IX
THE DETECTIVE OF SCIENCE
The morning of my arrival at Grand Teton station, on my return fromthe East, Andrew Hall met me with a warm greeting.
"I have been anxiously expecting you," he said, "for I have made someprogress towards solving the great mystery. I have not yet reached aconclusion, but I hope soon to let you into the entire secret. In themeantime you can aid me with your companionship, if in no other way,for, since the defeat of the mob, this place has been mightylonesome. The Grand Teton is a spot that people who have no particularbusiness out here carefully avoid. I am on speaking terms withDr. Syx, and occasionally, when there is a party to be shown around, Ivisit his works, and make the best possible use of my eyes. CaptainCarter of the military is a capital fellow, and I like to hear hisstories of the war in Luzon forty years ago, but I want somebody towhom I can occasionally confide things, and so you are as welcome asmoonlight in harvest-time."
"Tell me something about that wonderful fight with the mob. Did yousee it?"
"I did. I had got wind of what Bings intended to do while I was downat Pocotello, and I hurried up here to warn the soldiers, butunfortunately I came too late. Finding the military cooped up in theguard-house and the mob masters of the situation, I kept out of sighton the side of the Teton, and watched the siege with my binocular. Ithink there was very little of the spectacle that I missed."
"What of the mysterious force that the doctor employed to sweep offthe assailants?"
"Of course, Captain Carter's suggestion that Syx turned moltenartemisium from his furnace into a hose-pipe and sprayed the enemywith it is ridiculous. But it is much easier to dismiss Carter'stheory than to substitute a better one. I saw the doctor on the roofwith a gang of black workmen, and I noticed the flash of polishedmetal turned rapidly this way and that, but there was some interveningobstacle which prevented me from getting a good view of the mechanismemployed. It certainly bore no resemblance to a hose-pipe, or anythingof that kind. No emanation was visible from the machine, but it wasstupefying to see the mob melt down."
"How about the coating of the bodies with artemisium?"
"There you are back on the hose-pipe again," laughed Hall. "But, totell you the truth, I'd rather be excused from expressing an opinionon that operation in wholesale electro-plating just at present. I'vethe ghost of an idea what it means, but let me test my theory a littlebefore I formulate it. In the meanwhile, won't you take a stroll withme?"
"Certainly; nothing could please me better," I replied. "Which wayshall we go?"
"To the top of the Grand Teton."
"What! are you seized with the mountain-climbing fever?"
"Not exactly, but I have a particular reason for wishing to take alook from that pinnacle."
"I suppose you know the real apex of the peak has never been troddenby man?"
"I do know it, but it is just that apex that I am determined to haveunder my feet for ten minutes. The failure of others is no argumentfor us."
"Just as you say," I rejoined. "But I suppose there is no indiscretionin asking whether this little climb has any relation to the mystery?"
"If it didn't have an important relation to the clearing up of thatdark thing I wouldn't risk my neck in such an undertaking," was thereply.
Accordingly, the next morning we set out for the peak. All previousclimbers, as we were aware, had attacked it from the west. That seemedthe obvious thing to do, because the westward slopes of the mountain,while very steep, are less abrupt than those which face the risingsun. In fact, the eastern side of the Grand Teton appears to beabsolutely unclimbable. But both Hall and I had had experience withrock climbing in the Alps and the Dolomites, and we knew that whatlooked like the hardest places sometimes turn out to be next to theeasiest. Accordingly we decided--the more particularly because itwould save time, but also because we yielded to the common desire tooutdo our predecessors--to try to scale the giant right up his face.
We carried a very light but exceedingly strong rope, about fivehundred feet long, wore nail-shod shoes, and had each a metal-pointedstaff and a small hatchet in lieu of the regular mountaineer'saxe. Advancing at first along the broken ridge between two gorges wegradually approached the steeper part of the Teton, where the cliffslooked so sheer and smooth that it seemed no wonder that nobody hadever tried to scale them. The air was deliciously clear and the skywonderfully blue above the mountains, and the moon, a few days pastits last quarter, was visible in the southwest, its pale crescent faceslightly blued by the atmosphere, as it always appears when seen indaylight.
"Slow westering, a phantom sail-- The lonely soul of yesterday."
Behind us, somewhat north of east, lay the Syx works, with their blacksmoke rising almost vertically in the still air. Suddenly, as westumbled along on the rough surface, something whizzed past my faceand fell on the rock at my feet. I looked at the strange missile, thathad come like a meteor out of open space, with astonishment.
It was a bird, a beautiful specimen of the scarlet tanagers, which Iremembered the early explorers had found inhabiting the Teton canyons,their brilliant plumage borrowing splendor from contrast with thegloomy surroundings. It lay motionless, its outstretched wings havinga curious shrivelled aspect, while the flaming color of the breast washalf obliterated with smutty patches. Stooping to pick it up, Inoticed a slight bronzing, which instantly recalled to my mind thepeculiar appearance of the victims of the attack on the mine.
"Look here!" I called to Hall, who was several yards in advance. Heturned, and I held up the bird by a wing.
"Where did you get that?" he asked.
"It fell at my feet a moment ago."
Hall glanced in a startled manner at the sky, and then down the slopeof the mountain.
"Did you notice in what direction it was flying?" he asked.
"No, it dropped so close that it almost grazed my nose. I saw nothingof it until it made me blink."
"I have been heedless," muttered Hall under his breath. At the time Idid not notice the singularity of his remark, my attention beingabsorbed in contemplating the unfortunate tanager.
"Look how its feathers are scorched," I said.
"I know it," Hall replied, without glancing at the bird.
"And it is covered with a film of artemisium," I added, a littlepiqued by his abstraction.
"I know that, too."
"See here, Hall," I exclaimed, "are you trying to make game of me?"
"Not at all, my dear fellow," he replied, dropping hiscogitation. "Pray forgive me. But this is no new phenomenon to me. Ihave picked up birds in that condition on this mountain before. Thereis a terrible mystery here, but I am slowly letting light into it, andif we succeed in reaching the top of the peak I have good hope thatthe illumination will increase."
"Here now," he added a moment later, sitting down upon a rock andthrusting the blade of his penknife into a crevice, "what do you thinkof this?"
He held up a little nugget of pure artemisium, and then went on:
"You know that all this slope was swept as clean as a Dutchhousewife's kitchen floor by the thousands of miners and prospectorswho swarmed over it a year or two ago, and do you suppose they wouldhave missed such a tidbit if it had been here then?"
"Dr. Syx must have been salting the mountain again," I suggested.
"Well," replied Hall, with a significant smile, "if the doctor hasn'tsalted it somebody else has, that's plain enough. But perhaps youwould like to know precisely what I expect to find out when we get onthe topknot of the Teton."
"I should certainly be delighted to learn the object of our journey,"I said. "Of course, I'm only going along for company and for the funof the thing; but you know you can count on me for substantial aidwhenever you need it."
"It is because you are so willing to let me keep my own counsel," herejoined, "and to wait for things to ripen before compelling me todisclose them, that I like to have you with me at critical times. Now,as to the object of this break-neck expedition, whose risk
s youunderstand as fully as I do, I need not assure you that it is ofsupreme importance to the success of my plans. In a word, I hope to beable to look down into a part of Dr. Syx's mill which, if I am notmistaken, no human eye except his and those of his most trustworthyhelpers has ever been permitted to see. And if I see there what Ifully expect to see, I shall have got a long step nearer to a greatfortune."
"Good!" I cried. "_En avant_, then! We are losing time."