The White Crystals: Being an Account of the Adventures of Two Boys

by Howard Roger Garis

  CHAPTER XIX

  ROGER MAKES PLANS

  For a few minutes after the exciting scrabble for trees, there was adeep silence among the four. They were all interested in the movementsof the bear. Having squatted on his haunches for a little while, thebeast dropped to a walking position, and strolled about, sniffing deeplyat the foot of each sapling which held a human occupant. He uttered loud"woofs" of disgust, and then, standing under the tree where Mr. Dudleywas, the animal acted as if he was going to climb up.

  The brute's sharp claws tore showers of bark and wood from the slendertrunk, and his efforts caused the sapling to shake considerable, makingMr. Dudley's perch somewhat insecure.

  "Hold on there! Hold on!" exclaimed the engineer in a protesting tone.Then, as he saw the uselessness of ordering a bear he added more gently,"Oh, say, Bruin. Ho! ho! Easy now, that's a good fellow!" It seemed asthough Mr. Dudley was talking to a restive horse.

  The man's voice apparently angered the bear, which redoubled its effortsto get up the tree, though the slender trunk proved an effectivebarrier.

  "Oh, I say now!" cried Mr. Dudley, looking helplessly at his companions,"call him off, some of you. This won't do at all. He'll shake me downand eat me. Call him off, can't you?"

  "I'm afraid he doesn't care to be called," said Mr. Ranquist, with justthe suspicion of a smile on his face. "He seems an obstinate sort ofbrute."

  "But what's to be done, what's to be done?" inquired Mr. Dudley,testily. "We can't stay here all day, Ranquist, like ripe apples,waiting to be shaken down by this beast. Something must be done; Iinsist on it. I'll--I'll--What did you boys want to lead us into abear's den for?" he asked, turning toward Roger and Adrian.

  "We didn't know there were bears about," answered Adrian, a littlecrestfallen at the mishap. "There hasn't been any bears near Cardiffbefore in ten years."

  "Stuff and nonsense! Stuff and nonsense!" interrupted Mr. Dudleyshortly. "I believe you boys did this for a joke. If you did--"

  "Oh, pshaw!" came from Mr. Ranquist, "of course it isn't the boys'fault. How could they help it?"

  "Well, perhaps they couldn't," admitted Mr. Dudley, "but it's veryunpleasant, to say the least."

  Then the bear began another attack on the tree where Mr. Dudley was,with such savage energy that it needed all the engineer's strength toprevent himself from being shaken down.

  "Oh! Oh!" cried Mr. Dudley, desperately. "Something will have to bedone at once. Help! Help!" he yelled.

  "Haven't either of you men a revolver?" called Roger.

  "By Jove! I never thought of it!" said Mr. Ranquist, suddenly. "Ofcourse I have. But I'm not a very good shot, and, if I was, I'm afraidthe small bullets in my gun wouldn't cause his bearship much annoyance.It's only a .22 calibre," he added.

  Carefully balancing himself, the young engineer drew the weapon from hispocket. His movement seemed to interest bruin, who left his positionunder Mr. Dudley's tree, and ambled over to the sapling where Mr.Ranquist was perched, much to the relief of the older prospector.

  "I'm going to shoot," said Mr. Ranquist. "I don't know what will happenafter it, so look out, every one."

  Taking as good aim as he could, Mr. Ranquist fired at the brute. Therewas no evidence that the bullet hit, so he blazed away again. This wasanother miss, but the third attempt was more effective, for, with anangry roar, the animal dropped on all fours, and began clawing his snoutwith his left paw. A few spots of blood showed on the ground.

  "You hit him! You hit him!" exclaimed Mr. Dudley, and, in his delight,he tried to caper about on his slender perch, with the result that henearly tumbled off.

  "Oh, yes, I hit him," admitted Mr. Ranquist, showing just a little pridein the achievement. "I winged him, but I'll have to do better than that,if I want to persuade him to go away. These bullets are only flea-bitesto him."

