CHAPTER VI.
BACKED BY THE SILVER FOX PATROL.
"Hurrah for you, Aleck!" exclaimed Giraffe, unable to repress hisfeelings any longer.
Thad himself felt just as full of enthusiasm over the brave manner inwhich this son of Jerry Rawson had defied the man whose one desire inlife now seemed to be the discovery and confiscation of the rich minethat had eluded his eager fingers for so many years; but he knewbetter how to repress his delight.
They were starting along the top of the precipice now. Toby leadingthe way, and every now and then turning his head, to warn them of aparticularly risky place. Thad had made sure to coil up that preciousrope belonging to generous Bumpus, and which had so frequently provento be worth its weight in gold. Never again would Giraffe laugh at thequeer conceit of the fat scout in connection with the carrying of thatwindow-sash cord.
As the going was so difficult, and as a rule they were strung out insingle file, Thad thought that it would be just as well to defer allexplanations until they had arrived safely in camp. Besides, thatcourse would save Aleck from going over things twice; since those whowere not present would naturally be just as anxious to hear theparticulars as they were.
So they spent all the time in making sure that they did not lose theirfooting, and take ugly tumbles; for the way was very steep, and themoonlight, after all, rather treacherous to depend upon wholly.
Thad figured, from the clock in the heavens which he knew how to readso well, (figuring on the position of the moon, and the multitude ofstars, from Sirius, and the blazing Belt of Orion, the Hunter, in thenortheast; to bright Venus in the west, now just about to vanishbehind the mountain ridge,) that they had been gone all of two hours,when once more they approached the burning fire.
They could see some of the scouts around the blaze, and as they drewnear, the voice of Davy Jones called out sternly:
"Halt! who goes there?"
"Friends!" replied Thad, carrying out the humor of the thing.
"Advance friends, and give the countersign!" the sentry demanded.
"Silver Fox Patrol!" replied the scoutmaster, continuing to strideforward, and closely followed by all the others of the returning party.
"Did you get him, Thad?" asked Davy, instantly allowing his boyishcuriosity to over-ride all soldierly qualities.
"That's what we did; and he's here with us, as hungry as they makethem," replied the patrol leader.
"Oh! I only hope you kept lots of grub; I'm that hungry I c'n hardlywalk," declared Giraffe.
"After snatching all you did too, when you went off?" complained StepHen.
"But think what we've done since, will you?" argued the tall scout, ashe pushed into camp, and hastened to settle down in a good spot, withthe air of one who naturally anticipated being waited on by his chums.
"Well, we cooked a lot more," Smithy hastened to remark; "because, yousee, we just calculated that you would be fairly ravenous, after yourexertions. And so this is Aleck Rawson; delighted to meet you; my nameis----"
"Cut that out; we call him plain Smithy!" broke in Step Hen; "and I'mStep Hen Bingham. The fat feller is Bumpus Hawtree; this other is BobWhite; while the one who gave you that challenge is Davy Jones. He'llshake hands with you by offering one of his feet, because he'sstanding on his head about as much as the other way."
And Aleck went around, shaking hands heartily. Plainly they could seethat he was more than delighted to meet with such a hearty reception;and just when it seemed as though he needed friends the worst kind.
So the newcomers were quickly waited on, and found that a bountifulsupply of supper had indeed been prepared against their coming, and byboys who knew what a mountain appetite meant, too.
By degrees those who had been left in camp were told just how therescue had been effected; and then Aleck started in to tell somethingabout his experiences.
"I live with my mother and sisters in a town called Logan, down in thenorthern part of Utah. My father died several years ago, when I was alittle shaver. He had just come back home, and told us he had struckit rich, and we would never want again, when he was taken down with afever; and after being sick a week, he died. The last thing he did inhis delirium was to press a little pocket looking glass, with acracked front, into my hands, and close my fingers on it, like hewanted me to keep it. And we thought it was just imagination that madehim do it, and that perhaps he believed he was giving me all the moneyhe saw in his wild dreams.
"Well, as the years went along, I used often to look at that littlemirror, just a couple of inches across, and think of my father. Wenever could find anything among his traps to tell us where the mine hehad discovered was located. More'n a few times this here ColonelKracker would visit us, and tell my mother what a big thing it wouldbe, if only she could find some little chart or rude map among myfather's things, to be sort of a clew to the lost mine; but though shesearched, and I looked again and again, we just couldn't.
"And one day, would you believe it, somebody broke into our cottagewhile we were all out, and stole everything belonging to my father,from his six shooter and gun, to the old tattered knapsack that heused to carry, when he was prospecting for pockets of rich ore, or paydirt anywhere along the creeks."
