The Cave of Gold

by Everett McNeil

  CHAPTER XXIV

  IN LOT'S CANYON

  The next morning, just as they were about to start on their way Mr.Conroyal called the little company together.

  "You all know what happened last night, and what it means," he said. "Inspite of all our efforts to throw them off, that Ugger gang apparentlyare still on our trail. Now, Dickson says that we can make Lot's Canyonthis afternoon; but, if we do, them skunks will be sure to follow us andto find it, too. Under such circumstances what shall we do? Shall we tryagain to fool them, by not going straight to the canyon to-day and seeif we can't slip into it to-night without being seen? Or, shall we defythem, and march straight for the canyon, without any effort to hide ourtrail?"

  "That last plan hits my bull's-eye," declared Ham emphatically. "If theywant tew foller, let 'em foller. If they want tew fight, we'll give 'emall th' fight they want," and Ham's lips closed grimly. "I'm tired oftryin' tew dodge th' dirty sneakin' murderin' pack of cowards anylonger. I gives my vote for marchin' as straight tew Lot's Canyon as th'good Lord an' Dickson can take us."

  "Bully for Ham!" shouted Bud enthusiastically. "I vote with Ham," and hesprang to Ham's side.

  "So do I," and Thure followed him.

  "Me, too," and, with a laugh, Mrs. Dickson took her stand by the side ofthe boys.

  And, with a cheer, all the others joined her.

  "Reckon that means, straight for Lot's Canyon. Lead on," and Mr.Conroyal turned to Dickson.

  Until about noon the trail wound around great hills of rocks, and in andout of deep gulches and rocky defiles, and over high ridges of rock; andthen, just as the sun was nearing the meridian, it entered a broadmountain-enclosed valley, some six or seven miles long by about twomiles wide. Near the upper end of the valley a tall pinnacle of rocksshot up into the sky, like a church steeple, at the head of what lookedlike an almost precipitous mass of rocks that rose many hundreds of feetabove the level of the valley.

  "See that rock?" and Dickson pointed triumphantly to the steeple-likerock at the head of the valley.

  "Shore, not bein' blind," Ham answered. "What might it be doin' thar?"and he grinned.

  "That rock," and Dickson paused to glance around the circle of facesthat now surrounded him, "stands within half a mile of the Devil'sSlide, which is the only way down into Lot's Canyon. Boys, we should bein Lot's Canyon in two hours!"

  "Hurrah!" yelled Thure.

  "Hurrah!" echoed Bud.

  "Come on," cried Mr. Conroyal. "The sooner we get there the better.Pedro, see if you can't liven up them pack-horses a little."

  "Si, si, senor," and Pedro began hurling volleys of Mexican oaths at thepack-horses and running from one to another of them, striking with hiswhip and urging with his voice, until the patient animals were moving asfast as the safety of their packs would permit.

  Pedro appeared to be in unusually good spirits that day. All the gloomof the day before had vanished with the dawning of the morning of thenight of the hooting owl.

  In an hour and a half, so eagerly did they press forward, our littlecompany had passed the steeple-like pinnacle of rocks; and in anotherfifteen minutes they had climbed to the top of a ridge of rocks, andwere looking down a steep, narrow declivity, cut by the wonderous handof nature, in a precipitous wall of solid rock that rose from the bottomof a canyon five hundred feet below them. The smooth floor of thedeclivity was not over a dozen feet wide and shot downward at an angleof about forty-five degrees.

  "Gosh! I don't wonder Stackpole called that Th' Devil's Slide," andHam's eyes stared down the steep slope of the declivity. "Ain't thar noother way of gettin' down thar intew that thar canyon?" and he turned toDickson.

  "Not that I know of," Dickson answered. "That was the way Stackpole andI went. It is not as difficult as it looks. The rock is not slippery,and, by being careful, a man can get down all right. But the horses! Idon't know about them," and he glanced a little dubiously toward the sixhorses.

  "We'll have to use ropes on them," declared Mr. Conroyal. "Two men to ahorse. Get out the ropes."

  In a few minutes five strong ropes had been secured from the packs, andpreparations were immediately begun for helping the horses down theslide.

