CHAPTER XXV.
THE MYSTERIOUS MEN.
There could be no mistake about it. It was human laughter that theyhad heard. It has been said that his ability to laugh is what chieflydistinguishes man from other animals and it is an undeniable fact thatthe sound resembles no other in nature.
The laughter they had heard was not loud, but it was none the lessgenuine and hearty on that account. Jack gripped Tom's arm and askedin an affrighted whisper:
"What does it mean, Tom?"
"It means that somebody is pleased over something," replied Tom, who,despite the light tone of his reply, was no less agitated than hiscompanion, "but who can he be?"
"One thing is certain, it isn't a native, for they only grin withoutmaking any racket over it."
The boys stood side by side, and grasping their rifles firmly, peeredtoward a thick clump of fir woods from whence the sound had proceeded.But no more laughter came. Instead, the branches parted and comingtoward them they distinguished the forms of three men.
Suddenly the hearty mirth broke out once more, and the shoulders ofone of the three were seen to bob up and down as if his mirth wasunrestrainable. But this time the outburst was roughly checked.
"Shut up, Rufus!" exclaimed one of the men angrily. "A joke lasts youlonger than anybody I ever saw."
"Wha's dat? Oh, lawdy! Look-ee, boss! Dere's two white boys!"
It was a short, stocky negro who gasped out these words, his lower jawdropping in a comical manner as he stared at them as though they hadbeen beings from another world. For their part, the boys were no lessastonished at this encounter.
The negro's exclamation was the first apprisal that his two whitecompanions had of the boys' presence on the scene, and their surpriseappeared no less than his. They were both rough, wild-looking fellows,with shaggy, unkempt beards and rough clothes with knee boots. Bothcarried shovels and tin pans, while the negro bore a pick and othermining tools. The boys guessed at once that the men were prospectors.
"Howdy, pards," exclaimed one of the men, coming toward the boys withextended hand, "what in the name of time air you doin' roun' thesediggin's?"
"Glad to meet you," said Tom, taking the proffered hand andintroducing his brother and himself. He then explained his plight.Both men raised their eyebrows as they listened, and the negro rolledhis eyes in an odd fashion.
"Well, I'll be hanged," exclaimed the companion of the man who hadfirst addressed the boys. "That's a tarnation bad fix and no mistake,ain't it, Jim?"
"It sure is, Seth," replied the other, "an' I ain't got no idea of thetrack they ought to take, seem' as we come inter this country from theother way."
Jim Stapleton, for that was his name, pulled out a pipe and lit it.His companion, Seth Ingalls, shook his head as if in meditation. Thenthe two men whispered together for a time while the negro surveyed theboys with a blank expression. There was something about that look thatpuzzled them. It was not till afterward that they were to learn whatit meant. The black man appeared to be about to speak, when the twomen, who had withdrawn a little for their confab, came back.
"How come you so far from the river?" asked Jim, and Tom for a passingmoment thought he detected suspicion in his tones.
"As I told you, to look after our trap line," said Tom.
"Humph! This is a funny time of the year to go trapping."
Tom, omitting all the details that he could, explained the reason forthe line being set out before the early winter closed in. If the manhad been suspicious, as Tom had for an instant fancied, the answerappeared to lull such thoughts.
"We were foolish to start off in that fog," went on Tom, "but ofcourse I'd no idea that the compass would betray us like it did."
The men made no rejoinder to this. Then Jim spoke up and in his roughvoice told the boys that they were camped not far from there and wouldbe glad to make them welcome if they cared to come along.
The boys, after some hesitation, accepted this proposition. For onething they were full of youthful curiosity concerning these men, andin the second place, after their experiences of the morning they didnot feel inclined to resume their journey, which now bade fair to be along and arduous one, till they had had some rest.
The men explained that they had been out that morning with the negroRufus, who acted as cook and did the rough work about the camp, on aprospecting expedition to a distant ridge. But, explained JimStapleton, at their home camp lay the real object of their quest inthese wild and solitary hills.
