CHAPTER XXVI.
THE CROW BOY'S HONOR.
Just as the prospector had started to draw the curtain of vines back,there came a most dreadful growl that made Aleck jump, under the beliefthat the she wolf he had been dragging after him, might have come backto life, and was about to pounce on the destroyers of her lair.
Then all at once it struck him that Thad must have been the cause ofthis savage growl; that was no doubt what he meant when he spoke soconfidently of knowing a way to frighten the man off.
Indeed, Waffles did spring back instantly, uttering a cry of terror.He fully expected to see the beast that had uttered that ferociousgrowl come flying through the vine screen, leaping at his throat.
"What is it?" shouted Kracker, himself scrambling to his feetclumsily, owing to the girth of his waist.
He seemed to be dragging something out of a rear pocket, and no doubtthis was the single weapon which the Boy Scouts had allowed the men tocarry off with them, at the time Kracker and his companions found itnecessary to confess themselves beaten in the game of wits.
"A wolf is layin' behind them vines; didn't you hear her give tonguelike sixty? Ketch me aliftin' anything thar, I tell you. Ugh! I ain'tlost no wolf. Chances are it's the mother of that cub, too; an' she'llbe that mad when she knows we killed it, nawthin' won't stop herrushin' the camp. Let's clear out of here?"
"But we got our fire started, an' all of us feel dead tired, too,"complained Dickey Bird, who was evidently struggling between twoopinions, and did not know which was the lesser evil--remain wherethey were, with that savage beast hovering around; or once more pursuetheir weary way elsewhere.
Kracker had approached close to the vines, and Thad thought it a goodtime to give another growls which he did with new emphasis. And Aleck,not wanting to be left out of the game entirely, tried his hand also.
"Look out, Kunnel, thar's two of the critters!" shouted Waffles,turning and edging further away from the rock wall.
"A hull den of 'em, I reckons!" added Dickey Bird, who no longer caredto stay in such a dangerous vicinity.
Thad reached out his hand, and shook the vines violently. This actioncompleted the demoralization of the three prospectors. Almostweaponless as they were, they seemed to lack their ordinary courage.
"Run! they's comin' out arter us, Kunnel!" cried Waffles, suiting theaction to his words, by turning and dashing wildly away.
The second man followed close at his heels, just as thoroughlydemoralized. Kracker might have stood it out, for Kracker gripped afirearm in his fat hand; but when he found that he was being desertedby his companions, the big prospector also started to run clumsilyaway, breathing out all manner of threatenings against the other twofor cowards.
Thad no longer growled, but lying there on the rocky floor of thefissure, he shook all over with half-suppressed laughter.
"That's the time we saved the day with our growls, Aleck!" hewhispered, when he could control himself to some extent.
The other lad felt even more exultant. The mine had been in danger, butthanks to the ready wit of the scoutmaster, the enemy had beenfrightened away before they learned anything. And so Aleck, feeling thathe had plenty of cause for rejoicing, soon joined Thad in soft laughter.
"No danger of those fellows coming back to investigate, do you think?"he asked.
"Well, if you could judge from the hurried way they lit out, I guesswe needn't dream that they'll ever want to see this cliff again,"replied Thad.
"And when we want to, we can crawl out ourselves, can't we?" Aleckwent on.
"Sure thing, right now is the time, because they're traveling for allthey're worth, and never even looking back over their shoulders asthey gallop along."
"How about these wolves; shall we drag them out, and throw thecarcases away in some hole?" asked Thad's companion, evidently onlytoo glad to do just whatever the scoutmaster decided were best.
Indeed, he had reason to feel the utmost confidence in Thad Brewster;from the very first this new friend had directed affairs in a way thatAleck looked on as simply wonderful. It was almost like a dream tohim, the coming of these scouts, their championing his almost lostcause, and bringing success out of failure. No wonder then that Aleckfelt so willing to trust this staunch friend through thick and thin.No wonder that he asked his opinion, knowing full well that whateverThad decided would be best.
"Might as well get rid of the things while we're about it," was whatThad said. "Sooner or later you'll be entering this passage again, Ihope with capitalists along with you to look the mine over, and decidehow much money they'll advance to begin its working; and you wouldn'tfind it nice here, if we left these bodies to cause a disagreeableodor. But we must be careful not to disarrange the vines. And I wantto rub out any tracks we may leave, before quitting this place."
Accordingly both the mother wolf and the cub were taken outside. Itwas not a difficult thing to find a deep hole into which all of thedead animals could be cast; and after this duty had been accomplishedthe two boys returned to the mouth of the hidden mine.
