CHAPTER VIII
ALONG THE ROAD
For a week the caravan party moved on. They had gotten away from therailroad and were following an ancient trail which wound southward tothe timber-lands of the Yellowstone, passing through valleys and canyonsand over upland summits, now faint and grass-grown, now lost in the sanddrifts, but always reappearing and always re-discovered by Jim's trainedeyes. The journey across the state was to last several weeks, and thecaravaners were in no hurry to accomplish it.
One morning Ruth came to the tent door, dressed before any of the girls.She stood for a moment looking about her and then waved her hand to Jim,who was chopping a big log of wood that Carlos had dragged into the campthe night before. "Mr. Jim," she called, "do you think there is anyspecial need of our traveling to-day? The girls and I have been talkingthings over and we think that we and the horses need a rest. This issuch an enchanting place, anyhow, I feel this morning I would like tospend my life here."
Jim stalked over to the tent, with his face as radiant as the morning.He had his arms full of wood, and the string of shining fish over hisshoulder showed that he had been up and at work for several hours."Sure," he agreed heartily. "I'd like nothing better than to loaf awhile in this part of the country. I've got some harness to mend and alot of odd jobs to do, and this is sure the prettiest spot we've seen."
The wagon and horses were a little distance from the ranch girls' tent,but still in plain view. The tent was at the head of a silver streamthat ran like a ribbon through a green oasis of "gramma" grass. In thedistance rocks that looked like battlements rose on either side of adeep gorge, and dimly seen farther on were hoary old mountain tops withtheir peaked caps of snow.
Ruth laughed. "An honest confession is good for the soul, isn't it? Ishould have told you that my real reason for not wishing to move onto-day is that I simply have got to do some housekeeping. My NewEngland soul is racked by the way our pots and pans are looking, andJean says if she doesn't have a chance to wash the sand out of her hairshe will have to cut it off and wear a wig. If you'll make up the firefor me, I'll get breakfast in a minute; the girls already are starving."
"Then why don't one of them come out and help you cook?" Jim demandedautocratically. "I'm plumb afraid they are putting too much of the workon you."
"Injustice, thy name is Jim Colter!" Jack exclaimed at this minute,appearing before the fire with a sleepy look in her gray eyes, and acoffeepot in her hand. "I told Ruth I'd get breakfast this morning, sorun away, Ruthie, and help Frieda find her clothes; she is in the depthof despair about one of her shoes. And tell Jean and Olive they must setthe table."
Jim swung his fish before Jack's delighted eyes. "I'll cook these,Missie," he said calmly. "I don't believe I care to trust you."
"All right. I'll fry the bacon to go with them," Jack returned in hermost professional cook manner. "I like the odor of bacon these morningsin camp better than any flower that blooms. Isn't it great that we havehad a whole week of perfect sunshiny weather?"
The camp breakfast did not take much more than half an hour to get,though it was a pretty substantial meal. Coffee and chunks of toastedbread, fish, bacon, marmalade and jam, and this morning fresh water fromthe near-by spring, formed the menu. It took quite as long to eat,however, as the most elaborate repast served by a fashionable New Yorkhotel. Jim moved over a little nearer the fire to be farther away fromthe girls when he finished. He got out his favorite pipe and tenderlysnuggled the tobacco into it, and Jack saw the thought of the day'schores fade gently from his mind and a reminiscent light come into hiseyes. Ruth was no longer overcome by household cares. The day stretchedon before them, apparently an endless chain of golden opportunities todo nothing.
"I was around in this neighborhood once before," Jim remarked casually.This was as near as Jim had ever gotten to being confidential, and Jeanand Jack exchanged glances.
"What were you doing here, Jim?" Jack queried, trying to make her voiceappear perfectly indifferent.
Jim hunched his big shoulders and took a long puff at his pipe. "I wasprospecting for gold, same as every other young idiot that ever camewest not knowing a lump of gold from a chunk of mud when he found it,"he returned calmly. "There are three little pine cone hills a matter often miles from here, with an ugly stream of water and a group of treesnear them, where I believe I had a claim located once, a good many moonsago."
