The Mystery of Rainbow Gulch

by Norvin Pallas

  The whole study proved even more complicated than Ted had guessed, and he wished he could follow it up further, but it was time for him to meet the others. He found that they had purchased what they needed, and they kidded all the way home about something which had happened in connection with the purchase, without telling Ted what it was.

  But all this laughter vanished when Mrs. Fontaine came out to meet them anxiously.

  “Bob, did you take Tony with you after all? She hasn’t been seen since you left.”

  “Of course not, Mom,” said Bob, alarmed. “You know I wouldn’t do that without telling you.”

  “I know, but I thought perhaps you had sent her back to tell me, and she only pretended to. We’ve searched the farm as best we can, but of course there are hundreds of places she might be hiding. She might have lain down in the cornfield and fallen asleep, but it’s been so long now, and she’s seldom sleepy in the morning. I thought she knew better than to wander off into the woods, but that must be where she went. I didn’t want to call in the neighbors until I was sure she was missing.”

  “You’d better call up and down the line, Mom, and get a search party out. There’s no telling how far she’s gone by now, and we’ve got to find her before dark.”

  Cougar came up to them not very boisterously, and Bob said to him reproachfully, “Where’d she go, boy? I thought she’d be safe as long as she was with you.”

  The dog slunk along with his tail between his legs, knowing he had been scolded but not understanding the reason why.

  Mrs. Fontaine had hurried off toward the house, but Bob started off toward the stables on a trot with Ted and Nelson right behind him. They saw the men in the fields, searching up and down the rows of corn.

  “Where could she have wandered off to?” asked Ted.

  “I don’t think she wandered off,” said Bob bitterly. “The hermit’s got her, that’s what. My father’s too generous. We should have done something about him as soon as we found him.”

  Bob was busy getting Starlight saddled, and Ted said, “I’m coming with you. You may need help.”

  “What about me?” Nelson requested.

  “Two will be enough,” said Bob, shaking his head, “and Humpty-Dumpty will hold us back. I’d much rather you stayed here, Nel, and took charge of organizing the searching party until my father gets back. It’s possible I’m wrong. She wouldn’t deliberately wander off, but something might have attracted her until she got confused about which way was home and kept going in the wrong direction. But I’m betting it’s the hermit.”

  And in a flash of intuition Ted felt that Bob was right. It was the hermit, and had been the hermit all along. He had not merely helped himself when he was hungry, but he had become so familiar around the farm that Cougar had made friends with him. It was the hermit who had visited the wreck and carried something heavy away with him. It was the hermit who had watched Tony playing in the meadow, and this morning had managed to entice her away. Perhaps they had made a mistake in not suggesting a guard for Tony and keeping from the Fontaines the things they knew or suspected about her, but who would have dreamed that she was in danger on the farm with so many people about, and Cougar usually close at her side?

  Bob and Ted were ready in a few minutes, and took off up toward the ridge. The drought had continued, and dried-out twigs snapped beneath the horses’ hoofs, while a low cloud of dust rose as they passed, even in the woods beneath the trees. This was the most dangerous time of the year, as far as fires were concerned, and the rangers would be particularly alert for any indication of smoke. In fact, as Ted rode, he wondered if he could detect the scent of smoke in the air. The sun was bright in a cloudless sky, rather gray in color like the haze of autumn. That didn’t necessarily mean anything; particles of dust often carried for hundreds of miles. Even a fire might not be important, for the rangers sometimes started brush fires themselves to eliminate a possible hazard.

  All the time Bob watched the trail before them, but gave no sign that the hermit and Tony had come this way. Either they had taken another trail, or perhaps the hermit, even if he had taken Tony, was not returning to his cabin with her. Maybe the only reason he had ever been up in the gulch was because of Tony, and now that he had secured her he would depart for an unknown destination. Could it be that Tony, who had come so suddenly and so strangely, would disappear in the same fashion?

