GLEN AND APPLE FIND THE CAVE
As might be expected, the excitement in camp that evening was intense.
Chick-chick and Brick Mason were heroes. No one could do too much for
them. Even Will Spencer was excited.
"It's a fine thing for you, Glen," he said. "I'm glad you had the chance
and that you did so well with it. Mr. Newton says the sheriff will give
you and the deputy full credit for the capture of the two fellows that
came down with Matt."
"I'm mighty tickled," Glen admitted. "I don't think it'll amount to so
very much, though, because there's so many will have to divide the
reward."
"Brick, Brick, where did you get that head?" exclaimed Jolly Bill. "I'm
not talking about the reward. Can't you see anything better than that?"
"Why, I don't know that I do. I'm afraid I never will be smart."
"Yes, you will. You're getting too much for me already. But, don't you
see, old brick head, how much better chance this gives you to get your
discharge from the reform school? 'Single-handed, he engaged in a
terrific conflict with two desperadoes and delivered them into the hands
of the officers of the law.' How does that sound? You begin to see where
you get off?"
"Maybe so. All I did was to hold the horses, but I'll be glad of any
credit that comes to me. I expected we'd hear from the school before
now."
"Don't you fear but what you'll hear quick enough. Your friend who was
here last Sunday is looking after your interests or they'd have yanked
you back before now. I only hope they let you stay another week or two
so you'll do me some good."
"I surely hope they do," said Glen. "I'm having such a fine time I wish
it would go on forever. You think you'll get along all right while I go
up the Mound to-night?"
"I'll be all right. Bob and I will keep the camp from running away.
Maybe it'll rain again, like it did when you tried it Sunday night.
You'll be mighty glad to get back to us if it does."
"No, we're going to stick it out to-night whatever happens," said Glen.
"The fellows are going to take their ponchos and stay all night
whatever the weather. Going clear to the top of Buffalo Mound. I'm going
with Apple and he has a waterproof sleeping bag big enough for two.
We're going to have a great time. I tell you, Will, this camp life with
people like Apple and the scoutmaster and you is more like heaven than
anything I ever dreamed of."
A great deal of satisfaction and joy had come into Glen Mason's life in
the last few days. He felt it in the companionship of Apple and
Chick-chick as they marched up Buffalo Mound together that night,
carrying their firewood and blankets for the bivouac. There was a new
bond of fellowship between them, a bond which Glen would have found it
quite impossible to state in words but which was none the less genuine
and fixed. The little service at the camp-fire meant more to him than
anything he had ever experienced; he had really started his journey, he
was definitely lined up with God's people, he had enlisted for actual
service. In the few quiet minutes while he lay wrapped in his blanket
waiting for sleep to come, and meanwhile looking up at the starry vault
which seemed to him to represent God's heaven, he experienced the
greatest peace that had ever come into his life.
Only hardened campaigners and boys can sleep the dreamless sleep of
nature next to mother earth, with no soft mattress to pad the irregular
outlines of bony prominences, and even boys are apt to waken earlier
than common. So it is no wonder that daybreak found Glen and Apple glad
to shake themselves free from their blankets and climb the few feet
necessary to get the best of the justly celebrated view from Buffalo
Mound. Miles and miles over the flat prairie country could they see in
the clear morning air, and with the assistance of Mr. Newton's field
glass they could draw far away objects very near to their field of
vision. It was interesting to see the little towns, each with its two or
three church spires, its one or two large buildings and its collection
of dwellings; to see eight towns in six different counties from the same
spot was an exciting experience for these boys.
But they did not get their real excitement until they turned their glass
down the west side of the Mound, and there came in the range of their
vision an Indian engaged in some mysterious occupation on the bank of
Buffalo Creek.
"He's at the Ice Box," declared Apple. "Now what do you suppose that
Indian's doing? Look at him dive."
"How can he stay under so long?" asked Glen, after they had watched two
or three minutes without seeing a head appear.
"I can't tell you. Maybe he swam under water and has come up in some
other place that we can't see."
But fully ten minutes later, while they still watched in great
curiosity, his head came into sight at about the place where he had
dived in, and a moment later they saw him draw his glistening body out
of the water.
"Where's he been?" said Apple. "He hasn't been under water all that
time."
"But neither did he come up anywhere that I could see," said Glen. "I
know what's happened," he added in an excited tone. "He's been in the
cave."
"I believe you," said Apple. "We guessed right. Ice Box and Deep Springs
mean the same place. I don't know about any Twin Elms but that cave is
there, at the Ice Box. I don't know why we never saw it, unless because
it's on the far bank and we always looked this side."
"Maybe its entrance is under water," suggested Glen. "That Indian dived,
you see, and we didn't see a sign of him again until he came back."
"That's the way of it, Glen. And that's the same Indian told us to look
for heap rock. I believe--" it was the romantic side of Apple now
appearing--"I believe he is the tribal guardian of the treasure and he
stays around here to guard it from our search."
"Maybe so," agreed Glen. "Anyway if the treasure's there we'll soon know
it. You think you can keep in your head the exact location where he
dived?"
"Yes. It's just at the bend of the Ice Box. Right opposite on the other
bank are those two old stumps--"
"Hold on," shouted Glen excitedly, seized with a great idea. "I'll bet
you those are the stumps of elm trees--the Twin Elms."
