DEEPER INTO THE WONDERLAND
"OH! it must all be true, Dick!"
These words burst from Roger's lips as he stood gazing at the wonderful
sight. Of course he referred to the strange tales which they had heard
from some of the Mandans, and which also passed current among the
frontiersmen connected with the expedition.
Dick was hardly less staggered than his cousin, and, as for Mayhew, he
had the look of one who believed himself face to face with the spirit
world.
As they shrank back and watched the amazing fountain pour its flood
toward the sky, and heard the thunder of the falling water, strange
thoughts flitted through their minds.
"Look, Dick, it's slackening now!" cried Roger, presently, though he
had to exercise his vocal cords considerably in order to make himself
heard above the tumult of the gushing geyser.
"Yes, I believe it is about to stop!" echoed the other boy, not
without perceptible relief in his tones.
All at once they realized that the flow of steaming water had ended as
abruptly as it had begun. The pool was still agitated at the spot where
the base of the pillar of water had been located, but the terrible
geyser had ceased to flow. (Note 3.)
By degrees the two boys began to recover from the stagnation of mind
and body into which they had been thrown.
"Come, the danger seems to be past,--for the present, at least,"
remarked Dick; "let us look into this thing while we have the chance."
"Just as you say," replied Roger, eagerly. "After this, when any one
speaks of these unbelievable things, we can tell what we have seen with
our own eyes; and how we were saved from the Indian attack by that
fountain of hot water."
With considerable uneasiness, however, the two approached the spot
where the base of the water-spout had been. As for Mayhew, nothing
could tempt him to advance a single step. Indeed, he shook his head
several times in a doubtful fashion, as though he believed it the
height of folly for the others to take their lives in their hands in
such a reckless way.
"Why, there's a hole in the solid rock, Dick, and it all came out of
that!" Roger exclaimed, after they had drawn close enough to be able to
see.
"It had to come from some sort of cavity, of course," remarked Dick,
"and that hole is the place. I think it must ascend once in so often,
for here is a regular runway where the water passes off. And to think
that this same thing may have been going on for years!"
They listened to ascertain whether they could detect any sign of a
great disturbance down in the aperture, but without very much success.
Now that it was all over, the boys began to regain their courage, which
had in fact been greatly shaken by the gushing of the mighty geyser.
"The Indians have all fled, which is one comfort," observed Roger,
presently.
"Yes, it was too much for them," added his companion. "They believe
these things are caused by the Evil Spirit that dwells inside the
earth, and that he must have been angry at them because they tried to
capture or kill us."
"As usual, we have been lucky; when even the water-spouts stand back of
us, what have we to fear?"
"But now that all is quiet, the Indians may pluck up courage enough to
return," Dick suggested. "We must not take too many chances by staying
here. Another time the water might not come in time to save us."
"I would like to stay long enough to watch it rise again," Roger
objected; "but then you are right, and it would be folly. There may be
others like this in this Wonderland. If half the Indians tell is true,
we have many more things to see that will make us open our eyes. I am
ready to believe almost anything after this."
"Watch Mayhew, Roger, and you will see that we cannot get away from
here any too soon to suit him."
"No, he keeps standing first on one foot and then on the other, while
he looks to the right and left. I really think he has already picked
out which way he will run if it should break loose again."
"And neither of us can blame him," added Dick, "for you know that most
of his life he has associated only with Indians, and such rough men of
the border as ignorant fur-takers and half-breeds. He thinks about the
same as they do about all things hard to understand, and that spirits
can come back after death. Our mothers taught us differently, but we
should not condemn those who do not know any better."
"He is a brave man, and he means to stand with us to the end," said
Roger. "Only for that he would have run away as swiftly as the Indians
did. But, Dick, do you believe this was the cause of that heavy
rumbling we heard some time back?"
"I couldn't say. It may have been, for you remember that the noise
seemed to come and go, at intervals."
"And the trembling of the rocks under our feet, too! That must have
been caused by something like this. The hot spring where we said we
could have cooked an egg, or made our tea, that may have been the
overflow from here, or another fountain like it."
"All we know is that those stories told by the Indians had a foundation
in fact. And yet, most people will believe we have simply imagined
these things when we tell them what we have seen and heard."
"Yes," sighed Roger, "I only wish there was some way to show them.
Seeing is believing, mother always says."
But unfortunately this all happened early in the nineteenth century,
and the camera, by which those amazing geysers might have been caught
in action, and displayed to people at the other side of the world, had
not even taken form in the brain of the most advanced inventor.
Slowly the lads walked back to where the guide awaited their coming.