  These thoughts spurred Ted on to keep up with Bob, who was riding as though there wasn’t a moment to lose. What had led Tony to go off with this strange man, Ted wondered. He felt sure she had left voluntarily. If there had been any sort of commotion, surely one of the farm workers would have heard it. Nor would it have been a simple matter to bribe her, for she was a little shy with strangers.

  Never had Ted imagined that they could reach the gulch in so short a time; yet never had each minute seemed so long. Starlight and Meadowlark appeared to sense the importance of the mission they were on, and rode determinedly.

  At the mouth of Rainbow Gulch, Bob gave a startled cry and leaped from his horse. Some short distance off the trail the soil had been recently dug up and replaced, leaving a little mound.

  “I didn’t notice that before,” Ted observed.

  “It wasn’t there. Ride!” and Bob was back in the saddle, and turning up the gulch followed by Ted.

  They rode under the Rainbow and farther up the gulch through its many turnings, their pace necessarily slowed. But now the horses became a problem. It was clear that they did not want to go up the gulch. It took Ted’s utmost urging to keep Meadowlark moving ahead, and she made it very clear that if given free rein she would turn about and head for home. Again Ted thought he could smell smoke, and decided that the hermit must have his fire going again, though the day was warm. This was no doubt what the horses had sensed and interpreted as a menace.

  If the hermit had a rifle—and there was a good chance he did—he might be lying in wait for anyone who was pursuing because he had taken Tony. It was a dangerous thing to come charging up the gulch. It would have been better to take time out to circle around and come upon him unawares. But Bob, rushing to Tony’s rescue, had thrown all prudence to the winds, nor would Ted urge caution upon him. Besides, he could not think of the hermit as a cunning, ruthless man, a prospector determined to get what he wanted at all costs. Instead, he saw him as a sick, confused old man, who sometimes hung about the farm, looking for food and longing for companionship; a man who muttered to himself over strange things that no one else could understand; who had caught a glimpse of Tony and taken a queer fancy to her, seeing no reason why he shouldn’t take her away with him if he wished.

  The next turn would bring them within sight of the cabin, Ted thought. Just then he lost control of his horse and Meadowlark tossed him before she turned and bolted back down the gulch. Bob drew rein.

  “Are you hurt, Ted?” he asked in annoyance, as though afraid that Ted would delay him.

  “No, go ahead. I’ll follow on foot.”

  As Ted rounded the turn at a jog, the source of the little stream came into sight, then the path down which they had crept on their first visit, then the cabin itself. There was a strange stillness in the air. No birds were to be heard, and Ted recalled that all signs of life had been missing all through the woods. No rabbits had scurried across the path or chipmunks run chattering up the trees. There in the little clearing before the cabin all was quiet; a chance passer-by would have thought it was deserted. The bubbling of the spring and the clatter of Starlight’s hoofs were the only sounds to be heard.

  Ted saw Bob make his last dash across the clearing, where he drew up and was off Starlight’s back almost before she stopped, then threw the reins over her head. He sprinted toward the cabin and threw his shoulder against the door, expecting it to be locked, but it gave easily at his touch and he tumbled inside.

  CHAPTER 13.

  A REMARKABLE RECOVERY

  When Ted pushed into the cabin, he saw with relief that Tony was
there, and apparently unharmed. She was sitting in the chair, poised and not at all frightened. Across from her sat the hermit, a stooped old man with flowing white beard and a puzzled expression on his face, as though pondering on things which were too difficult to figure out.

  Tony, who had been speaking to Bob, looked up as Ted entered, and said very casually, “Hello, Ted.”

  “Tony! We’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “I came to talk with this man. He said if I’d come he’d tell me my name.”

  “He did?” Bob exclaimed. “What is your name?”

  “He hasn’t told me yet.”

  Ted turned to the old man. He hadn’t seemed to resent their arrival; instead it was just another part of the puzzle he was trying to understand.

  “What is her name, sir?” asked Ted gently.