The fire had been kicked under foot, and extinguished; though Thadafterwards made sure to place the embers in such a position that itwould appear to have gone out of its own accord. This was to keep theprospectors from suspecting the truth, should they have the temerityto ever come back again, for one of them had lost his hat in his madhaste to depart.
Then lighting the lantern, Thad tried the best he knew how to smoothover any footprint he or his companion may have made close to thefissure in the rock. He wished Allan might be there just then, for hewould have known how to go about it better.
"All right now," he announced a little later, as he arose from hisknees.
"What had we better do, stay around here, or try and work a littlecloser back to camp, to see what has happened there?" Aleck questioned.
"I was thinking it might pay us to do that last," the scoutmasterreplied. "We needn't show ourselves, of course; but could hang arounduntil your rascally old uncle and that sheriff went away. Now, if onlyit was some one else he wanted to nab, what a fine chance this wouldbe for you to get him as an officer of the law to help you locate themine. But I suppose that would be too dangerous."
"It's an idea worth thinking about," Aleck declared, "and we may finda way yet to carry it out. I hope we won't run across those threescared men, because they headed this way when they ran off. You don'tmean to carry the lantern lighted, do you, Thad?"
"Well, I should say not. It would only advertise the fact that acouple of very fresh Boy Scouts were wandering around. Why, those verymen might sight us and lie in wait to capture you again," with whichThad blew out the lantern.
They started on.
Thanks to the moonlight they were able to keep their course fairlywell; sometimes under the low trees, and again among masses of piledup rocks. Far above their heads towered the mighty mountains, theirtops capped with snow. Thad never glanced up at them without thinkinghow eagerly he and his chums had looked forward to this chance forseeing the fortress Nature had built up and down the Western country,separating the Pacific Coast from the balance of the land.
"Listen!" said Aleck, laying a hand on his companion's sleeve.
"Did you think you heard a voice again?" asked Thad, whispering thewords, for there was a spice of danger in the very air around them.
"I sure did; and there it is again. Whatever is that man doing?"
"Sounds to me like that Waffles?" suggested Thad.
"But what would he be praying for, tell me?" asked Aleck.
"Praying?" echoed the other, astonished himself.
"Well, listen to him, would you; he seems to be begging somebody notto hurt him? Do you suppose they've gone, and had a falling-out amongthemselves, and the colonel is threatening to finish his man forrunning away?" Aleck went on, still keeping his voice lowered.
"Why, hardly that, because he ran as fast as the rest of them,"replied Thad. "But come, let's creep forward a little, and find outwhat all the fus
s is about."
As they proceeded to do this, the sound of Waffles' peculiar voicecame more and more plainly to their hearing; and sure enough, he wascertainly pleading earnestly with some unknown one.
"Think what a guy I'll be if so be ye do hit, and cut my pore earsoff, jest in spite work?" he was whining; "I admit that I done yedirt, when I hooked that bead belt from yer place, meanin' to sell thesame. But shore I didn't know as how ye vallied it so high. Never'd aput a hand on it, if I'd been told 'twar a sacred fambly relic, andthat outsiders hadn't orter touch the same. Let me go this time, Fox,and shore I promises never to do hit again. My ears is all I got, andthink how I'd look without the same. Ye got me down, and I cain't helpmyself, ef so be ye mean to do hit; but better let me off this time.You ain't a wild Injun, and you knows it ain't doin' right to try andmend one wrong with another. Let me go, Fox; I'm asayin' I'm sorry,an' a man can't do more'n that."
The mystery was explained. The Fox had followed Thad and Aleck from thecamp, no doubt with the idea of standing up for them, if they neededhelp. He must have been hovering near when the three prospectors startedtheir fire, and witnessed all that happened afterward.
When the three frightened men made their wild flight, the Fox, stillburning with a desire to wipe out the insult that Waffles had put uponhis family when he took away that revered wampum belt that had neverbefore been touched by profane hands, had followed in their wake.Finding a chance to jump on the back of Waffles, he had borne the manto the ground. Doubtless the other two had continued their mad flight,never caring what would happen to Waffles, and only thinking of savingtheir own precious bodies.
And ever since that minute, the Fox had been sitting on the fallenman, telling him how he meant to punish him for his mean act, bymaking Waffles a reproach among his fellows, since only thieves havetheir ears sliced off in some countries.
Thad nudged his companion, and they started to creep closer to the spotwhere the two figures prone on the ground could be indistinctly seen.