  The little leaden pellet did not seem to cause the bear much suffering,but the pain angered him, and, with savage growls, he made fierceefforts to get at the man he apparently knew had fired the shot. Inrapid succession Mr. Ranquist pulled the trigger four times more, butnone of these balls touched a vital spot, though two of them struck thebeast in the head. He was now wild with rage.

  Mr. Ranquist began to reload his revolver.

  "I've only one more round--seven shots," he called.

  "Hold on then!" shouted Adrian. "You can't kill him with those. Ifyou'll hold his attention long enough, by firing at him, I'll shin down,and go for help. We'll need somebody with a gun for this bear."

  "Do you think you can do it?" asked Mr. Ranquist, anxiously. "I wouldn'twant you to get hurt."

  "Sure I can do it," replied Adrian, with all a boy's ability in hispower to do something he has never tried before.

  "I rather dislike the idea, for I'm afraid he'll get away from me, evenif I keep firing at him, and take after you," objected Mr. Ranquist.

  "I'll chance it," was Adrian's answer. "Go ahead with loading up, and,when you're ready I'll scramble down. His back is toward me, when he'sunder your tree."

  "All right," called Mr. Ranquist, slipping in the last cartridge.

  He took as careful aim as he could, and fired a shot. This time he hadthe luck to hit the beast on its tender snout, which so enraged andpained the bear that he did not notice Adrian's quick movement. Inorder to fully cover the retreat Mr. Ranquist kept blazing away, and hitbruin twice more, though the wounds were slight. However, they served tokeep the bear's attention on the man with the revolver, and Adrianslipped to the ground, edging away cautiously through the trees. When ata safe distance to prevent the noise being heard, he broke into a run.

  With his last bullet gone, Mr. Ranquist settled back in the crotch ofhis tree. He, Mr. Dudley, and Roger made themselves as comfortable aspossible, to wait until help arrived.

  Meanwhile the bear went sniffing from tree to tree, getting more fiercein his rage every minute. Only the small diameter of the saplingsprevented him from climbing up them. For perhaps half an hour the threewere thus held prisoners, though it seemed much longer to them, allcramped as they were. Suddenly they noticed that the brute was actingstrangely. He sniffed the air, and growled yet more savagely, and thehair on his back bristled up.

  "I'll bet some one is coming," said Mr. Ranquist. "I only hope they havea gun. I wouldn't care to meet his bearship on the ground without one,in his present frame of mind."

  The next instant there was a sharp crack. The bear gave a convulsivejump, and staggered back, clawing the air with his forepaws, andgrowling. Then he fell over backward in a heap.

  "Good!" shouted Mr. Dudley.

  A little cloud of smoke floated out from behind a big chestnut tree.Next there came another rifle shot. The body of the beast shivered in aspasm, and then was very still.

  "Him very much dead now. Yo' all kin come down," called a gutturalvoice, and Indian Johnny Green came into view, followed by Adrian.

  Mr. Dudley, Mr. Ranquist and Roger lost no time in descending. They weresomewhat stiff from standing in a cramped position in the tree so long,but, otherwise, and aside from the scare, no worse for the adventure.

  "Well, it didn't take you long to bring help," observed Mr. Dudley,grateful to the boy, though a little while before he had been inclinedto blame him.

  "I happened to meet Johnny Green when I'd gone about a mile," saidAdrian. "It's lucky he had his gun."

  "It's rather a lucky affair all around," said Mr. Ranquist.

  The Indian paid no more attention to the party, but proceeded to examinehis prize, for the bear rightfully belonged to him. The animal was fatand of good size, and Johnny Green was well pleased.

  "I guess we'll call this exploring expedition off for the rest of theday," suggested Mr. Ranquist. "I'm sure we are much obliged to you boysfor coming along, and especially to you, Adrian, for being brave enoughto go for help when you did."

  "That was nothing," answered the boy, a little abashed at the praise.

  "We shall expect you to go with us some other day this w
eek," went onthe engineer. "Now, if you'll lead the way we will go back to thehotel."

  The two boys talked of nothing but the bear on the road home, but themen maintained a silence. The Indian had remained behind to look afterhis game. The party soon reached the inn, and, while the men went totheir room Roger and Adrian hurried home to tell the news.