  There were ten men in the company, including Pedro, and this enabledthem to start all the pack-horses at the same time down the declivity.The method of procedure was simple. The middle of a strong rope somethirty feet long was placed under the neck of a horse and across thebreast and fastened there, so that it could not slip down. Then two mentook hold of the rope, one at each end, and, by walking a little behindand on opposite sides of the horse, they were in position to hold backthe animal, should he start to slide or get to going too fast. In thisway and with very little trouble, for the footing down the declivity wasmuch better than they expected it would be, they soon had the six horsessafely down the Devil's Slide.

  All now stood at the bottom of a deep canyon, with walls of nearlyperpendicular rock rising on both sides from five hundred to a thousandfeet above their heads. The bottom was strewn with rocks of all shapesand sizes, and little clumps of trees and bushes grew here and there.

  "This," and Dickson glanced a bit dramatically around him, "is Lot'sCanyon. The white pillar of rock, called Lot's Wife on the map, is abouta couple of miles farther up the canyon, and near it stands the BigTree, and close by that tree, according to the map, should be the hiddenentrance to Crooked Arm Gulch. And it must be well-hidden too; for, whenI was with Stackpole, we couldn't find a sign of a gulch near the BigTree, although I remember we looked especially sharp for it right there,because the Indian had told Stackpole that it was near a big tree andthat was the biggest tree we could find in the canyon. I hope we havebetter luck."

  "Let us hurry and get to the Big Tree," cried Thure impatiently. "I amsure that, if there is any entrance to any gulch there, some of us canfind it. Come on," and the excited boy, with Bud by his side, started upthe canyon.

  Rex and Dill and Mr. Dickson at once joined the two boys, and the fivehurried eagerly forward, leaving the others to come on more slowly withPedro and the horses.

  The canyon was from one hundred to two hundred feet wide at the bottom,and twisted and wound along between its gigantic walls of rock, like ahuge serpent. Doubtless in some far distant age it had been the courseof a mighty river; but now not a drop of water flowed along its rockybottom and evidently had not for hundreds of years.

  "Looks like a mighty good place for grizzlies," commented Rex, as theyhurried along over the rough rocks of the bottom.

  "And there has been one here not many minutes ago," supplemented Dill,pointing to the bark of a tree that had been freshly torn by the sharpclaws of some powerful animal.

  "And there he is!" cried Thure, as they made a sudden turn around a hugepoint of rocks, projecting a few feet out into the canyon, and came faceto face with a huge male grizzly not a hundred feet away.

  The grizzly appeared to be very greatly astonished at this suddeninvasion of man into his hitherto undisputed realm of rocks, and alittle offended. With a deep bass-drum-like "huff, huff," he reared hishuge body up on his hind legs, and, turning his wicked little eyes onthem, uttered a deep warning growl, as much as to say: "Now, if you menwill turn right around and go back, I will not harm you."

  "Shall we shoot?" asked Thure, cocking his rifle.

  "No, not if the brute will get out of our way," answered Rex. "We haveno time to fool with grizzlies," and, cocking his own rifle, he startedstraight toward the grizzly.

  The growl of the bear deepened, and he made no sign of giving way to theintruders.

  "All right, old man," and Rex stopped and threw his rifle to hisshoulder. "Stand ready to fire, if my bullet fails to bring him down,"he warned, as his eye glanced swiftly along the rifle barrel.

  But Rex Holt was one of the best rifle shots in California, and knewexactly where to send his bullet in order to make it instantly fatal;and there was no need of a second shot, for almost at the instant of thecrack of his rifle, the hug
e beast, with a deep startled, "huff," and astaggering leap toward them, tumbled sprawlingly to the ground, as ifall his tough muscles had been suddenly turned to hot tallow, and with afew quiverings, the great frame lay still.

  "No time to bother with him now. Let him lay there for the present. Comeon," and Rex, pausing by the side of the grizzly only long enough toassure himself that the monster was dead, hurried on up the canyon.

  For half an hour longer they struggled on over the broken rocks thatcovered the bottom of the canyon; and then they came to where the canyonmade an abrupt turn, and, widening out a little, ran straight ahead forhalf a mile or more.

