ALONG THE ROAD
For a week the caravan party moved on. They had gotten away from the
railroad and were following an ancient trail which wound southward to
the timber-lands of the Yellowstone, passing through valleys and canyons
and over upland summits, now faint and grass-grown, now lost in the sand
drifts, but always reappearing and always re-discovered by Jim's trained
eyes. The journey across the state was to last several weeks, and the
caravaners were in no hurry to accomplish it.
One morning Ruth came to the tent door, dressed before any of the girls.
She stood for a moment looking about her and then waved her hand to Jim,
who was chopping a big log of wood that Carlos had dragged into the camp
the night before. "Mr. Jim," she called, "do you think there is any
special need of our traveling to-day? The girls and I have been talking
things over and we think that we and the horses need a rest. This is
such an enchanting place, anyhow, I feel this morning I would like to
spend my life here."
Jim stalked over to the tent, with his face as radiant as the morning.
He had his arms full of wood, and the string of shining fish over his
shoulder showed that he had been up and at work for several hours.
"Sure," he agreed heartily. "I'd like nothing better than to loaf a
while in this part of the country. I've got some harness to mend and a
lot of odd jobs to do, and this is sure the prettiest spot we've seen."
The wagon and horses were a little distance from the ranch girls' tent,
but still in plain view. The tent was at the head of a silver stream
that ran like a ribbon through a green oasis of "gramma" grass. In the
distance rocks that looked like battlements rose on either side of a
deep gorge, and dimly seen farther on were hoary old mountain tops with
their peaked caps of snow.
Ruth laughed. "An honest confession is good for the soul, isn't it? I
should have told you that my real reason for not wishing to move on
to-day is that I simply have got to do some housekeeping. My New
England soul is racked by the way our pots and pans are looking, and
Jean says if she doesn't have a chance to wash the sand out of her hair
she will have to cut it off and wear a wig. If you'll make up the fire
for me, I'll get breakfast in a minute; the girls already are starving."
"Then why don't one of them come out and help you cook?" Jim demanded
autocratically. "I'm plumb afraid they are putting too much of the work
on you."
"Injustice, thy name is Jim Colter!" Jack exclaimed at this minute,
appearing before the fire with a sleepy look in her gray eyes, and a
coffeepot in her hand. "I told Ruth I'd get breakfast this morning, so
run away, Ruthie, and help Frieda find her clothes; she is in the depth
of despair about one of her shoes. And tell Jean and Olive they must set
the table."
Jim swung his fish before Jack's delighted eyes. "I'll cook these,
Missie," he said calmly. "I don't believe I care to trust you."
"All right. I'll fry the bacon to go with them," Jack returned in her
most professional cook manner. "I like the odor of bacon these mornings
in camp better than any flower that blooms. Isn't it great that we have
had a whole week of perfect sunshiny weather?"
The camp breakfast did not take much more than half an hour to get,
though it was a pretty substantial meal. Coffee and chunks of toasted
bread, fish, bacon, marmalade and jam, and this morning fresh water from
the near-by spring, formed the menu. It took quite as long to eat,
however, as the most elaborate repast served by a fashionable New York
hotel. Jim moved over a little nearer the fire to be farther away from
the girls when he finished. He got out his favorite pipe and tenderly
snuggled the tobacco into it, and Jack saw the thought of the day's
chores fade gently from his mind and a reminiscent light come into his
eyes. Ruth was no longer overcome by household cares. The day stretched
on before them, apparently an endless chain of golden opportunities to
do nothing.
"I was around in this neighborhood once before," Jim remarked casually.
This was as near as Jim had ever gotten to being confidential, and Jean
and Jack exchanged glances.
"What were you doing here, Jim?" Jack queried, trying to make her voice
appear perfectly indifferent.
Jim hunched his big shoulders and took a long puff at his pipe. "I was
prospecting for gold, same as every other young idiot that ever came
west not knowing a lump of gold from a chunk of mud when he found it,"
he returned calmly. "There are three little pine cone hills a matter of
ten miles from here, with an ugly stream of water and a group of trees
near them, where I believe I had a claim located once, a good many moons
ago."