  "Say, Roger," asked Adrian, "what made you so anxious to lead 'em on toour land by the spring?"

  "Because," answered Roger, as if the matter was of no importance, "Ithought they might like to get a drink. I know I did, and that's verygood water you see."

  "You're right about that," agreed Adrian, and by this time the two boyswere at the house, where, in the excitement of telling his father andmother about the bear, Adrian forgot all else.

  As soon as Roger could slip off without attracting notice from thefolks, he made his way up the village street. Pausing before a prettyvine-covered cottage, he looked back to see that Adrian was not insight, and then entered the gate.

  "Is Professor Bailey in?" he asked, when Mrs. Bailey opened the door.

  "He is," she answered.

  "Tell him, please, that Adrian Kimball's cousin, Roger, would like tosee him."

  "Come right in," invited Mrs. Bailey. "You'll find him in the frontroom."

  And there, surrounded by heaps of books, Roger found the professor, GuyBailey, principal of the Cardiff school. The boy knew him from havingoccasionally gone to the institution with Adrian.

  "Well, Roger," began the professor, "I'm glad to see you. Come in andsit down. Can I do anything for you?"

  "I think so," answered the boy. "I've come for a little information."Then he plunged at once into the object of his visit.

  "Professor," he asked, "do you think anybody would dig for gold in thehills around Cardiff?"

  "Bless my soul, no! What do you mean? This is not a gold country, likeCalifornia or the Klondike. What put that idea into your head?"

  "I'll tell you a little later. Do you s'pose they would dig for coal?"

  "Hardly that, either. There isn't the kind of land black diamonds growin around here, that is, as far as I know."

  "Or iron?"

  "Scarcely iron," answered Professor Bailey, with a puzzled look at theboy. "But why do you ask me these questions? Are you thinking of turningminer instead of farmer?" with a smile.

  "Perhaps," said Roger, and his serious air convinced the professor thatthe boy had some motive in his inquiries. "You see I can't tell you allabout it just now, nor why I want to know this, Professor, but I willsome day. I want, most of all, to find out what, if anything, of valuecould be in the Cardiff hills, that would make men, or a company ofcapitalists, want to get possession of certain land. It might be, Isuppose, coal, or iron, or gold, or something else. The question is,what is it?"

  "You are asking me to go ahead pretty much in the dark," objectedProfessor Bailey.

  "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid those are all the clues I can give you now,"said Roger.

  "Well, I'll do my best to answer your puzzle," went on the teacher."From what I've read and know of the geological formation about here, Icannot think of any mineral or other deposit that would naturally beexpected in this section. But of course it might be that, unknown to anyone, except a certain person, there would be a valuable mine ofsomething beneath the surface. Some mineral or quartz, but hardly coal,nor iron, nor gold."

  "Perhaps it might be oil," suggested Roger.

  "I'm afraid not," was the reply, "though, as I said, almost anything ispossible, but in this instance, not very probable. If you were to showme a certain spot, I might be able to say, with more certainty than Ican now, whether or not a particular mineral would be apt to bepresent."

  "I can't take you to the place," said Roger, who was determined to guardhis secret well, "because I want to keep this quiet as long as I can.But, Professor, if I brought you a sample of rocks, or minerals,or--or--something--could you tell me then?"

  "Possibly I could."

  "Then I'll see if I can't get some samples for you. But, please don'ttell any one I was in to see you about this. Not that there's anythingwrong," quickly added Roger, "but," and he advanced closer, "this maymean a good deal to some people, and I don't want to raise hopes andhave them disappointed."

  "Very well," answered the Professor, a little puzzled about it all, butknowing, from Roger's frank and honest face that there could be nothingbut what was right. "Very well. I'll keep quiet, you may depend on it.And, when you bring me something more definite to work on, I'll help youall I can," and, with a hearty handshake, Professor Bailey showed Rogerto the door.

  "Now," said the boy to himself, as he walked slowly toward his uncle'shouse, "now to find out what they were digging for. I must get some ofthat stuff they brought up on the end of the drill. And I'll have towork quickly, for I think Mr. Ranquist suspects that I know."