  The moment they made this turn and looked up the clear stretch ofcanyon, all uttered a shout of triumph. Some two hundred yards from themand near the east wall of the canyon grew a huge oak tree; and, perhapsa hundred yards farther up the canyon, stood a tall pillar of whiterock.

  "The Big Tree!" yelled Thure exultingly, starting on the run for thetree.

  "Lot's Wife!" shouted Bud, racing along after Thure.

  Rex and Dill and Dickson hastened after the excited boys; and, in a fewminutes, all stood beneath the giant branches of the great oak.

  The tree was some seventy-five feet high and nearly as broad as it washigh; and its huge trunk grew so close to the wall of the canyon thatthe ends of its great limbs on that side had been pressed tight upagainst the rocks.

  "Well, we are here at last!" Thure's face was flushed and his eyes weresparkling with excitement. "Now, for the hidden entrance to Crooked ArmGulch!" and his eyes turned eagerly to the walls of the canyon.

  The wall of the canyon near the tree, so far as their eyes could judge,was a solid mass of cracked and seamed rocks, that sprang from thebottom of the canyon almost straight upward for five hundred or morefeet. There did not appear to be break or opening of any kind, nor didit look as if there ever had been such an opening.

  For half an hour the two boys and Rex and Dill and Mr. Dickson searchedexcitedly up and down the wall of the canyon near the tree, without oneof them finding the first sign of an entrance to the hidden gulch.

  "Great Moses, but this is exasperating!" complained Thure, staringindignantly at the blank walls of rock. "To be held up like this, whenalmost at the entrance to the Cave of Gold! But we have got to find it,"and the heat of his excitement having cooled down a little, he began amore careful and systematic search of the face of the wall of rock.

  "Found it?" yelled Ham, who at this moment came round the turn in thecanyon at the head of the remainder of the company.

  "No," Dickson called back. "Not a sign of an opening anywhere in sight."

  "I reckon this is where our trouble begins," Ham declared a few minuteslater, when he stood near the Big Tree and searched the precipitous sideof the wall of rock vainly with his keen eyes. "It shore don't look asif there ever had ben any gulch entrance thar."

  "Let us have another look at the map," suggested Mr. Conroyal, after allhad searched the face of the wall of rock in vain for some time."Possibly we have overlooked some little point of guidance on it."

  Thure at once procured the map and handed it to his father; and allcrowded anxiously around him, as he seated himself on a rock and spreadthe map out on his knees.

  "This sure must be the right place," he declared, as he glanced down atthe map and then up and down the canyon; "for here is the Big Tree andthere," and he pointed to the white pillar, "is Lot's Wife, and thatslide down there must surely have been the Devil's Slide; and, if thisis the right place, then the entrance to Crooked Arm Gulch must be rightthere, according to this map," and he pointed to the wall of rockagainst which the great limbs of the tree were pressing.

  "Wai, it ain't thar," and Ham turned away disgustedly from the map. "Anyfool with eyes in his head can see that it ain't thar. I reckon we'vecome on a wild-goose chase. Let's go intew camp an' git some grub downus. I'm allfired hungry, an' it's tew late tew look any more tew-day,"and he glanced toward the west wall of the canyon, up the side of whichthe shadows of night were already beginning to creep. "Possibly we candew better in th' mornin', though it's more'n I can see how, seem' thatthar's nuthin' but th' face of a solid wall of rock tew search; an'we've searched 'bout every inch of that that we can a'ready," and hethrew his big frame down on the ground and stared at the wall of rockwrathfully.

  And much of the same disappointment and disgust that troubled Ham wastroubling the hearts of all; for it did not seem possible that therecould be any entrance to any gulch anywhere near the Big Tree. The wallof rock was too steep to climb, but the eye could search its entireface, except where the limbs of the giant oak hid a few square yards ofthe surface, and nowhere was there a break in the wall nor the leastsign of an opening of any sort, let alone the entrance to a gulch. Thiswas so plainly evident, so easily and so quickly to be seen, for thesmooth face of the wall of a canyon offers few opportunities ofconcealment, that the gloom of bitter disappointment deadened thespirits of all; and, consequently, it was a very downhearted anddiscouraged company of men that now started to make ready for the nightunder the overhanging branches of the Big Tree.

