CHAPTER XXI. "THE RUBY GLOW."
Camp, that night, was made at the portage of which the major had spoken.Although strict watch was kept all night nothing unusual occurred. Brightand early the work of the portage was commenced. The Major, Jumbo andProfessor Jorum, each burdened themselves with a canoe, which theycarried across their shoulders, turned bottom up and resting on a wooden"yoke."
The lads carried the "duffle" and provisions. The portage, connecting thelake they had traversed with the one beyond, was over rough ground. Infact, at one place, they had to clamber up quite a ridge. It was rockyand grown with coarse undergrowth interspersed with scanty trees. Furtheron the trail ran beside quite a deep ravine.
Tubby, with his load of duffle, was slightly in advance of the otherlads, and humming a song as he trudged along. With the curiosity naturalto the stout youth, he could not refrain from wandering from the path topeer over into the depths of the gulch.
"My goodness!" he exclaimed to himself, as he gazed interestedly, "itwould be no joke to fall in there."
As he spoke he drew closer to the edge of the rift and craned his shortneck to obtain a still better view of the abyss below him. At thisjuncture the others, laboring along the trail, caught up with him, andRob gave the stout Scout a hail.
"Better come away from there, Tubby," he warned, "you know what happenedout west, when you went rubbering about the haunted caves."
"It's all right," retorted the fat boy, "it looks nice and cool down inthere. I'd like to----"
The rest of his speech was lost in an alarmed exclamation from theonlookers.
As Tubby uttered his confident remark he seemed to vanish suddenly, likean actor in a stage spectacle who has dived through a trap door. Only acloud of dust and a roar of stones sliding into the ravine told of whathad happened to the over-confident youth. Standing too close to the edgehe had stepped on an overhanging bit of ground and had been precipitateddownward.
"Good gracious!" cried Rob, in real alarm, "he's gone over!"
With a swift fear that Tubby's accident might have resulted fatally, Robwas at the edge of the ravine in two jumps. The rest were not far behindhim.
Rob experienced a feeling of intense relief, however, as he gazed intothe depths. Some time before, a tree had become dislodged and slid intothe rift. It lay upon the bottom of the place. Tubby, luckily forhimself, had fallen into its branches and was, except for a fewscratches, apparently unhurt.
"Are you injured?" demanded Rob, anxiously, nevertheless. He wanted tohear from Tubby's own lips that he was all right.
"Nothing hurt but my feelings," the stout youth assured him. "Say, it_is_ cool down here."
"Well, if nothing's hurt but your feelings you're all right," criedMerritt; "you couldn't hurt those with an axe."
"Just you wait till I get out of here," yelled Tubby from his leafy seat.
"Well, how are we going to get you up?" demanded Merritt. "Guess you'llhave to stay there till we get a ladder."
"Tell you what we'll do," said Rob, "we'll take the ropes off the packsand join them together. Then we can knot one end to one of the staves andhaul Tubby up."
"That's a good idea," called the stout youth, who had overheard, "andhurry up, too."
"Gracious, it needs an elephant to haul your fat carcass out of there,"scoffed Merritt. "I guess we'll take our time over it."
"Take as long as you like, so long as you get me out," parried Tubby,"you always were slow, anyhow, as the fellow said when he threw hisdollar watch into the creek."
It did not take long to rig up an extemporized life-line with the packropes. This done, one end was made fast to the staves, and the otherlowered to Tubby. At Rob's orders the rope was passed round a tree trunk,and when Tubby had adjusted the rope under his arm pits the young Scoutsbegan to haul. As Merritt had said, Tubby was no lightweight. Once theyhad to stop, and the rope ran back quite a way. A yell from Tubby ensued.
"Hey! Keep on hauling there!" he roared, "what do you think I am, a sackof potatoes?"
"You feel like a sack of sash weights!" shouted Rob, "keep still now, andwe'll have you out in a jiffy."
A few minutes later Tubby's fat face, very red, appeared above the edgeof the rift over which he had taken his abrupt plunge. Rob seized him bythe shoulders and dragged him into safety.
"There now, for goodness sake don't fall in again," he said.
"As if you aren't always telling me to fall in," scoffed Tubby.
"When, pray?"
"Every time we drill," said the stout youth solemnly, flicking some dustoff his uniform with elaborate care.
Owing to the length of time occupied by extricating Tubby from hisdifficulties, the canoe bearers had become apprehensive of harm to thefollowing body and had halted. Of course questions ensued when the rearguard came up.
"What happened?" demanded the major, noting the suppressed amusement onthe lads' faces.
"Oh, Tubby fell in again," answered Merritt.
"Fell in?" asked the professor in an astonished tone.
"I went hunting for botanical specimens at the bottom of a ravine,professor," said Tubby gravely.
"For botanical specimens? Most interesting. Pray did you find any?"
"Nothing but a Bumpibus Immenseibus," replied Tubby with perfect gravity.The other boys had to turn aside and stuff their fists in their mouths tokeep from laughing outright.
Even the major's lip quivered. But the professor displayed immenseinterest. As for Jumbo, he was lost in admiration.