"The old snake!" muttered Step Hen; for of course every one of themguessed who must have been responsible for this robbery of the widow'shome.
Aleck went on.
"And one day, it was only a month ago, as I was sitting there,fiddling with that same little pocket mirror, the back came loose. Iwas starting to pinch the metal tight again, when I discovered thatthere was a piece of paper between the glass and the back!"
"The clue to the lost mine?" gasped Giraffe, nearly falling over intothe fire in his extravagant delight.
"Yes, that was what it turned out to be," continued the Rawson boy,actually smiling to see how deep an interest his narrative seemed tohave for these splendid new friends fortune had raised up for him soopportunely. "My father must have had a return of reason just beforehe passed away; and not being able to say a single word, he hadpressed the glass into my hands, thinking that would be enough. Butsomehow it had never occurred to me that he knew what he was doing."
"And that's what brings you up here right now, I reckon; you mean tofind that hidden mine, and claim it for your mother, and the girls?"asked Thad.
"That is what I aim to do," replied the other, firmly. "But I thinkthat man must have kept a spy watching our house, after he failed tofind anything among the things that were stolen; for I've since hadreason to believe that every movement of mine was known to him. Andwhen he learned that I was going to start north he guessed that I hada clue of some sort to the mine."
"And so he captured you, perhaps right here where our camp is now;because Toby told us there were the footprints of a boy along withthose of Colonel Kracker, and his two cronies, Waffles and DickeyBird," Giraffe ventured to say.
"They did drop in on me right here; and taking me sort of by surprise,made me a prisoner easy enough," remarked Aleck, somewhatshame-facedly, as though he considered it far from being to hiscredit; "but there was something that happened before that ought tohave warned me to be on the watch."
"What was it?" asked the impatient Giraffe, as the other paused, whiletrying to eat and talk at the same time.
"Well, you see, down below here, I thought I ought to employ some sortof guide, because I wasn't altogether accustomed to being all alone inthe wilderness; though I've always used a gun, and hunted. And alongabout that time I ran across a man who seemed to be friendly, and knewthe country, he said, like a book. His name was Matt Griggs, he said;and the upshot of it all was he engaged to pilot me around up here aslong as I wanted him. You see, my plan was to shake him just when Ifound my bearings, and felt that I could go on alone; because, ofcourse I didn't want any outsider to be with me when I took possessionof my father's mine.
"I was careful never to breathe a word of what I had in mind; justtold him I wanted to knock around for a few weeks am
ong the mountainsup here. And unless I talked in my sleep, which I never knew myself todo, there wasn't any way Matt Griggs could learn from me the realreason for my wanting to come to this particular section.
"But one night I woke up, and found the guide searching through myknapsack; and then all of a sudden it struck me he was in the pay ofthat old scoundrel of a Colonel Kracker. He meant to rob me of mysecret, and had thrown himself across my path on purpose, just aboutthe time it was supposed I'd be wanting to take on a guide.
"Of course I covered him with my gun, and sent him away without acartridge in his possession. He was ugly about it, too, and vowed he'dget even with me yet. Well, he did, for my treacherous guide came inwith Kracker and a second man; so I reckon he must be one of those youspoke of, perhaps Waffles; for I heard the other called Dickey, onceor twice."
"When they took you a prisoner, they searched you, of course, hopingto find the valuable paper?" asked Giraffe, who could not wait for thenatural unfolding of the plot, but must needs hasten matters by meansof pointed questions.
"They raked me over with a fine-tooth comb," replied the other, with alittle chuckle, as though proud of what he had done; "but of course Ihad been too smart to carry that paper where it could be found, and sothey had all their trouble for their pains. Then Kracker was as mad asa wet hen. He stormed, and threatened, and tried to fool me with awhole lot of silly promises; but it wasn't any use. I just told himthat even if I knew the secret of the hidden mine, I'd die before Igave it up to him, or any one like him."
"Well, you saw what he did, in the end; took me up there, and lowered meto that terrible ledge, saying he was going to leave me there to starve;and that when the buzzards came flocking around me, and I was wild for abite to eat, perhaps I'd feel a little like telling him what he wasbound to know, for he promised to come and ask me every day."
"This was when?" asked Thad.
"I think it must have been about noon when they lowered me at the end ofa rope," Aleck went on to explain. "One of the men knew about thatledge, and the idea seemed to tickle Kracker more than a little. Theyjust shoved me over, and it was keep a tight hold on that rope for me,or a drop to the cruel rocks away down at the foot of the precipice.Then, late in the afternoon I saw you come into the valley far below. Iwanted to shout, at first, but was afraid you were only some of theother hard cases of silver mine hunters like Kracker. But I had foundout in the meantime that in crevices of the rock some small trees hadonce taken root, several of them dying, so that I amused myself inbreaking off pieces of wood and starting a little fire deep in a fissureI found, and which they didn't know anything about, I guess.