  All the next day the search was continued, but without any results.

  "Durn th' old map! Let's throw it intew th' fire an' git back tew th'diggin's," Ham declared wrathfully, as they gathered for the night underthe Big Tree. "Stackpole shore must have been loony when he made thatmap."

  "Reckon you are right," agreed Mr. Conroyal. "Well, we'll have anotherlook at the map; and, if we can't get any new ideas from it, we will doas you say and start back for the diggings in the morning."

  "No; no! Just one more day! Let us look one more day!" pleaded Thure. "Ican't believe that Stackpole did not find that Cave of Gold. He was sosure of it, so earnest about it--and there is the nugget and the gold hehad with him when murdered! Let us look just one more day!"

  "Well, son, I am sure that we all are just as anxious to find that Caveof Gold as you can possibly be; but, where can we look that we have notalready looked? What is the use of going over exactly the same groundthat we have already been over many times? It isn't a question ofsticking. I'd say stick as long as there was any hope. But, as Ham says,any fool with eyes in his head can see that there is no gulch openinghere. Either Stackpole was crazy, or we've struck the wrong canyon; and,in either case, we might just as well give up the search and get backwhere we know there is gold. However, I will put the matter to a vote;and we will do as the majority wishes. Shall we start back for thediggings in the morning? All in favor of starting back in the morningstand up," and Mr. Conroyal's eyes glanced over the little companyseated around him.

  All arose slowly to their feet, except Thure and Bud, who looked almostready to cry at this untimely ending of all their romantic dreams.

  "I know it is hard, hard on us all, and especially hard on you twoboys," Mr. Conroyal said, turning sympathetically to the lads. "But itwould be foolish to waste any more time here. Now, let us have a lastlook at that map, before we fling the cussed thing into the fire," andhe motioned Thure to hand him the skin map. "We don't want it to foolanybody else."

  Thure slowly took the map from its place of concealment in his shirtbosom and reluctantly handed it to his father. Then all bent their headsover it; but there was little interest in their faces. They had examinedthe map too often and too closely to hope to find anything new in itnow.

  Suddenly Mrs. Dickson uttered a little exclamation and pointed with herfinger to the roughly drawn tree in the left hand corner of the map.

  "I wonder if that tree, with the arrow pointing downward toward the eastpoint of the cross, does not mean something," she said.

  "Moses!" yelled Thure, jumping to his feet excitedly. "It does! It's thekey to the whole secret! I remember now! The miner said the gulch wasblocked by great rocks, that we must climb the Big Tree to the thirdlimb. You remember, don't you, Bud?" and he turned excitedly to Bud.

  "Yes," answered Bud, now as greatly excited as was Thure himself. "Hesaid, 'Climb to t
he third limb. Remember, climb to the thirdlimb--third--third--' and then he choked all up. Come! It is yet lightenough to see!" and both boys made a jump for the huge trunk of thegreat oak tree and began climbing up it almost with the agility of twosquirrels.

  "Gosh! Thar might be somethin' in that!" and Ham, and all the others,jumped to their feet and followed the movements of the two boys withdeeply interested eyes.

  The third limb was about twenty feet from the ground, of huge size andthrust itself straight out to the rocky wall of the canyon, againstwhich its end appeared to be tightly pressed.

  Along this limb Thure and Bud now scrambled, as swiftly as hands andfeet and body could propel them, Thure in the lead. The limb wassufficiently large and strong to make this neither difficult nordangerous. In a few minutes they were at the face of the wall of rock.Here Thure paused for a moment, then he was seen to rise on his feet,push a few branches aside, and, with a yell, disappear. The next momenthe was followed by Bud.

  "Wal, I'll be teetotally durned!" and Ham and the others stared blanklyat the spot where the two boys had disappeared.

  For five minutes they stood staring at the spot, without speaking aword, so intense was their interest. Then the heads of the two boysappeared through the branches almost simultaneously; and a loud yell oftriumph broke wildly from the mouth of each.

  "Found! Found!" yelled Thure.

  "We've found the gulch! Crooked Arm Gulch!" cried Bud. "Come up andsee."

