Francis Lynde

“ At the foot of the peak upon which they were standing there was a range of hogback hills, looking, from their height, no larger than a plow-turned furrow in the landscape; and just beyond the hogback, on the edge of a bare plain that was exactly the color of well-tanned buckskin, lay the little cattle-shipping station of Natrolia, a collection of odd-shaped dots, with one round dot larger than the rest which they took to be the railroad water tank.
“There she is,” said Dick. “If we only had an aeroplane, or even a bunch of gliders, it wouldn’t take us very long to coast down there. ”

“ And with the terrifying flood, as if borne on its crest, came a dank wind that sucked up into the small side gulch as it passed, chilling the three who were bracing themselves to hold the burros—and their own footing—like the breath from an ice cavern.
Like a good many of nature’s cataclysms, a cloud-burst flood does not last forever. While they were still shivering from the effect of the passing blast, the deafening roar withdrew into the down-canyon distances, and in a few minutes the waters began to subside. ”

“ Having never had time—or the spare energy—to do any athletic work in college, the toiling tramp, with a blanket roll and a gun to carry, made him realize, as he never had before, the handicap of untrained muscles and sinews, and as he dragged along at the tail of the little procession he was chopping out a vow to make the summer outing a turning point for a fellow named Charles Purdick in one respect at least: if hard work and grit would do it, the end of the summer should find him better fitted for man-sized, outdoor work or he’d know the reason why. ”

“ At the mouth of the canyon, Larry called a halt.
“I don’t know about tackling this thing with all the water that is coming down through that slit, fellows,” he said doubtfully. “If it rises much higher it’ll fill the canyon from wall to wall.”
“Oh, we can make it, all right,” said Dick, always the venturesome one of the three. “It’ll be a cold day if we can’t find room for our feet and two toy-sized jacks. Heave ahead.”
Now a canyon, as everybody knows, is at first a sheer chasm worn down through the rock by the stream for which it is the outlet. ”

“ What-all is it?” asked the squinter.
“Silver and gold,” said Dick calmly. “That ‘lime-horse’ of yours isn’t a lime-horse at all; it’s a vein of sylvanite, according to the blowpipe test. Didn’t you see that white stuff on the charcoal go off in a blue flame when I heated it? That was the tellurium in the ore. You’ve struck a telluride mine without knowing it, and you’ve probably thrown a small fortune away in the stuff that you wheelbarrowed out and threw on the dump. But, as I say, there seems to be plenty more of it. Gee! You’re a rich man, and you never suspected it!” ”

“ Dick agreed, and as he spoke he passed the rifle and cartridge belt over to the best marksman.
While they were talking, the sky had begun to lighten in the east with the promise of another cloudless summer day. As the stars were extinguished one by one and the growing dawn light crept down into the valleys and gulches, they were able to see what the dam-bursting flood had done. The broad swath mowed down through the forest by the avalanche boulder two days earlier had formed a path for the flood, and the cataracting water had swept it clean of everything movable. ”

“ The sun was sinking to its setting in a far-distant western wilderness when three young fellows who had been tramping steadily all afternoon up a steep mountain trail came out upon the summit of the range and stopped to look back upon another wilderness, with the buttes and gulches, valleys and rugged upheavals of which they had become affectionately familiar during the long summer weeks. ”

“ As nearly as they could judge, they had about fifteen hundred feet more of elevation to make before they could cross the range, and after a cold lunch of canned tomatoes and the remains of the pan-bread that Purdick had baked at breakfast-time, they attacked the final ascent.
On this part of the climb they were obliged to become pathfinders in grim earnest. There was no sign of a trail, and again and again they found themselves in a cul de sac; up against cliffy heights that no mountain goat could climb, much less a loaded pack animal. ”

“ Though he had said little about himself, Dick knew, of course, that he must be either a miner or a prospector; there could be no other reason for his living a hermit life in the mountains. From his earliest childhood Dick had been hearing stories of men who buried themselves in the wilds, digging year after year in some prospect shaft or tunnel, and coming out to the towns only when the “grub-stake” was exhausted and money had to be earned to buy more. ”

“ Dick smiled grimly.
“If you had lived in a mining country as long as Larry and I have, you’d know that a law-suit over a mine is about the last thing in the world that any peaceable person wants to get mixed up in, Purdy. When you once begin, there’s simply no end to it. You see, there’s no way of getting any real proof that will satisfy a judge and jury. We might swear that we discovered this vein on a certain date and posted our notice. ”

