human occupants.
"The room was not more than a dozen feet square, the little furniturewhich it contained being dilapidated beyond description. As I steppedinto the room to examine things more closely, the fact became very plainthat some one had occupied it recently, for the mouldy couch stillshowed the imprint of a human form.
"Some broken utensils stood about on the hearth, where a fire-place hadbeen hewn out of the soft rock. The ashes and charred wood, the bones offish and birds, scattered about on the floor, confirmed the fact that itwas used, in a desultory manner, as a habitation.
"I was turning to leave, thinking perhaps that I had invaded the privatedwelling of some squatter, when my attention was arrested by seeing avial half concealed in a cleft in the rocky wall. Inly wondering why anyone should wish to conceal such a trifle, I drew it forth, rubbing thegrime and dust from it as I did so.
"What was my surprise to see that there was a paper within. In eagerhaste I uncorked the bottle and drew out this document," said he,holding up with trembling hands a sheet that was discolored with age andblotted with mildew, but covered closely with writing, still faintlylegible. "I had only time to glance at the startling title when I heardyour voices calling, so I closed
the door, drew the vines carefullyover the entrance, and joined you, feeling like one in a dream.
"Now let's hasten," he said, "and read this document, which will, Ibelieve, unveil the mystery of Bruce and Ivarene." Then, unrolling thetime-worn paper again, with bated breath and loudly beating heart, heread aloud as follows:--
SEPTEMBER 14, 1849,
"NEAR THE STONE CORRAL, ON THE SANTA FE TRAIL.
"This is written by Ivarene Walraven, late of the City of Mexico, who offers prayers that it may fall into hands of kindness, who will convey to my kinsman, Herr Von Brunn, of Vera Cruz--to him this missive, full of grief and misfortune.
"We were attacked by savages on the night of August 22d, our servants slain, our wealth all gone, and our kind and tender friend, Senor Warlow, murdered. Bruce, my noble husband, he did me wrap within the folds of a serape, and dashed away out on the dark prairie with me in his arms, far, far away from the noise of murder and savagery. He watched by my side in the tall grass all that day next come; for I was ill to death's gate.
"Then, near eventide, there came to us a hunter strange, who said he slay the bison-flesh for trailers by, and beg we go to his hidden cell in a cliffy rock. His evil eyes I much mistrust; but he seem friendly be, and food prepare for us when there we go. On morning rise my babe is born--a daughter sweet--and darling Bruce he tenderly nurses me while the hunter watches near the trail for wagons go by; but day by day nothing sees he; then Bruce he say, 'I shall go myself to-morrow day.' The hunter frown when this he say. That morning, as the hunter go, he say, with cunning smile: 'A flask of wine for senora and senor.' Then leaves he it and go away as at all time. When him had disappeared, I scent a strangeness in the flask, and Bruce poured out a larger part; then broke he the glassen flask upon the floor. When a cup he bring, and say: 'What is the scent of this wine he gave?' I perceive the deadly loco's odor there, and say it poison is; it drives them mad for evermore. Bruce he frown, and meat and drink prepare; and when the hunter he return he say: 'The flask is broken all! give us wine some more.' But the hunter rudely began the meat to eat, waiting not at all. After him did partake in his rude way of the food he threw his coat by; then sat he strangely still awhile. Sprang he at length to his feet with loud shriek and cry, then rushed away into the night. 'Ah! the wine I put into his food is poison be,' Bruce he say while bar the door. In the hunter's coat we find a little book for writing some, and one leaf did have these letter writ:--
* * * * *
"'EAGLE BEAK,--Take all the braves to Pawnee Rock, and there I will go soon. Several jugs of wine are ready for you to take along; but do not let them taste until there; I have put deadly loco in the wine, which will kill them all, or drive them mad; so there will be the less to share the cask of gold--'
* * * * *
"Then it was left unfinished, and another leaf had been torn--some out.
* * * * *
"SEPTEMBER 15th.
"I shall write it more for Bruce; he go to the trail to watch for travelers go. I am all by me, and my blue-eyed, dark-haired daughter here, with barred door I am much secured; but lonely so for darling Bruce.
"I try so hard to plainly use this English tongue, but strange it seems. My baby dear I deck with my mother's locket, where is the picture of dear Bruce and me--my dear mother's name on it: Morelia. Oh, time is lonely now while Bruce away. I will lay this aside, its vial in, and will write it again after I unbar the door and watch for him."