"INDIANS!"
"Gone!" cried Jack.
"Sure!" nodded Frank.
"Lordy massy sakes teh goose-grease!" gasped Toots, again shivering
with terror. "Didn't I done tole yeh, chilluns! If yo' know when yo'
am well off, yeh'll git erway from heah jes' as quick as yeh can
trabbel! Oh, mah goodness!"
Shaking in every limb, the colored boy tried to get his bicycle out
from the others, lost his balance, fell over, and sent the entire
stack of wheels crashing to the ground.
"Well, this seems to be a regular sleight-of-hand performance," coolly
commented Browning. "Now you see it, and now you don't; guess where
it's gone. It drives me to a cigarette."
But he discovered that his cigarettes were gone, which seemed to
concern him far more than the vanishing of the skeleton. He declared
he had lost a whole package, and seemed to feel quite as bad about it
as if they were solid gold.
Rattleton was excited.
"What sort of pocus-hocus--no, hocus-pocus is this, anyway?" he
spluttered. "Where's it gone? Who wayed the old thing a took. I mean
who took the old thing away?"
"It couldn't have gone away of its own accord," said Frank, "so some
one must have removed it."
"Don' yeh fool yo'se'f dat way, Marser Frank!" cried Toots, sitting up
amid the fallen wheels. "Dat skillerton am de berry ol' scratch
hisse'f! De next thing some ob dis crowd will be disumpearin' dat way.
Gwan ter git kerried off, chilluns, if yo' don' git out ob dis in a
hurry."
"Oh, shut up!" snapped Diamond. "You make me tired with your chatter!"
"Mistah Dimund," said the colored boy, with attempted dignity, "if
yo'll let dat debbil kerry yo' off yo'll nebber be missed--no, sar."
Jack pretended he did not hear those words.
"Here goes to see what has become of the thing!" cried Frank, as he
scrambled up to the niche where the skeleton had sat.
"I am with you!" cried Diamond, as he followed Frank closely.
Reaching the nook in the face of the cliff, they looked about for some
sign of the skeleton that had been there a short time before, but not
a sign of it could they see. The ghastly thing was gone, and the
glittering ornaments had vanished with it. The block of stone on which
the object had sat was still there.
"Well, fat do you whind--I mean what do you find?" cried Rattleton,
impatiently.
"Not a thing," was the disgusted reply. "It has gone, sure as fate!"
"So have my cigarettes!" groaned Browning.
"The treasure--is any of that there?" asked Harry, eagerly.
"Not a bit of it."
"Well, that's what I call an unfair deal," murmured Bruce. "It is a
blow below the belt. If the old skeleton had desired to go away, none
of us would have objected, but it might have left the trimmings with
which it was adorned."
Frank was puzzled, and the more he investigated the greater grew his
wonder. He knew they had seen the skeleton, yet it had vanished like
fog before a blazing sun.
Jack shrugged his shoulders and shivered, saying:
"There's something uncanny about it, old man. I believe it is a
warning."
"Nonsense!" cried Frank. "What sort of a warning?"
"A warning of the fate that awaits all of us."
"You are not well, Jack."
"Oh, it is not that! First we see a lake of water, and that
disappears; then we see this skeleton, and now that has vanished. You
must confess that there is something remarkable in it all."
"The vanishing of the mirage came about in a natural manner, but----"
"But you must confess there was something decidedly unnatural about
the vanishing of the skeleton."
"It was removed by human hands--I will wager anything on that."
"Then where is the human being who removed it?"
"I don't know."
Unable to remain below, Rattleton came climbing up to the niche.
"I've got to satisfy myself," he said, as he felt about with his
hands, as if he expected to discover the vanished skeleton in that
manner. "I can't see how the blamed old thing could get away!"
"Well, you can see quite as well as we can," acknowledged Frank. "It
is gone, and that is all we can tell about it."
The boys satisfied themselves that the thing had really disappeared,
and they could not begin to solve the mystery. After a time they
returned to the ground.
"It am de debbil's work!" asserted Toots. "Don' yeh mek no misteks
'bout dat, chilluns."
They held a "council of war," and it was resolved that they should go
on through the pass and try to find the second water-hole before
darkness fell.
Already night was close at hand, and they must needs lose no time.