“ Tall, stoop-shouldered, with a shock of hair as white as snow, and a great white beard that reached fully to his waist, Dick could think of nothing to compare him to except a picture in the “Arabian Nights”—the Old Man of the Sea. But the resemblance to that horrific personage vanished instantly when a voice, as gentle as a woman’s, said:
“Well, hello, stranger! ’Light and come in. Ye’re welcome as sunshine. I hain’t seed a livin’ human sence the good Lord knows when!” ”

“ It was here that Dick, who seldom consented to be a permanent listener in any conversation, chipped in.
“Lots of good it’ll do you to kill us off!” he snapped back. “You talk as if there wouldn’t be any hereafter to this thing! James Brock gave this mine to my Uncle Billy Starbuck, and you know it because you listened in that morning in Brewster and heard Uncle Billy telling us about it. Suppose you do turn in and murder us: how long do you think it would be before half of Brewster’d be over here looking for you three fellows with a rope?” ”

“ There was no need of all going when one could easily bring out provisions for a single meal, and if they should all go, they’d have to take the jacks, making the tired beasts stumble along for whatever distance it might be over the ties and ballast of a railroad track in the dark. So Larry had his way and went alone, taking the haversack.
Left to themselves, Purdick and Dick didn’t go to sleep again; they groped around and got more wood and built up a good fire so as to have a bed of cooking coals if Larry should happen to bring something that needed cooking. ”

“ Larry, dropping into place as leader in the flight, gave his final directions after Dick had brought a hatful of water from the stream with which to extinguish the camp-fire.
“I was studying the Survey map as we came up on the train, and if I’ve got the right idea of where we are now, we have a pretty long, hard pull ahead of us to reach the top of the pass. We must make the best time we can while the going is good, because we can’t rush much after we hit the old snow. We’ll let old Fishbait”—they had already named the two burros—“show us the way. He can find the trail better than we can. ”

“ Fishbait shied and braced himself like the end man on a tug-of-war rope, and Lop-Ear, taking the cue from his file leader, did the same.
Now there certainly wasn’t, or wouldn’t appear to be, any sufficient reason for going to any great amount of trouble to get the burros down into the cave; but human beings are curious creatures, in a good many ways. Realizing fully that, in all probability, the game wasn’t at all worth the candle, the three set their heads determinedly upon getting the pack animals underground, and the more the jacks held back, the more determined they became. ”

“ Every few minutes, at the crack of a gun in the gulch, a whining missile would come through the exposed crevice mouth to hit the roof and scatter stone splinters and bits of hot lead all about the place.
“Well,” said Dick, after they had quickly withdrawn out of the line of fire, “what next?”
“More of the same,” gritted Larry the stubborn. “We’re not dead yet. Get back on the sentry job, Dick, and Purdy and I will shovel this stuff out of the way and get ready for another go at the drilling. We won’t stop to do any more sorting just now.” ”

“ The jacks were grazing peacefully in the ravine, and the camp dunnage was lying just as they had left it.
Dick laughed rather shamefacedly.
“What is there about an underground job to make a fellow get panicky all in a minute?” he asked. “When you mentioned what might happen up here while we were all down yonder in that cellar, I could just see those three crooks digging out through the woods with every last thing we had in the world.”
“Umph!” said the practical-minded Larry. “Great thing to have a vivid imagination. Got enough of the exploring, or do you want to go back?” ”

“ Even if only one of the rare-metal prospects you have staked out proves to be worth working, you will have earned your grub-stake many times over. As for this gold mine up yonder in the cliff, you may leave that to us. ”

“ Purdick had his shaking fit well in hand by this time, and once more he started to back away, testing every rock as he retreated to the stream level to make sure that it was fastened down before he put his weight upon it. Once on the trail, and around the first crook in the canyon, he began to run at top speed—and kept that up for just about twenty yards—which was all the distance it took to make him understand that when a fellow has lived all his life at an altitude of a few hundred feet above sea-level, he can’t run to do any good in the tall hills ”

“ Dick pounded the small one on the back.
“You’re the right old stuff, Purdy—you sure are!” he broke out heartily, and then he chuckled: “And you’re the one who said a little while back that you’d be no good in a scrap! I’m with you, right from the jump, and I know Larry is, too. Let’s get busy. We don’t even know that that smoke down yonder means anything more than some harmless old prospector’s cooking fire; and if it does mean anything else, we’re not exactly babies to let somebody take our candy away from us without raising a squawk. ”