  "Durned if I don't!" and Ham leaped for the trunk of the tree, followedby every other man in the company, except Pedro, who, together with Mrs.Dickson, remained below.

  "Not too many on the limb at a time," cautioned Rex, who had succeededin reaching the third limb first. "It might break," and he began workinghis way along it, closely followed by Dill.

  In a couple of minutes he had reached the opening in the wall of rock, ajagged hole some four or five feet in diameter, into which the sturdylimb had thrust itself in such a manner that its branches completelyconcealed all signs of the opening from below.

  "Great! This is great!" Rex exclaimed, as he pushed his way through thebranches into the hole.

  In a few minutes more all were through the hole, and were standing on anarrow shelf of rock, looking down into a deep, narrow gulch, whosebottom was considerably below the level of the bottom of Lot's Canyon.

  "By gum! if we ain't struck th' right spot at last!" and Ham stared inastonishment up the gulch to where it made a bend, like a crook at theelbow in a man's bent arm. "Thar's th' Golden Elbow," and he pointed tothe bend; "an' this shore must be Crooked Arm Gulch. Wal, this is what Icall luck! Hurra!" and he swung his hat around his head and yelled atthe very top of his strong lungs; and every man there joined with him inthe yell; and the rocky walls of the narrow gulch echoed and reechoedthe sound, until it seemed as if a hundred men were shouting theirjoyous yells of triumph.

  "Too bad it is so late in the day that we must put off exploring thegulch until to-morrow," Mr. Conroyal lamented, when the excitement hadsomewhat quieted down.

  "Oh, dad, just let us see if the cave is really there!" begged Thure.

  "Impossible. See how swiftly the dark shadows of night are gathering. Wemust hasten back to Lot's Canyon at once. In fifteen minutes it will betoo dark to see our way plainly. Come on, everybody. I reckon the LittleWoman is some curious to know what has been happening up here," and,smiling happily, he started back toward the opening, followed by all theothers.

  When they again reached the ground at the bottom of the Big Tree, theyfound Mrs. Dickson alone. She said that Pedro had asked permission to goback to where the grizzly bear had been filled to get a chunk of bearsteak for their supper, and had hurried off, taking one of their rifleswith him, as soon as she had said yes. She was nearly wild with joy,when told of the find they had made, and vowed that she would go withthem in the morning, when they started out to look for the Cave of Gold,in spite of the seemingly dangerous climb along the big limb of the BigTree.

  Half an hour later Pedro returned with a big chunk of bear meat, whichwas soon roasting on wooden spits placed around the blazing camp-fire.

  That was as joyful an evening as the night before had been gloomy. Eventhe saturnine spirits of Pedro seemed greatly affected by the generalhilarity; for his sallow face was all smiles and his little black eyessnapped and twinkled, as he passed hither and thither among the men, andhe was very careful to place the pan in which he washed the disheswithin easy hearing distance of every word they might utter. Indeed, itseemed almost impossible for him to tear himself away from the sound oftheir voices; and, when he was compelled to go to the little spring theyhad discovered some twenty rods distant from the Big Tree, after water,he had gone there and back on the run, as if he was fearful thatsomething might be said while he was away that he ought to hear. But, toall this, our friends gave no heed, save that Ham once or twice turnedhis eyes on Pedro's excited face, with just a flicker of suspicion inthem.

  "Wal, I don't wonder he's some excited, seein' us so upset," he thought."Still thar won't be no harm in keepin' as much as possible from him. Idon't believe in trustin' a Mexican nohow, any more than you've gottew," and Ham lowered his own voice and cautioned the others to dolikewise, when Pedro was near. "Jest tew be on the safe side," heexplained.

  "We must de doubly cautious now," warned Mr. Conroyal, when they madeready for bed, "and keep somebody on guard night and day all the time;for now that we have found the secret of Crooked Arm Gulch them devilsare likely to be down upon us at the first unguarded moment. We will putfour men on guard again to-night. Rex, you and Dill and Bud and hisfather can stand guard for the first half of the night; and you can callHam and Frank and Thure and me to relieve you about one o'clock. Now,get to your stations and we will get to our blankets. Good night,everybody," and he began rolling himself up in his blanket.

  An example that all except the guards followed very speedily.