  The hermit did not answer, and Tony said in her best grown-up manner, “You mustn’t get him excited. He’s trying to think of it.”

  They could not tell whether the hermit really knew her correct name; he might have used the offer to tell her as a pretext to lure her away. But then, how had he known there was any mystery about her name?

  Though they would have liked to take Tony away as soon as they could, they found they couldn’t leave immediately. Much as Bob wanted to carry the good news to his mother and father and the others, he realized the old man was in need of help. He wasn’t a queer old prospector guarding a claim, as they had thought. He was someone badly needing assistance.

  “Have you been here long, sir?” asked Bob.

  The hermit considered the question for some moments before replying, “A long time.”

  “What is your name, sir, and what are you doing here?”

  This time the hermit did not attempt to reply, and they could not tell whether he had really forgotten his name, or whether the matter of his identity was so repulsive he could not answer.

  Ted looked about the cabin. There were a few cans of food, though the stock was pitifully small, but it indicated at least that someone had been taking care of the hermit. But the flour barrel proved to be empty, coffee and sugar were low, and there were only a few matches. Whoever had been supplying the hermit hadn’t been taking very good care of him lately. That would account for the missing sheep.

  The cabin itself, though rudely furnished, seemed to be as neatly kept as the hermit was capable of in his condition, and the hermit himself, though his clothes were rough, had obviously made an effort to keep up his appearance. His hair was brushed, his hands and shirt clean—and on his feet was a pair of half-boots with the odd-shaped toe.

  Still alert enough to catch their studying glances, the hermit asked tremulously, “Did you bring a razor? They wouldn’t ever bring me a razor.”

  “I’m sorry, sir,” Bob responded, “that I don’t have a razor. Who was it that wouldn’t bring you a razor?”

  “They wouldn’t,” said the hermit impatiently, as though that explained everything.

  “Was it the man in the plane? Did you know the man in the plane? Did you see it crash?” Ted asked.

  This was altogether too confusing for the hermit. The look of bewilderment on his face grew, and he shook his head savagely, as though trying to clear his memory.

  “The plane crashed,” was all he said.

  “I know it crashed,” said Bob patiently. “Did you see it crash?”

  “It crashed in the tree,” said the old man.

  It was becoming apparent that they weren’t going to elicit much useful information from the hermit. It seemed such an effort for him to try to think that Bob didn’t have the heart to badger him. He gave up the attempt and turned his attention to Tony.

  “Tony, you know you shouldn’t have left the farm without telling someone you were going. How did you happen to go away with a strange man?”

  “He was kind to me,” she answered.

  Anyone else who had seen the hermit would have noticed his white beard, stooped posture, and unpressed clothes, but to Tony he had been merely a kind man. Perhaps she had been able to see something in him that no one else could see. Perhaps he was a kind man, and that was all that was really important.

  “What about Cougar? Didn’t he bark when the hermit came?”

  “No, the man patted him and he wagged his tail. That’s how I knew it was all right.”

  This confirmed Ted’s suspicions that the hermit had often been around the farm. Perhaps Cougar, too, had judged him on something more than his appearance. He could have been right for the hermit hadn’t tried to hurt Tony. Actually, it looked as if he was trying to clear up some of his fogged memories.

  “Well, didn’t Cougar try to come with you when you left?” Bob went on.

  “Yes, but I made him go back. The man said we couldn’t take him.”

  That, at least, cleared Cougar of blame for not staying with Tony. He had been taught to obey members of the family, so that was what he had to do, no matter how badly he wanted to go along. There was no use scolding Tony; her mother would talk to her about it when she returned home.

  “What do you think we’d better do, Ted?” asked Bob in a low voice. “I’d like to get back and tell them—goodness knows what they’re going to think when Meadowlark shows up—but it’s too late to call off the search. Anyway there’s only one horse for the four of us.”

  “Why don’t you take Tony home on Starlight, and I’ll stay here with the hermit until somebody comes? They’re probably on the way already, for Nelson knows where we are.”