“ The sky was overcast, and among the higher peaks of the Little Hophras a storm was raging.
“More bad medicine,” said Larry, struggling out of his blankets to liven up the camp-fire. “If that storm moves a little farther south, we’re likely to run square into it as we climb. Hustle us a bite to eat, Purdy, and Dick and I will saddle the jacks. We can’t get too sudden a start.” ”

“ Dick asked.
“Certainly I did. A bargain is a bargain. And it’s your discovery as much as any other lode would be. I only hope it won’t spoil you if it turns out to be a bonanza.”
Larry looked at Purdick, and little Purdick handed the look back. And it was Purdick who made answer.
“Larry and Dick will tell you, Mr. Starbuck, that I was mighty nearly an anarchist when they brought me out here last June,” he said steadily. “I used to believe there weren’t any good rich people in the world. ”

“ Larry was overhauling the blankets and pack wrappings.
“You can search me,” he gritted. “I can’t tell you that—any more than I can tell you why these blankets are all cut and slashed in holes. It must have been either a maniac or a devil!”
“A mighty hungry devil,” Purdick put in. “There [88] isn’t a smell of the bacon left, and we’re shy on everything but the canned stuff.”
“I can’t imagine a man, or any bunch of men, mean enough to treat us this way!” Dick raged. “Why, it’s simply savage!” ”

“ Do I hear a second to that motion?”
“Oh, if you can’t be happy until you do—of course,” said Larry. “You’re just about as likely to find the Golden Spider there as anywhere else. You’re crazy on this golden insect proposition, Dick.”
“The world owes lots of its progress to crazy people, you old stick-in-the-mud—or to people that other folks called crazy. Don’t you know that?” Dick retorted. “Besides, a spider isn’t an insect. It’s an arthropod, and has eight legs, while the insects have only six. ”

“ We’ll have to watch him to-morrow, and if we see he’s breaking, we’ll just dump one of the burro loads and make him ride.”
Larry shook his head. “You don’t know Purdy as well as I do. That little rat is the clearest kind of grit, all the way through. He’ll drop dead in his tracks before he’ll ever let us help him over the bumps.”
“Huh!” said Dick, spreading his blankets for the night. “When the time comes, we won’t ask his royal permission. We’ll just hog-tie him on old Fishbait’s back, if we have to. Good-night. I’m going to dream of all the good things there are to eat in this world.” ”

“ The two-hour train rush down the Timanyoni, through Little Butte, and up a wide mountain valley to the little smelter town of Nophi, nestling fairly under the shadow of the Greater Hophras, was a journey made without incident—unless dinner in the dining-car, their last civilized meal, as Dick named it, could be called an incident. ”

“ Now, when one has lost half a night’s sleep, and, on the heels of the loss, has tramped up one side of a mountain and down the other, a bed of dry conifer needles is likely to prove a pretty subtle temptation—not to go to sleep, of course, with the urgencies making it perfectly plain that one really mustn’t do that, but just to close one’s eyes and doze for a minute or two. ”

“ Money isn’t everything; it isn’t anything compared with what’s inside of the man who has it—or hasn’t it. If you’ve had hard times, you’ll be better able to feel for and to help other fellows who are having hard times. You’ll know what it means to them, better than either Dick or Larry, here.
“Now about your plans. You have only a few days left before you will have to start back to college. You’ve [209] finished your job out here, so you may as well start for Natrolia at once. ”

“ Larry returned coolly. “Knowing what we do, I suppose we’d be justified in ambushing the gang as they come up the canyon, but I’m sure none of us want to start this summer job of ours by shooting down a bunch of mine-robbers, much as they deserve it. The other thing to do is to light out before they get to us. And we don’t have to do it in the dark either; see there?” and he pointed to a thin crescent of a moon in its last quarter which was just beginning to show itself above the high eastern [25] mountain. Then to Purdick, “Purdy, you go and corral those guns, while I make up your pack.” ”

“ Larry laughed.
“You’re just too lazy to draw your breath, Dickie; that’s all that is the matter with you,” he said; but he didn’t offer any more objections to Dick’s plan, and after breakfast the tree was cut down to block the gulch entrance, and the three of them started back for the vanadium prospect, leaving the camp just as it was, save that they were woodsmen enough to put out the camp-fire, and thoughtful enough to wrap up the rifles and the dunnage and put the packs oh top of a flat boulder where the jacks wouldn’t trample on them in their grazing ramblings. ”