by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER XIX GORDON DUNCAN'S STORY
"It was years back, so many I have fairly lost track." Gordon Duncan'stone was deep and vibrant with emotion as he began his story of a reclusecompanion and the treasure of green gold. "There had been somediscoveries of gold back of the Beyond among the hills and I went. I wasyounger then. Went alone. That was my way.
"I met with great misfortune. I found no gold. Food was scarce. I knewlittle of the longbow in those days. In making a try for a mountain goat,I fell over a ledge and broke a leg.
"I might have died there like some maimed wild creature, had it not beenfor him." His eyes wandered to the mountain side, to the lone cabin andthe trail that led away and away.
"He was a recluse then, but a kindly soul. He found me, carried me to hiscabin and cared for me.
"When I was well, he hunted for us both. It was he who taught me to prizethe longbow and arrow.
"In time I grew proficient in the use of these primitive weapons. Then,like him, I wandered far in search of food.
"It was on one of these hunting trips that I came upon a strange sort ofgrotto in the side of a cliff. There were ashes of a long burned outcampfire near the entrance. My curiosity was aroused by this. Making arude torch of dry willow twigs, I lighted my way back a hundred feet ormore.
"There on a ledge, half buried in dust, I found some curious objects.
"'Copper,' I said at once. 'Not worth much. Take some back forsouvenirs.'
"I chose a crudely formed lamp for burning tallow, and a rudely fashionedbowl.
"But how heavy they were! I had not seen such copper before.
"I carried them to our cabin and set them upon the hand-hewn table. WhenTimmie returned, with half a caribou slung across his back, he looked atmy find with interest.
"Once he had lifted them he became excited. Questions came thick andfast. Where had I found them? Was it far? Were there many such? How hiswords flew!
"'Why?' I asked at last. 'They are only copper. There is no want ofcopper here; whole boulders of it in the beds of streams.'
"'Copper!' he exclaimed. 'Copper! That's not copper. Haven't you liftedthem? They're made of green gold.'
"Green gold! I thought he was mad. But he was not." Again Gordon Duncan'seyes wandered to the hills. "He was sane enough. He'd had a course insuch things at some University; worked in a jeweler's place, too. Seemsthey mix some copper with gold. The result is a greenish combinationcalled green gold.
"And there you are." His words became deeply reminiscent. "I had beenhunting gold for months, digging here, panning dirt there, but when I didfind gold I needed neither pick nor pan. And I didn't know it was gold.
"The next day we made three trips to that cave. Each time we brought backall the green gold we could carry. That cave must have been a goldsmithshop of some ancient tribe. Every nook and cranny was crowded with greengold.
"'All we have to do now,' I said, 'is to take this out to civilization.We are rich.'
"'Civilization?' Timmie said, his eyes dreamy with thoughts of wide openspaces, 'Who wants to go back to that?' You see he was a born recluse.'Besides,' he went on, 'there's the gold mine. We must find that.'
"Well, up to that time I hadn't once thought of the mine from which thisgold had been taken. But from that moment the finding of that mine becamean obsession with both of us.
"We thought of nothing else until an unusually heavy snowfall drove allgame away and left us facing starvation.
"I wanted him to come away then." Once more Gordon Duncan's tone wasmellow with memories. "He wouldn't come; but told me to go, to returnwith fairer weather, and carry away my share of the treasure.
"It was a hard trek back. I was lost many times. Then I went snow blind.Before my sight was gone I drove my knife in the tree, as you saw it backthere.
"'I'll find that and be able to make my way back,' I told myself.
"But I never did, until just the other day. I reached the shelter ofcivilization more dead than alive. My sight was a year coming back. Thenall memory of trails was gone.
"Not until I saw that knife in the tree did it all come back to me. Andnow," he said sadly, "he is gone!"
"We must follow," said the girl. Her voice was husky.
"Yes, we must follow, not for the green gold, but for him," said GordonDuncan.
"I have learned since," said the old man, after a long silence, "thatthose strange implements, dishes and ornaments, coming as they do fromthe long lost past, are worth many times their weight in yellow gold.
"It is this that I would tell him, and that it is not good for him tolive alone; that in the end disaster must befall him here, just as it didto the lone moose back there in our native forest."
Faye found herself greatly impressed by her grandfather's story. She wasas puzzled as he by the actions of the recluse, and as eager to followhis trail. Only one thought dampened her ardor. Every mile that led awayfrom this mountain seemed to lessen their hopes of ever seeing JohnnyLongbow again. Yet fate is often very strange.
She slept well that night, and woke early, to find herself on tiptoe,filled with a desire to be away. To their great joy they found their newfound Indian friends eager to join them.
"Their dogs will be of great service in following the trail," said GordonDuncan as he hurried through final preparations for what, they both felt,was to be a long and dangerous march.
Dangerous indeed it proved in the end.
Dawn found Gordon Duncan and his granddaughter with two of the Indian menand their best dog team on the up-bound trail. The Indian women andchildren remained behind. They had a supply of food. Caribou would soonbe trekking northward. The air would be full of wild fowl, geese, ducks,swans, cranes. Spring was on the way. They would not want.
For the first hour and a half of the journey the native dog-team lagged.They must be urged forward. But, of a sudden, as they reached a higherlevel, they put their noses to the earth, sniffed two or three times,then went straight away at a brisk trot.
"Good!" said Gordon Duncan as a satisfied smile overspread his wrinkledface. "They have found Timmie's trail." He always spoke of the recluse asTimmie, the only name he had known him by. "Now they will not pause norlag until they have come up with him."
All day they followed the team. Spring surely was coming. They saw it inlittle rushing streams. They smelled it in the moisture that rose fromthe rocky ledges. They heard it in the honking of the first flock of wildgeese.
But the signs of spring only saddened Faye Duncan. "Spring means life,"she thought, "renewed life. And poor Johnny Longbow who came with us sofar, who in such an unselfish way gave up his own plans to aidGrandfather in the realization of his life's dearest dream, lies beneaththe eternal snows."
But did he? She could not be sure. She dared hope, for was not his arrowfound piercing the carcass of that monstrous bear? If his arrow hadescaped had not he? Who could have shot that arrow?
To this question she found no answer. Of one thing she was certain--ifJohnny Longbow were free to come to them he would be at her side. Herheart swelled with undefinable emotion at the thought.
Still they traveled on. Over a ledge, down a ravine, across a plateau,the trail led.
At times they caught glimpses of the river, a bright blue ribbon, farbelow.
In places the river was white. This meant that ice had risen to thesurface.
"Soon go out, that one ice," said the Indian who spoke English. "Then,whooee! Big splash, big rush, plenty noise!"
Faye found herself hoping that they might be within sight of the riverwhen the breakup came. That was one of Nature's dramas she had longdesired to see.
Just at sunset the dog team plunged down a steep embankment and piled up,sled and all, forty feet below.
From that time until dark they went down. Down, down, down the trail ranuntil, as camping time came, they were surprised to find themselves in anarrow valley on a level with the river.
"Can he
be mad enough to take to the river?" Gordon Duncan asked.
"Surely not," Faye answered.
Gordon Duncan shook his head.
As for the Indians, they looked from Gordon Duncan to the girl, then backto Duncan again. Whatever thoughts passed through their primitive mindsremained unexpressed.
