"Now," Dave said, as they finished their meal on the evening after
leaving Fort Mason, "we have got to consider which course we had better
take. First we will have another look at the map."
This was taken out from a wash-leather case, in which it had been sewn,
Dave carrying it under his shirt by a string that went round his neck.
It was the first time that the boys had seen it. As Dave opened it they
examined it with much curiosity. It was divided in two; the upper one
appeared to be a general map of the country, the lower one a plan of the
immediate locality of the spot.
"It looks very confusing," Dick said, as he examined it.
"You see the chap as made it did not do it for other people, but so that
he could find his way back by it. This line that runs along the bottom
of the other map I take to be the Gila, which is a big river which runs
right through the Indian country, and falls into the Rio Grande. I have
gone up it from that side two or three hundred miles. We were a strong
party, but we had to fight our way back again, and lost pretty near half
our number. You see by the map it lies on the north side of the Gila.
But as the Gila is eight or nine hundred miles long, that don't help us
a great deal, and the map wouldn't be any good to us if it was not for
this mark here up near the top. You see all these things are meant for
mountains, but as one mountain on a map is just like another, we should
be downright done if it was not for this mark. Do you see there are
three little jags here close together? Now I take it those three jags
are meant for a mountain the Indians call the Three Sisters, which is a
mountain with three peaks close together. I never saw it myself, but I
have spoken with miners who have seen it from the north. Now, here you
see, to the south of the Three Sisters, is a cross, and I take it that's
the mine. You see there is a black line waving about among the mountains
that stops at that point. I guess that is the line they traveled by."
"But there is nothing to tell us what scale the map is on, Dave," Tom
said; "it may mean five hundred miles from end to end, it may mean
fifty. If it is five hundred it must be seventy or eighty miles from
those peaks to the cross, if it is fifty it is only seven or eight."
"That is so," Dave agreed.
"Have you any idea how far it is from the three peaks to the river?"
"Yes, I have heard it is about fifty miles north of the Gila."
"Well, that would make this spot marked from fifteen to twenty miles
from them. The length of the map would be about two hundred miles, and
as the peaks are about a quarter of the distance from the right-hand
side, this map begins about a hundred and fifty miles to the west of the
peaks. I should think it would be at some well-known place that the
maker of this map began; some place that he knew he could find again
without difficulty."
"That is so; you will see the line begins at a stream running north and
south. There is a mark here each side of the path-line. Of course they
might mean anything; they might mean trees or rocks. Then look here;
there are two more dots out here, and if you were to draw a line
straight through them, it would come to the other dots. One must be
three or four miles off, and the other twelve or fifteen. The farthest
one may be a peak, and the one nearer some conspicuous tree or rock in a
line with it."
"Yes, that is what we make it out to be," Boston Joe said. "We have the
choice of either going up the Gila valley and mounting this side stream
till we come upon something that agrees with these four marks, or of
keeping along from the west by a valley about the right distance from
the Gila."
"I should not think we can trust much to distances," Dick said; "this
man was merely sketching out a plan to help him on his way up again,
should he ever make up a party to return to the mine, and, though
probably these bendings and turnings of the road are to be depended
upon, the map itself cannot be done to any scale. Here the peaks are
made twice as far from the left side as they are from the river, but
they may be really four times as far, or they may be only the same
distance; there is no saying at all; as he has drawn it, the point where
the road begins is a good deal more to the south than the peaks are. If
the scale is correct, it is not more than thirty miles at most north of
the Gila that the path begins. You see about halfway between this point
and the river are five or six little marks like a V upside down. I see
there are other marks like these at different places on the map. I
should say they were meant for Indian villages."
"That is so, no doubt," Dave agreed. "Here is another thing beside them;
what do you make that out to be, Dick?"
"It looks to me like a tiny bird; it is very small and very badly done,
but I am pretty sure that that is what is meant. What in the world can
he have put a bird there for? Let us look at the other villages." He
examined them carefully. "Two of them have got figures. This one looks
like a cat, and this is a snake--at least, I should think so."
"I have got it," Dave exclaimed. "Those are the names of the chiefs. I
know the names of a good many of their chiefs, and there's Rattlesnake
and the Mountain Lion among them."
"And there is the Crow, too, Dave," Boston Joe put in.
"So there is; I know he is the chief of the tribes whose country lies
this side of the Arizona. No doubt that is his village. Now we have it.
I know pretty well where his place is, for I have been further among the
hills than that. I can find my way there easy enough. When we get to the
stream his village is built on we have got to hunt along it till we find
these marks, and then follow on the line he took. The Crow's village is
about thirty miles north of the Gila. That will put these stops sixty
miles from the river. Yes, this straightens out the distances pretty
considerable, for I should say that from them to the three peaks it must
be nigh three hundred miles. I don't think it is more than a hundred
from here to the Crow's village. It should be an easy thing following
that marked line, but it won't matter if we miss it. Our course will be
pretty nigh due east, not, as he makes it, north, for we know the
Sisters are not more than eighty miles from the Gila. When we get near
them we can't help seeing them. Then we have only got to follow the
direction of this map below. There are the peaks. Well, right in front
of them is a lower hill with a tree on its top, and that tree exactly in
line with the middle peak gives us the line, and as the tree just
touches the bottom of the peak, it will give us the distance to within
half a mile. Here are two lines, one on each side of the line from the
peak through the trees. I don't know what they mean, but I guess they
mark a canyon, and when we go up that we can hardly help striking the
mine, wherever it is. I think we have got the thing pretty well down to
a point, and if we go wrong it is our own fault."
"Shall we have to come back this way?" Dick asked.
"That must depend upon circumstances," Dave replied. "We might make
straight north and come down on a pass that crosses the mountains about
a hundred and fifty miles north of the Sisters, but I reckon it would be
a terrible journey to undertake with loaded mules. Then again we might
strike east, and make either for Albuquerque or Socorro. Like enough we
may find that our best way."