"Then, to my surprise I saw some one making all sorts of figures inthe darkness with what seemed to be a torch. I used to belong to theBoy Scout troop of Logan, you see, and for a little while I evenmanipulated the telegraph key in the railroad station a few miles outof there, on the Oregon Southern Railroad; so that I soon saw he waspracticing the Morse code. And then a wild desire came over me to getin touch with you. What I did, you all know; and I'm the happiestfellow in the whole Rocky Mountains to think that I've found friendsup here, friends who say they'll stand back of me, and help me win outin my fight for my father's mine."
There were tears in Aleck Rawson's blue eyes as he said this last, andsomehow every one of the scouts was deeply affected. It does not takemuch to arouse the boyish spirit of enthusiasm as a rule; and what theyhad already seen and heard of young Aleck Rawson, made the members ofthe Silver Fox Patrol ready to enlist heart and soul in his cause.
"There are nine of us here," said Thad, quietly, but with a firmnessthat thrilled the newcomer in the camp; "it's true that all but one ofus are boys; but then we've got guns, and can use them too, if we haveto. And let me tell you, Aleck, we're the kind of friends that stick.We've heard a lot about this hidden mine that your father discovered,and believe that it ought to belong to your mother, and no one else.This old rascal of a Kracker is a regular pirate, a land shark thatought to be tied up to a stake, and tarred and feathered, for the wayhe persecuted you, just because you refused to give away your secret,which means everything to your folks. And Aleck, we're going to standby you through thick and thin! We've met up with you in about thequeerest way ever heard of; and after getting you off that ledge upthere, don't think we want to call it quits. You're a scout, a fellowscout in trouble; and we wouldn't deserve the name we bear if wedidn't promise to back you up to the limit. How about it, boys?"
"That's the talk!" declared Giraffe, with great vim.
"He can count on us, every time," said Step Hen.
And so it went the entire rounds of the little circle, every boyechoing the sentiments that had made Thad, as the patrol leader,promise the harassed lad all the assistance that lay in their power.
After that the camp quieted down, and the boys went about theirordinary pursuits. Davy was fiddling with his little camera, the fevergrowing stronger in his veins with each passing day. Indeed, wheresome of his chums talked of shooting Rocky Mountain sheep, grizzlies,timber wolves, panthers and the like, the Jones boy could be heardexpressing his opinion that "shooting" the same in their native hauntswith a snapshot camera, was more to his taste.
And there was Step Hen, as usual, loudly bemoaning the loss ofsomething that he just felt sure he had had only five minutes before,but which was now gone as completely as though the earth had openedand swallowed it up.
"'Taint as though it was the first time, either," he was saying, in agrumbling tone, as of one deeply injured, while he eyed his chumssuspiciously; "it's always _my_ stuff that's bein' so mysteriouslymoved about, so that I never know where to put my hand on the same.Now, I reckon more'n a few of you saw my service hat on my head just alittle while ago; but tell me where it is now, will you? If one ofyou snatched it off in your slick way, and is just hiding the same,let me notify you right now it's a mean joke. Thad, can _you_ tell mewhere my hat is?"
Having the question thus put directly at him, the patrol leader feltcompelled to make a reply.
"Well, Step Hen," he said, slowly and convincingly, "I can't exactlydo that, but I think I might give a pretty good guess, knowing you sowell. Just five minutes ago you showed up, after having gone to get adrink at the little stream that runs through here. There's a regularplace where we bend down to drink; and I can just see you taking offthat campaign hat of yours, laying it nicely on the bank, getting yourfill of water; and then deliberately coming back to camp, leaving yourhat there; and then you kick up the greatest racket because yousuddenly notice it isn't on your head!"
Some of the other boys clapped their hands, while Step Hen lookedfoolish at the well-merited rebuke.
"Mebbe you're right that time, Thad," he said, meekly, as, turning, hestrode from the briskly burning fire, heading toward the good spotalongside the little stream, where they knelt to drink.
It was perhaps half a minute afterwards when he was heard to give ascreech that brought every scout instantly to his feet, jumping fortheir guns, when they caught the meaning of his words:
"I've got him!" yelled Step Hen, at the top of his voice; "I'm holdinghim, all right! But come and give me a hand, somebody, or he'll getaway! Injuns! Injuns!"
No wonder that excitement filled the camp of the Silver Fox Patrol!