CHAPTER XX
THE MYSTERIOUS TRAIL
That figure stood there many minutes, almost immobile, like atree-stump. Then, when I saw that black mass of ship out on the seabegin to move, the figure stooped, took some bulky thing from the groundand started off inland.
We followed cautiously--ah, how cautiously! It was a ticklish period ofour business. The rustling in the brush ahead, now and then, told us howhe went.
Near two miles that figure led us thus. And then came a halt on theshore of Crow Bay. We could hear him in the water, into which he waded.And we crawled close, and made out he was tugging at something on thebottom.
In a little, he had dragged a canoe onto the shore, and with some laborhe turned out the water. I could hear him mumbling to himself, andchuckling, as it seemed, while he took up his burden and set it in thecanoe. That sound of his voice with its unpleasing quality settled hisidentity for me. It was Duran.
He sat himself in the little boat, and pushing with a paddle, moved offfrom shore.
"We've got to follow close," I whispered to my comrades. "Robert, youbetter stay, and Carlos and I will try swimming for it. If I send foryou, leave a note on the top of the hill."
I removed my shoes while I talked, and Carlos and I waded in. The waterwas shallow, and we pushed along with some rapidity, digging our toesinto the sandy bottom. We came, in time, to deeper water, and swam ashort way, then touched bottom again. And presently we came up on apiece of beach and sprinted round a tongue of land. This brought ourquarry within view again. So, though we lost sight of him when again wewere obliged to enter the water and cross another broad bayou, a secondand longer run on the beach, round a broader tongue of land, gave us hisview once more.
One more swim for it, and we came up in time to see Duran paddling intoan inlet, or bayou, in the south shore of Crow Bay. By this time themoon had risen. But its light served only to show us the extent of themarshy place we were in, among the tall reeds. Progress was impossible,except by way of the shallow water of the inlet, for there was no beachhere.
Wading, we continued on the trail, though the canoe was beyond our view.We had gone thus, in the bayou, some little way, when we noted, in thedim moonlight, the place where the canoe had been dragged in among thereeds. And close by was the beginning of a path, and the ground wassolid; and heavy, bushy growth replaced the grasses.
We now ran forward, hoping to sight Duran before he should come to someturning and be lost to us. We went thus, miles it seemed, and the pathtook us, in time, out of the open and into the forest. Here the feel ofour bare feet on the path was our only guide. The forest ended, and wecame out into a glade; still there was no sign of him we followed.Carlos stooped to the ground, pushing aside the grasses that lined thetrail. With eyes and fingers employed together he sought for marks.
"Yes," he said at last, "he go here."
And so we pushed on, the trail soon taking us into another piece offorest growth. But our path came to an abrupt end at the bank of astream. And here some rays of moonlight, coming in through intersticesof the green canopy, showed fresh marks of some one having gone into thewater. We hesitated but a few moments, and stepped into that coolstream, following up its course a hundred yards.
It was then we came, of necessity, to a final stand. Before us towered,for hundreds of feet, sheer cliffs of rock. The stream came pouring outof a hole at the foot. The waters, where they made their exit from theearth, were divided by a large rock. That part on the left rolled out ina smooth flood. On the right of the rock the water came over a ledge, totumble down in a thin cascade of three feet in height.
The light of the moon came more and more into that space among thetrees; and we examined the banks for marks of the way Duran had gone.Within two hours day broke; and, retracing our steps, we went back towhere that trail entered the stream, and we carefully searched bothbanks all up and down for traces. But nowhere was there a mark of anykind to show where he we sought had left the water.
"Well," I said at last to Carlos, "he might soon be coming back thisway; so we'll have to watch. If I stay here do you think that you andRobert can carry our boat across the neck of land into Crow Bay?"
"Yes," said Carlos, "that not so very hard. The boat light."
"Well, then," I said, "suppose you go back, and you and Robert get theboat into the bay, and hide it in the reeds somewhere near where Duranhid his canoe. But tell Robert to leave a note on the top of the hill,telling our friends on the _Pearl_ to wait there to hear from us."
"Yes," returned Carlos, "I do that."
But I got an hour's sleep before Carlos was started on the back trail,and then settled down in a nest of brush on the stream's bank, to watchfor the possible return of Duran.
Over my head, and almost meeting the trees of the opposite bank of thestream, were the tree-tops, through which the rays of the morning sunwere now creeping. The lianas hung all about; birds glided from limb tolimb. And there, on my right, was that high wall of cliffs, and thewater gushing out of the rocks. The splashing of the little cascade onthe rocks overwhelmed other sounds, of insects and birds.
I thought long on the curious disappearance of Duran, leaving no traceto point the way he had gone. I looked at that rock wall and wondered ifperhaps he could have had a rope ladder hanging there, up which he hadgone, pulling it after him. I had read of such things. But the cliff wastoo high, and there was no landing-place on that sheer wall that wouldhave given foothold even to a mountain goat. It was very certain that hecould not have climbed from the water out on the bank anywhere abovethat spot where his path went into the stream, without leavingunmistakable marks on the ground. So that the only surmise left me wasthat he had waded down the stream, and climbed out on the opposite bank.When Carlos and Robert should come we would see. But it was chagriningto have followed Duran so far, and then to have lost him just when wehad reason to believe we were coming near to the hidden mine.