Mayhew looked relieved when they rejoined him. Apparently he had been
dubious as to whether they would be allowed to return; he may even have
suspected that the angry gods who sent that gushing fountain soaring
two hundred feet into the air might stretch out their arms and drag the
lads into the yawning crater, to be served as a sacrifice.
Which way to head now was rather a difficult question to answer. If it
were left entirely to the discretion of Mayhew, Dick feared the guide
might take it into his head to veer around and start back toward the
camp, believing that in so doing he would be serving the interests of
the boys best by possibly saving their lives.
Consequently Dick meant to keep his hand on the helm, and do most of
the directing. Captain Clark had instructed the guide to put himself
entirely at the disposal of the boys, so that in reality it was Dick's
place to do the ordering.
Looking around them, it was hard to tell which way they had better
go. Everything was so strange that although, of course, they knew
the points of the compass, and in a general way could understand that
they must have come in from the east, still who could say whether the
beckoning west was their wisest goal, or some other direction?
"We had better try to keep on, and find that valley toward which
Jasper Williams was headed," urged Dick, after they had consulted. "He
is a stubborn man in his way, and, even though deserted by both his
companions, I believe he would push straight on, so that he might boast
of having reached the place he started for."
"And if the Blackfeet have failed to capture or kill him," ventured
Roger, "we may find him there--of course granting that we reach that
Happy Valley ourselves."
That point having been decided, they started. It was not long, however,
before they began to realize that amidst those remarkable cones and
thickets and rocky defiles it was a most difficult thing to keep their
bearings.
"It seems as though we had come over this part of the ground before,"
admitted Dick, "for familiar objects turn up on every hand; and yet how
can that be when we have kept going straight into the northwest for
nearly an hour now?"
"There is something wrong about it all, I'm afraid, boys," declared the
guide, with a distrustful shrug of his broad shoulders. "I'm thinking
we will meet with some queer experiences before we see another sunrise.
As for myself, I am wondering whether any of us will get through it
alive."
It was not the hostile Indians that caused Mayhew to say this, nor yet
the fact that all sorts of wild beasts doubtless roamed these wild
places by night. He was accustomed to taking his chances with such
ordinary perils, and scorned them as a true-hearted borderer must. But,
deep down in his honest heart, Mayhew feared the supernatural. What he
could not understand stood for something dreadful, that sent the cold
chill of apprehension up and down his backbone.
"Listen, there is the spouting water at it again!" exclaimed Roger.
True enough, they could catch a deep-throated rumbling sound that
seemed to make the very atmosphere vibrate. But Dick immediately made a
discovery which he voiced in excited words:
"If that be so," he told them, "what miracle is this; for we surely
hear that sound ahead of us, and all this while we have been in the
belief that the great water-spout lay back yonder toward the east!"
That afforded Mayhew another opportunity to look worried.
"It's black magic, that's what I believe. The east has become the west!
We have all been turned around, and right now I cannot say which way
I am looking, although I can see the sun hanging up there above that
glittering peak."
"Dick, what can it mean?" demanded Roger, uneasily.
"I can think of but one explanation!" declared the other, steadily.
"That is not the same spouting water we heard just now! You remember
that we decided there might be others of the same kind in this country
of wonders."
It almost seemed as though nature took delight in proving the accuracy
of Dick Armstrong's surmise; for, hardly had he said this, than they
heard once again the remarkable throb of rushing waters pouring forth
from a fissure in the crust of the earth and, what was more, it came
from some point toward the rear!
Roger smiled faintly, while even Mayhew condescended to let some of the
worried look pass away from his face.
"I should not like to roam about this terrible country after
nightfall," said Roger, shuddering; "for there is too much danger of
stepping into some bottomless pit, or having a deluge of boiling water
thrown over your head. It's a question up here in the winter-time
whether you are going to be frozen to death in a bitter storm, or
roasted by the fires that are under the earth. I think we must be
getting pretty close to where the Evil One lives, Dick. His workshop
may be around these hills, for all we know."
Dick, however, shook his head. He was proof against all belief in the
supernatural. Such wonders as had been encountered on the trip he felt
sure were after all but the products of an eccentric nature. Though
they might strike one as bewildering at first, familiarity would dull
this feeling of amazement, though it could never breed contempt.
"We have a short time still before the sun sinks," remarked Dick;
"shall we go on further or spend the night here?"
"I'd rather find a better place if it's the same to you," Roger started
to say, when to his astonishment Dick suddenly clutched him by the
arm, and started to drag him away.
At the same moment Roger became aware of a peculiar and alarming sound,
as though loose rocks and shale were slipping down an abrupt slope.