  “I hate to do that, Ted. Starlight needs cooling off, the hermit needs help, and you’re my guest.”

  “A pretty stupid guest to let my horse get away from me.”

  “Don’t give it another thought. It might have happened to me, too, on Meadowlark. Starlight’s special. How can I blame you when I took the best horse? Why don’t we have something to eat and wait for the others?”

  When she was asked, Tony admitted that she had had nothing to eat since breakfast, and so she was hungry. The hermit, too, must be hungry, although the puzzles in his mind were claiming most of his attention.

  While Bob built a fire, Ted went through the food supplies available and selected whatever he could use.

  When their lunch was ready, Tony drew her chair up to the table, and the hermit joined them with only a little persuasion. He ate, but in a mechanical fashion, as if he hardly knew what he was eating. His eyes remained fastened upon Tony most of the time, as though somehow she could help him, but he said nothing.

  As they were eating, Starlight nickered several times from outside, and Tony asked, “Why is she making so much noise?”

  “Oh, I suppose she wants to start for home. I’ve tied her so she won’t wander off.”

  Starlight’s whinnying continued at intervals, becoming ever more insistent, until Bob went outside to see what the trouble was. As Ted followed him out the door, the smell of smoke became more pronounced. He remembered now that the odor had been strong as they rode up the gulch, though there had been no fire in the cabin when they arrived.

  It was the smoke that was alarming Starlight. Her nostrils were quivering, and pointed directly toward the source, a cloud of wisps rising from beyond the gulch.

  Tony had also run outside, and noticed the smoke. “Where is all the smoke coming from, Bob?”

  “Oh, there must be a little brush fire somewhere,” he answered, trying to make his voice sound casual. “We’d better think about starting for home.”

  “That’s no brush fire,’ said a firm voice behind him. “It’s a real forest fire, and we’re already cut off from the mouth of the gulch.”

  They turned to see the hermit standing in the doorway of the cabin. It was the same man they had seen before, and yet he seemed different. He was standing perfectly erect, so that it could be seen that he was a tall man—taller than either of the boys—and of firm build. His voice no longer whined, his face had lost its bewildered look, his eyes were resolute and purposeful.<
br />
  “We can’t be cut off,” said Bob desperately. “A fire couldn’t spread that fast.”

  “It doesn’t take much of a wind to spread it when everything’s this dry, once it has a good start. And this one looks like it has a good start, all right. There won’t be much of these woods left after today.”

  “But maybe it’s not past the gulch. Maybe we can still get out,” said Bob anxiously, watching the layers of smoke rising slowly into view.

  Ted stood by, awaiting the decision of the others who knew more about these things than he did.

  “No, it’s too late for that,” said the hermit firmly, and though Bob seemed less certain of his directions down the winding gulch, he showed that this was probably right.

  “But we can’t just wait here, sir,” Bob argued. “The fire may creep up the gulch. It may be able to make the turns. Even if it doesn’t, it may start sweeping down the hills. There must be a way out of here.”

  “There’s a way out, I think, for a man on horseback, but it’s too late to make it on foot. A rider could climb the hill and circle around through the other gulches.”

  One horse—and four people. There wasn’t any way they could all ride to safety. Any attempt to overload Starlight would lessen her chance of getting through, and might lose everything for them.

  “Suppose a rider could get through, what could he do?”

  The hermit shook his head slowly. “I don’t know, but maybe the rangers will be able to fight their way back with a rescue party. It seems the only chance.”

  “Then if someone has to ride for help, I’ll go,” Bob volunteered. “Starlight is used to me, and I’d have the best chance.”

  “Do you know which paths to take, which ones the horse can climb?”

  “No, but—”

  “Then you’ll never find them in time. I’ll be the one to go,” said the hermit with quiet logic.

  And they knew he was right. But if the boys couldn’t get out, wasn’t there at least a chance for Tony? The responsibility was Bob’s to decide what was best for her.