"And you never told us a word about it. Jim Colter, you are a pig!" Jeandeclared inelegantly.
"There wasn't nothing to tell, Jean," Jim replied in his usual slow,indifferent manner. "Just another fellow and I saw a hill with some bitsof black rock with yellow streaks in it, and we dug away for a couple ofmonths without getting anything out of it but trouble."
"Jim, I don't believe there wasn't gold in your mine," Jean declaredresolutely. "You just gave up too soon."
"All right, Miss Bruce," Jim agreed. "You can have my claim if you wantit. Come to find out, we weren't the first and I don't reckon we werethe last fellows to go digging in that hill. It's called 'Miner'sFolly', and is about as gloomy a looking hole as anybody ever saw."
"I'd like to see the place awfully, Jim," Jack suggested eagerly.
"Don't doubt it for a moment, Jack," Jim returned unwinkingly.
Jack whispered something in Jean's ear. "I'll do no such thing, JackRalston," Jean replied firmly. "Remember, yesterday you were awfullyselfish about letting me have my turn at riding horseback with Olive. Itold you then I shouldn't do the next favor you asked me and I certainlydon't mean to wear myself out on such a tramp. Besides, Jim wouldn'tthink of taking you."
"Wouldn't you, Jim?" Jack pleaded meekly.
Jim appeared to have no ears.
Jack slipped around by the fire and dropped a few pine cones on it.
"Wouldn't you kind of like to see that old mine you deserted, Jim?" Jackqueried. "Suppose there is any change in it? Maybe it has turned out tobe a really valuable claim since your day and you have never heard ofit."
Jim shook his head, but Jack saw that she had lighted the fires ofdesire in his soul. "Maybe I will walk over toward the old spot just tosee what the scenery is like, when I finish my work," Jim admitted, afew minutes later, and his admission spelt defeat.
An hour after, Jim Colter and Jack Ralston set out with their riflesover their shoulders and their pockets stuffed with provisions, to findJim's unlucky mine. Little brown Carlos followed them like a persistent,though distant shadow. He had been ordered by Jim to stay near the tent,water the horses and make himself generally useful, for Jim did notbelieve that he and Jack could get back from their fool's errand beforebedtime. Of course, Jim did not consider that the girls he left behindwould get into danger or mischief in his absence, or he would never havegone; but they had met with no rough characters on their journey and thecountry seemed perfectly safe. Neither Ruth nor Olive nor Jean objectedto being left alone; indeed, they were rather glad to get rid of the manof their party for a little while. Ruth was worried only for fear Jackwould get overtired from her long walk; she did not dream that any othertrouble might befall her with Jim as her escort.
"Slow but sure, Jack. Remember, you promised to trust to my judgment onthis trip," Jim suggested kindly, when after several miles of travelJack showed no signs of fatigue.
"All right, I remember," Jack answered obediently. "Let's sit down."
The two travelers had reached the deep gorge which they had seen fromtheir tent, and Jim recalled that the trail to the old mine had followedthis ravine for a part of the way and then branched off across countryto the west.
Jack's sudden backward glance caught sight of a moving figure behindthem. In a moment she recognized Carlos and wondered what Jim would sayto him, for she knew he could be pretty fierce and savage when he wasdisobeyed.
"There's Carlos," Jack pleaded meekly; "don't be hard on him."
"I've known he was after us for the last half hour," Jim replied curtly."Carlos, come here."
Carlos had been creepi
ng along through the grass in Indian fashion, butnow he straightened up his lithe body and came straight toward Jim. Jackknew he was horribly frightened and so she couldn't help but admire theboy's sudden grip on himself. He looked straight into the "Big WhiteChief's" eyes; only once his eyelids twitched.
"Why did you come with us when I said stay behind?" Jim demanded quietlywith his own peculiar sternness.
The boy hesitated; but an Indian does not lie to his friends. "I heardyou speak of the cave of the never-found gold," Carlos answered simply."The Indians of the plains now know the value of the white man's gold.Often have I followed them into the desert to search for it in vain. Fornothing else would I leave the women whom you gave me to tend, but I toomust see the place of which you speak."
