TESTING THE GOLD MINE
Any suspicions which the boy ranchers held against the old man vanished
quickly as they saw the eagerness with which he went to work to save,
if possible, the men on guard at the cave gold mine. Bud and his
cousins had, naturally, held back a little against approaching the
stark, prostrate forms too closely. They were still young enough to
be, at a time like this, unduly impressed by death.
But Old Tosh, as he was generally called, went at the business as if he
were a doctor intent on saving lives in desperate danger. He opened a
bottle of his Elixer, and, though the boys thought it pitifully weak
stuff for the occasion, he appeared to have unbounded faith in it.
Raising the head of Sam Tarbell, the old man placed the bottle to the
silent lips, tipped it up and managed to force a little into the cow
puncher's mouth.
"Come on, you boys!" Tosh called to Nort, Dick and Bud. "You got to
help. I can't do this all alone. I'm just in time. I knew this would
happen. They're on the verge of death but I'll save them."
"I'm afraid you're too late," said Bud.
"No, I'm not. These men are alive yet. All they need is a little
stimulant to bring 'em around. They didn't get much of a dose of the
poison gas. If they had, not even my Elixer could save 'em. But it
can now. Come on, there's another bottle in my coat pocket. Reach it
out and get busy, boys!"
Bud made a jump to do as directed. And as he was taking the second
bottle from the old man's coat, while Tosh was still administering the
medicine to Sam, Bud could not help wondering whether the queer hermit
had anything to do with loosing the flood of gas against the mine
guards. It was no time, now, however, to make such an inquiry.
Bud and his cousins gave Ned Frosh and Bill Dungan each some of the
Elixer, raising the men's heads and forcing the liquid between their
lips as they had seen Tosh do. As for the hermit, he went from Sam to
a puncher who rejoiced in the name of Slippery Mike, giving him a good
dose.
And then, strange as it may see, each of the four guards revived,
opened his eyes and sat up. They had dazed looks on their faces, but
were unharmed.
"What happened?" asked Bud of Sam, who was the leader in charge of the
force guarding the gold mine. "Did those fellows come back and shoot
gas at you?"
"I don't rightly know what did happen," Sam answered. "If those
fellows came back we didn't see 'em. But there was sure some gas, for
it hit us all of a sudden and keeled us over before we knew it. How
did you get here, and what's he doing here?" Sam pointed at the old
man.
"He got here soon after we did," Nort explained. "And I guess it's
lucky he did. That stuff he gave you brought you fellows back to life."
"It's strong enough to make a mud turtle race with a jack rabbit!"
chuckled Slippery Mike. "But it isn't bad, at that. If I could have
another swig of it----"
Old Tosh hospitably held out the bottle.
"'Twon't hurt you," he said. "It's Life's Elixer."
"But how'd you know we was knocked out?" asked Sam when each of the
guards had taken some more of the medicine. "It only happened a little
while ago."
"And we only came a little while ago," said Dick. "We were out on the
range and we saw some dead cattle. Right away we jumped to the
conclusion that you had been poisoned with gas same as the steers. So
we came here and found you stretched out. Then along came Mr. Tosh and
he did the right thing, it seems."
"Did you know this had happened?" asked Bud of the old man.
"What, that these men had been gassed? No, I wasn't aware of it,"
answered the hermit. "I came back here to see if those men had gone
away from my cave--the cave where they drove me out. I wanted to use
it again, for there's no better place for brewing my Elixer. I went in
the cave from the other end, and when I got here I saw you men
stretched out. I knew what had happened, right away."
"But did you see any of those rustlers, holdup men, or whatever they
are, with their gas cylinders?" asked Bud.
"No, I didn't," was the reply. "I don't know anything about gas
cylinders. The poison gas doesn't come in cylinders. It comes out----"
"Oh, yes, it does come in cylinders, and it comes out of them,"
interrupted Bud. "We have some of the cylinders that we captured when
we drove the men out of the gold mine."
"Gold mine?" excitedly cried the old man. "Where's a gold mine?"
"In that cave," and Bud pointed to it. "The cave where we saw you
brewing your pot of herbs. Didn't you know there was gold there?"
Old Tosh shook his head.
"I don't take much stock in gold," he said. "But I liked that cave
because it was so sheltered. Only, sometimes, I couldn't stay in it on
account of the gas."
"That's the gas we mean," explained Nort. "The poison gas these men
sprayed out of cylinders to keep us away so we wouldn't find there was
gold in the cave. But we got gas masks and drove 'em out."
Again Old Tosh shook his head.
"I don't know anything about gas in cylinders," he said. "But then I
been away a long time, in another county, getting different kinds of
herbs. My Elixer is better than ever now and stronger."
"I'll say it's strong!" declared Slippery Mike.
"So I came back to see if I could use my cave," went on Old Tosh. "Now
about this gas----"
But he was not allowed to go on, for Bud, seeing the effect of the
Elixer on Sam and his companions had a new thought.
"Will that save the dead steers--I mean the steers that seem to be
dead?" he asked the hermit. "There's half a dozen of 'em out on the
hill, and----"
"No," replied Tosh, "this stuff won't bring the dead back to life. It
will only revive where a spark of life remains. And, in any case, it
isn't effective on animals. It is only for humans."
"Then our steers are dead," sighed Dick.
"Guess that's a foregone conclusion," agreed Nort. "But what do you
think of him, anyhow?" he asked Bud in a whisper, indicating Tosh.
"You mean do I have any suspicions against him?"
"Yes. Do you think he may have gotten hold of a cylinder of the poison
gas and sprayed it on these men so as to get a chance to use his Elixer
to revive them?"
Before Bud could answer there was a noise as of men and horses coming
up the defile, and, thinking it was some of the former gang returning,
guns were whipped out. But they were not needed. Two mild-mannered
and inoffensive appearing men rode into sight. They had the look of
college professors. Behind them rode Billee Dobb.
"Hello, boys!" greeted Billee, all unaware of the recent sensational
happenings. "Here's the mine experts your dad sent out to look over
our gold prospects, Bud. They're going to test the quality of the ore,
and see how much it assays to the ton. That's the right way to express
it; ain't it?" He turned to the older of the two men.
"That is perfectly correct, Mr. Dobb. And if you will show us the mine
we can soon tell you, approximately, how valuable it is."
"It's in that cave. You'll find lots of gold there. And the first lot
that comes to me is goin' to be spent for a self-playin' piano. But
what happened here?" Billee asked, for he was now aware that something
unusual had taken place.
"The darn scoundrels!" he exclaimed when he had been told of the death
of the cattle and the plight of the men. "So they come back; did they?
Well, we'll soon have a big force here takin' out gold and we'll keep
better guard."
Meanwhile the mining experts went into the cavern to test the gold mine.