"We can come back here in the morning and see if we're able to solve
the mystery," said Merriwell. "I, for one, do not feel like going away
without making another attempt at it."
"Nor I," nodded Rattleton.
"It is folly," declared Jack, gloomily. "I say we have been warned,
and the best thing we can do is get away as soon as possible."
"By golly! dat am de firs' sensibul fing I've heard yo' say in fo'
days!" cried Toots, approvingly.
They picked up their wheels, and soon were ready to mount.
"Here's good-by to the vanishing skeleton for to-night," cried Frank.
He was answered by a wild peal of mocking laughter that seemed to run
along the face of the cliff in a most remarkable manner.
"Ha! ha! ha!" it sounded, hoarsely, and "Ha! ha! ha!" came down from
the rocks, like a mystic echo.
"O-oh, Lordy!"
Toots made a jump for the saddle of his bicycle, but jumped too far
and went clean over the wheel, striking his knee and turning in the
air, to fall with a thump on the back of his neck.
"Mah goodness!" he gurgled, as he lay on the ground, dazed by the
shock of the fall. "De ol' debbil done gib meh a boost then fo' suah!"
The other lads looked at each other in perplexity.
"Well, wh-wh-what do you think of that?" stammered Rattleton.
"He ought to file his voice, whoever he is," coolly observed Browning.
"It's a little rough along the edges."
"It strikes me that somebody is having fun with us," said Merriwell, a
look of displeasure on his face.
"What are you going to do about it?" asked Harry.
"We don't seem able to do much of anything now. Come on."
Toots scrambled up, and they mounted their wheels. As they started to
ride away, a hollow-sounding voice cried:
"Stop!"
"Oh, riv us a guest--I mean give us a rest!" flung back Rattleton.
"Stop!" repeated the mysterious voice. "Do not try the pass. There is
danger beyond. Turn back."
"I told you it was a warning!" cried Jack. "What do you think of it
now?"
"I think somebody is trying to have a lot of sport with us!" exclaimed
Frank.
"Well, what are you going to do?"
"Not a thing. I don't propose to pay any attention to it, Come on,
fellows. We must have more water, and there's none too much time to
find it before dark."
Diamond was tempted to declare he would not go any further, but he
knew the others would stand by Frank, and so he pedaled along.
As they drew away from the spot where they had seen the skeleton, they
heard the mysterious voice calling to them again, commanding them to
stop and turn back. Thus it continued till they had ridden on so that
it could be heard no longer.
Despite himself Frank had been impressed by what he had seen and
heard, and a feeling of awe was on him. Ahead the shadows were thick
where the dark cliffs seemed to come together, and there was something
grim and overpowering about the bare and towering mountains that
sullenly frowned down upon the little party.
The boys were silent, for they had no words to speak. Each was busy
with his thoughts, and those thoughts were not of the most pleasant
character.
A feeling of heart-sickening loneliness settled down upon them and
made them long for the homes that were so far away. What satisfaction
was there, after all, in this great ride across the continent? They
had encountered innumerable perils, and now it seemed that they were
overshadowed by the greatest peril of all.
How still it was! The mountains seemed like crouching monsters of the
great desert, waiting there to spring upon and crush them out of
existence. There was something fearsome and frightful in their grim
air of waiting.
The whirring of the wheels was a warning whisper, or the deadly hiss
of a serpent. As they passed between the frowning bluffs, which rose
on either hand, the whirring sound seemed to become louder and louder
till it was absolutely awesome.
Frank looked back, and of all the party Bruce Browning was the only
one whose face remained stolid and impassive. It did not seem that he
had been affected in the least by what had happened.
"He has wonderful nerve!" thought Merriwell.
Diamond's dark face seemed pale, and there was an anxious look on the
face of Rattleton. Toots betrayed his excitement and fear most
distinctly.
Frank feared they would not get through the pass in time to find the
second water-hole, and he increased his speed.
The ground was favorable for swift riding. At that time Merriwell
thought it fortunate, but, later, he changed his mind.
Of a sudden the pass between the bluffs ended, and they shot out into
a valley or basin.
A cry of astonishment and alarm came from Frank's lips, and he used
all his energy to check and turn his flying wheel.
Before them blazed a fire, and around that fire were gathered----
"Indians!" palpitated Harry Rattleton.