Jim groaned, and Jack laughed lightly. "Come on, Carlos," she saidkindly. "Partner," she turned to Jim, "no matter what happens from thisday's outing, remember you are responsible for planting the gold microbein Carlos and me." For the rest of their tramp Jack could not but amuseherself, whenever her companions were silent, with wild dreams of whatjoy it would be for them to come across a gold mine and get suddenlyvery rich. She kept guessing and planning what she and the other girlswould do. More than anything, she wished to play fairy godmother to theoverseer of their ranch. During the week of their caravan trip, Jim hadshowed so plainly that only Ruth and Frieda were still unconscious ofit, how much he cared for the ranch girl's chaperon. And Jack knew howlittle, except the strength of his love, he had to offer her. Jim hadbeen running the Rainbow Ranch, receiving a salary so small for thevalue of his services that it made Jack blush to think of it.
Time after time had she begged him to manage the ranch on shares, but hehad always refused, saying he had no need of money, and the place madeonly enough to pay expenses, take care of the girls, and put a little byfor their futures. And Jim knew they would need more money some day ifthey were ever to see anything of the great world which lay outsidetheir ranch lands.
Jim paid no heed to Jack's unnatural silence, for his mind was fixed ona discovery that absorbed his entire interest. Other travelers hadlately crossed the trail which he and his companions were following.Footprints were fresh upon it, and in an out-of-the-way spot a tin canshowed a bright new label. The footprints not only followed the pathalong the side of the ravine, but marked the same track through the moreopen country. Without these signs, Jim knew he could never have tracedthe old trail so easily, yet he felt the gold prospector's hot glow ofresentment--another man had located his claim. Then he smiled,remembering he had turned his back on it as no good, nearly fourteenyears before. Without a word to his companions, however, he kept hiseyes fastened steadfastly on the ground and his ears alert for everysound each step of the way, but no other human being appeared in thevast solitude. Once Jim and Jack sighted a covey of quail and killedhalf a dozen. Ruth and the other girls were willing to eat quail so longas they did not have to see them killed.
About three o'clock in the afternoon the travelers had their firstvision of Jim's three pine cone hills with the stream of brackish waterrunning down the side of one of them, and in the background a densethicket of evergreens. Forgetting their tired feet, Jack and Carlos madea sudden rush, but Jim caught hold of them, making them keep close tohis side until he saw the place was deserted. At last he brought them inbreathless silence to a yawning cave in the middle hill. It was only agreat, black hole, dull and uninteresting. Jack peered well into it fora sign of anything that sparkled or shone like a precious metal. Itshowed only a mixture of earth and stones and sand, and the whole placewas so gloomy it gave her a shiver of apprehension. The sun was not sobright as it had been a short time before. Suddenly she felt cold andweary, though she could not explain the cause.
"It's a pretty dismal place, isn't it, Jim?" Jack said quickly. "I amawfully glad to have seen it of course, but I don't wonder you ran away.I am sure no gold could be discovered here." And the girl heaved a sighof fatigue and disappointment. She was sure she had made the trip simplyfrom idle curiosity, yet the chance of their finding a gold mine hadbeen lurking in the back of her mind.
Jim was stalking about the deserted mine like a hound that had beengiven a scent. He had seen, not far from one of the hills, a piled-upheap of ashes, which showed that a fire had been built there within thepast few days, and the rank grass in the vicinity pressed down by humanbodies. Jack had picked up a tool from the earth immediately in frontof the mine, and the tool had been lately used.
"Wait here for me, Jack," Jim suggested finally. "I know you are tiredand need a rest before we start back. Carlos, look after Miss Jack anddon't go out of sight. I want to explore the neighborhood a bit. I willnot be long. Nothing will happen, but if you want me call out."
Jack paid no special attention to Jim's departure. She found acomfortable place, sat down and closed her eyes. How soon she fellasleep she did not know, but she heard no sound from Carlos when heslipped away into the woods back of them. Tempted by the possession of anew gun, the boy disobeyed a second time that day.