"You're right, Glen. I'm sure you're right. I can hardly wait to find
out."
"We don't want all the camp following us into this. When will be the
best time to hunt for it?"
"What's the matter with right now?" suggested Apple. "It's only a little
after five. Breakfast won't be called until eight. Father won't care
where we go so long as we get to camp in time for breakfast."
"But the Indian! What will he be doing while we explore his cave?"
"He won't be there. He hiked through the timber, and he's less likely
to be there now than he would be later on in the day."
"It's all right with me," declared Glen. "Now's as good as any time.
We'll get our blankets and tell your father we will be at camp in time
for breakfast."
When a couple of boys have a great secret which they have just
discovered they are likely to overdo the secrecy of it. Glen and Apple
made a wide detour through the fields and when they at last approached
the Ice Box it was from an entirely different angle. Taking warning from
the exposure of the Indian they took off their clothes in the shelter of
some bushes and made a quick rush into the water.
"Be careful, now," warned Apple. "It's cold as ice and swift as the
rapids. Must be some big springs around here."
But Glen was always at home in the water and needed no warning.
"Here it is, I'll bet," he cried. "Just under the ledge, you see. The
opening's only about two feet wide and the space above water to the
ledge isn't more than a foot and a half. That's why it's all covered up
when the water's high. Come on. Let me go first."
Once inside this narrow passage they were indeed in a cave. For a few
feet around the small opening daylight shone dimly in, but it was lost
in impenetrable gloom above and to the rear. A mass of something dense
loomed in front of them and Apple swimming boldly up declared, it to be
a pile of stone.
"It's the heap stone the Indian spoke about, Brick," he shouted. "We've
sure found it. Let's go back and get some lanterns and things."
Out in the broad light of day the romance did not seem quite so
absolutely sure, and the nearer they drew to the camp the less positive
did they become about their discovery.
"We wouldn't like the camp to have the laugh on us like they did on
Matt," admitted Apple. "I guess we'd better make sure before we have
very much to say about it."
"I reckon we had," Glen agreed. "We can keep it to ourselves for awhile
without anybody carrying it away. That Indian couldn't carry it very far
by himself. Once we are sure, then we can tell the whole camp. Wish we
could find Chick-chick. We could tell him right now."
It was a hard thing to be discreetly silent until their opportunity for
thorough search came, and fortunate that they had not long to wait. That
very afternoon it rained and most of the boys stayed in camp.
Chick-chick was still away on some mysterious errand. Glen and Apple
appeared clad in bathing suits and tennis shoes.
[Illustration: With the lighted lanterns they could get a better idea of
their surroundings. Page 211]
"We don't mind the rain," Apple announced. "We are going out. Look for
us when you see us."
They had already cached a couple of lanterns, a pick and two spades near
the Ice Box and it was no trick at all to get them into the cave. With
the lighted lanterns they could get a better idea of their surroundings.
The floor of the cave was waist deep in water which seemed to rush on in
a swift current and escape again into the creek through a counter
opening a few feet away. The cave was quite long. It did not, as they
supposed, have its beginning at the opening where they entered, but
extended some distance back into the gloom, and as the current was quite
swift back there it was evident that there were other hidden openings.
The vault of the cave was high, so high that they could not see the top
by the feeble light of their lanterns. But the thing that they could see
and that thrust from their minds every other subject was a solid arch of
masonry.
"I was right!" shouted Apple. "I was right! That's no natural formation.
That has been built up by men's hands years ago. It's sure to be the
hiding place of the treasure. What else could it be?"
"It couldn't be anything else," agreed Glen. "We'll mighty soon see. Get
up to the top and I'll hand you the things."
"I'm up," said Apple. "Are you coming too?"
"Sure thing. The way to tear this down is a stone at a time beginning
at the top."
"Let me have the pick, then."
"No, you hold the lantern and let me use the pick. I'm the biggest."
Splash! The first big stone disappeared in the water. Another splash and
the second followed. But prying them loose was no easy job and they did
not follow one after the other in the rapid succession the boys would
have liked. In less than half an hour they decided that an enormous lot
of work had been done in the effort to bury the treasure.
"We think this is pretty hard work getting these stones loose and
pitching 'em down in the water," said Apple, reflectively, "but think of
carrying all of 'em in from outside to build this."
"Perhaps there were more than two to do it," said Glen.
"Of course there were," said the more romantic Apple, his imagination
stirred by the picture. "There was a small army of them. I can imagine I
see them coming in here in a long procession each carrying his load,
giving way to the next, and slipping away quietly in the gloom."
"Perhaps they didn't do that way at all," said Glen, the practical. "If
you swing your lantern away up you can see that this cave has high
ledges running away back. Perhaps they managed to get rock from some of
those ledges."
"Perhaps they did. But it was hard work, anyway, and it's hard work
breaking it up. But if we can just manage to do this just by our two
selves, and then go back to the fellows and tell 'em we've found the
treasure--"
"Say, that will be fine," agreed Glen.
Suddenly there was a splash at the entrance. "Hush!" said Glen.
"Somebody's coming."
"It's the Indian!" he whispered, a sudden terror seizing him.
"Worse than that!" said Apple, as he saw the figure that minute outlined
against the entrance. "Worse than that!" he repeated with a severity
unusual in his gentle speech. "It's Matt Burton!"