"We're the luckiest fellows in the whole world," exclaimed Jim,swinging his arms in wild gesticulation. "We'll be the richest peoplein America, in Europe, in the whole world! The gold is not far offnow. We'll be greater than Solomon in all his glory. We'll be----"
"Here, here, choke off, will you, Jim Stapleton," growled hiscompanion in a taciturn tone.
The boys gazed at the two men in astonishment. The outburst of JimStapleton seemed more like the ravings of an unbalanced mind than thespeech of a well disciplined one. His eyes had flashed as he spoke,with a wild sort of light and his gesticulations were extravagant. Tomwas about to speak, but in the very act his eye caught that of Rufus,the negro cook. To his astonishment the black man's left eye closed ina swift but unmistakable wink that said as plainly as words, "Saynothing."
Jack, who was not so alert as his brother, had noticed none of thisby-play, but he, too, had been astonished at the miner's outburst. Asfor Tom, a suspicion shot into his mind that was to bear fruit in thenear future.
The gruff rebuke of Seth Ingalls seemed to have had its effect uponhis companion, for Jim Stapleton said no more as they trudged on, andere long they came in sight of what was the gold-seekers'headquarters.
Among piled up masses of huge rocks and boulders, the two men hadfound a retreat which could not have been better suited to theirpurposes if it had been built to order. It consisted in a general wayof a cavern about a dozen yards in depth and one-fourth as broad andhigh, with an entrance that an ordinary sized man could pass throughby slightly stooping.
The floor, walls and ceiling were of solid rock, but an opening musthave existed in the rear, for a fire was smouldering in that portionof the cavern, with some sort of food cooking above it in a huge ironpot, and the smoke was curling up and vanishing through some unseenaperture.
Into this curious home, the men whom the boys had encountered hadmoved their belongings. These consisted of the most primitive andbarely necessary sort, a cooking-kit, extra clothing and provisionssuch as a gun cannot procure. In one corner was a pile of blankets,and a sort of burlap curtain had been fitted over the opening whichcould presumably be drawn in severe weather, making the place snug andweather proof.
"Do you know anything about the gold mining business?" was almost thefirst thing Jim Stapleton said as he ushered the boys into this cavehome.
"Well, we've never looked for it except in the shape of coined money,"said Tom with a smile.
"I never knew that there was much to be found in this part of thecountry," added Jack.
"Then that's just where you're wrong," said Jim, who, despite histaciturn comrade's frowns and winks, seemed bound to talk. "There'sgold in plenty here. It's no guesswork on our part. _We know it!_"
Again into his eyes came the odd gleam that Tom had noticed. It neverappeared there but when he talked of gold. Then his optics danced andglittered like living coals.
Seth Ingalls had gone outside on some errand connected with thebusiness of the men's retreat. Rufus was chopping wood. The boys werealone in the cave with Jim Stapleton. He leaned forward suddenlyand whispered in Tom's ear.
He unfolded it and showed it to the youths.--_Page257._]
"We have the secret. We'll have gold enough for all. You shall shareit. The treasures of Ophir never for an instant compared with whatlies in Dead Man's Mine."
"Dead Man's Mine!" echoed Tom. The name carried a sinister suggestion.
"That's its name. See here."
Jim Stapleton arose and tip-toed to the
wall. From behind a recess hedrew out a rolled up bit of paper, stained and dirty. He unfolded itand showed it to the youths. All the markings were in lead pencil,blurred and indistinct. But one thing about the plan, which wasentitled in bold letters "Plan of Dead Man's Mine," attracted Tom'skeen attention.
Upon the map was marked prominently amidst a maze of marks "The LonePine," and under it was drawn a crude representation of a blasted,leafless tree of seemingly great size. Now Tom was certain that hehad seen no such tree in the vicinity of the cavern. The map, however,did show a canyon similar to the one where the cave was, and alsoindicated a cave at about the same location. Not far from it a redstar showed where the gold was supposed to lie.
Tom glanced up at Stapleton from a scrutiny of the map. As he did so,the suspicion that had flashed across him at their first meetingrevisited him. But this time it was a stronger and more sinisterimpression. He looked at Jack, but apparently he had noticed nothingamiss.
The Bungalow Boys Along the Yukon Page 25