"Dat suttinly am de mos' persuasive word I've done hearn in a long time,"he exclaimed. "Blumpibusibus Commenceibus. What am dat, fish, flesh ordes corned beef?"
"It's a pain," rejoined Tubby, "and usually follows a fall. But not afall in temperature, or----"
"Ah, Hopkins, I fear you are making merry at my expense," exclaimed theprofessor, good-naturedly.
"Well, I took a tumble, anyhow," said Tubby.
"About time you did," came in Merritt's voice.
In the chase that ensued a wave of merriment burst loose. But timepressed, and the march was speedily resumed, with but a shortinterruption for lunch.
Late that afternoon they emerged on the shores of the other lake. It wasa beautiful sheet of water, narrow and hemmed in by high hills which shotup abruptly on every side. At the far end could be seen a series of threepeaks, jagged and sharp against the sky. The major turned to theprofessor, and both consulted the map and the translation of the cipher.
"When the ruby mound masks the Three Brothers take a course by the greatdead pine. Four hundred to the west, three hundred to the north, andbelow the man of stone."
Such were the words which the major read aloud from the professor'stranslation.
"How do you interpret that, professor?" he asked.
"Why, plainly enough: the three brothers referred to are those threesimilar peaks," said the professor; "the map indicates them. The rubymound is not quite so clear. But I don't doubt that we shall stumbleacross its meaning, and also that of 'the man of stone,' which, Iconfess, I cannot make out."
"May be it's some mass of rock that looks like a man," volunteered Rob,who, like the others, had listened with eager attention while the majorread.
"An excellent idea, my boy. That is possibly the correct meaning,although the old buccaneer may have spoken in riddles. Such menfrequently did. However, we are at the gateway of our venture. To-morrowwe shall know if it meets with success or failure."
"To-morrow!" echoed the Boy Scouts.
"Ef ah could cotch dat five-hundred-dollah-pusson to-morrow dat would beall de treasure ah'd want," mumbled Jumbo as he set down his canoe. Hehad kept it on his back up to now, like a shell on a black turtle.
"Ah don' lak dis business ob interfussin' wid a dead man's belongin's. Nogood ain't gwine ter come uv it."
"What are you mumbling about, Jumbo?" asked the major, overhearing someof this last.
"Why, majah, I was jes
' a communicatin' to myself mah pussonalconvictions on de subjec' ob dead men's gold."
"Why, Jumbo, are you superstitious?" inquired the professor.
"No, sah. Ah's bin vaccinated an' am glad to say it _took_. We ain'tneber had no supposishishness in our fam'bly. But dis yar meddlin' anmonkeyin' wid what belongs to dem as is daid and buried is bad bis'nis,sah--bad bis'nis."
"I thought that you had more courage than that," said the professorseriously.
"Ah got lots ob dat commodity, too, sah. Ah dassay dat ah is de bravestman in de--Oh! fo' de law's sake, wha' dat? Oh, golly umptions! Majah!You Boy Scrouts, help!"
Jumbo suddenly cast himself down on the ground and began rolling over andover, trying to seize the major's feet in his paroxysm of real alarm.
"Get up!" ordered the major curtly, "get up at once, you cowardlycreature. What's the matter?"
"Oh, mah goodness, majah, you didn't see it. You had yo' back to derbushes. So did de odders. But ah seed it."
"Saw what, sir?"
"Oh, golly gumptions! De ugliest lilly face wid black whiskers an' eyesdat I ebber seed. It was lookin' frough de bushes an' listening to youalls."
"Where? Show me the place at once."
The major's tone was curt and fraught with a deeper meaning.
"Right hyah, sah, majah. Right hyah, dis am whar I seen dat homely lillyface. Yas sah."
But although they made a thorough search of the vicinity no trace of aconcealed listener could be found.
"I'd be half-inclined to put it down to Jumbo's foolishness if it wasn'tthat we know we have enemies in the mountains," said the major, aftersupper that night.
"But as it is, sir?" asked Rob.
"As it is," replied the major, "I think we had better keep a sharp lookout and 'Be Prepared.' Jumbo's description of that face seems to tallypretty closely with the countenance of Black Bart."
"Just what I think," rejoined Rob; "if he hadn't got so frightened Jumbomight have secured that five hundred dollars after all."
"Marse Rob," said Jumbo, who had been listening intently, "you ebber hyahdat lilly story 'bout de man wot caught de wild cat?"
"No; heave ahead with the yarn, Jumbo," said the major.
"Well, sah, onct upon a time two men was campin'. One went to der springter git watah. Pretty soon de one lef' behin' hearn de awfullest racketand caterwaulin' by dat spring you ever hearn tell ob.
"'What de mattah?' he call.
"'I got a wild cat!' holler de man by de spring.
"'Kain't you hole him?' hollers his fren'.
"'I kin hole him all right,' hollered de udder feller, 'but I don't knowhow ter let him go ag'in'."
After the laughter excited by this narration had subsided, Jumbo rolledhis eyes solemnly and cleared his throat. Then he spoke:
"An' dat lilly nanny-goat (anecdote) applies sah, dat applies ter me anddis yar Black Bart or whateber his name am."