"And you never told us a word about it. Jim Colter, you are a pig!" Jean
declared inelegantly.
"There wasn't nothing to tell, Jean," Jim replied in his usual slow,
indifferent manner. "Just another fellow and I saw a hill with some bits
of black rock with yellow streaks in it, and we dug away for a couple of
months without getting anything out of it but trouble."
"Jim, I don't believe there wasn't gold in your mine," Jean declared
resolutely. "You just gave up too soon."
"All right, Miss Bruce," Jim agreed. "You can have my claim if you want
it. Come to find out, we weren't the first and I don't reckon we were
the last fellows to go digging in that hill. It's called 'Miner's
Folly', and is about as gloomy a looking hole as anybody ever saw."
"I'd like to see the place awfully, Jim," Jack suggested eagerly.
"Don't doubt it for a moment, Jack," Jim returned unwinkingly.
Jack whispered something in Jean's ear. "I'll do no such thing, Jack
Ralston," Jean replied firmly. "Remember, yesterday you were awfully
selfish about letting me have my turn at riding horseback with Olive. I
told you then I shouldn't do the next favor you asked me and I certainly
don't mean to wear myself out on such a tramp. Besides, Jim wouldn't
think of taking you."
"Wouldn't you, Jim?" Jack pleaded meekly.
Jim appeared to have no ears.
Jack slipped around by the fire and dropped a few pine cones on it.
"Wouldn't you kind of like to see that old mine you deserted, Jim?" Jack
queried. "Suppose there is any change in it? Maybe it has turned out to
be a really valuable claim since your day and you have never heard of
it."
Jim shook his head, but Jack saw that she had lighted the fires of
desire in his soul. "Maybe I will walk over toward the old spot just to
see what the scenery is like, when I finish my work," Jim admitted, a
few minutes later, and his admission spelt defeat.
An hour after, Jim Colter and Jack Ralston set out with their rifles
over their shoulders and their pockets stuffed with provisions, to find
Jim's unlucky mine. Little brown Carlos followed them like a persistent,
though distant shadow. He had been ordered by Jim to stay near the tent,
water the horses and make himself generally useful, for Jim did not
believe that he and Jack could get back from their fool's errand before
bedtime. Of course, Jim did not consider that the girls he left behind
would get into danger or mischief in his absence, or he would never have
gone; but they had met with no rough characters on their journey and the
country seemed perfectly safe. Neither Ruth nor Olive nor Jean objected
to being left alone; indeed, they were rather glad to get rid of the man
of their party for a little while. Ruth was worried only for fear Jack
would get overtired from her long walk; she did not dream that any other
trouble might befall her with Jim as her escort.
"Slow but sure, Jack. Remember, you promised to trust to my judgment on
this trip," Jim suggested kindly, when after several miles of travel
Jack showed no signs of fatigue.
"All right, I remember," Jack answered obediently. "Let's sit down."
The two travelers had reached the deep gorge which they had seen from
their tent, and Jim recalled that the trail to the old mine had followed
this ravine for a part of the way and then branched off across country
to the west.
Jack's sudden backward glance caught sight of a moving figure behind
them. In a moment she recognized Carlos and wondered what Jim would say
to him, for she knew he could be pretty fierce and savage when he was
disobeyed.
"There's Carlos," Jack pleaded meekly; "don't be hard on him."
"I've known he was after us for the last half hour," Jim replied curtly.
"Carlos, come here."
Carlos had been creeping along through the grass in Indian fashion, but
now he straightened up his lithe body and came straight toward Jim. Jack
knew he was horribly frightened and so she couldn't help but admire the
boy's sudden grip on himself. He looked straight into the "Big White
Chief's" eyes; only once his eyelids twitched.
"Why did you come with us when I said stay behind?" Jim demanded quietly
with his own peculiar sternness.
The boy hesitated; but an Indian does not lie to his friends. "I heard
you speak of the cave of the never-found gold," Carlos answered simply.
"The Indians of the plains now know the value of the white man's gold.
Often have I followed them into the desert to search for it in vain. For
nothing else would I leave the women whom you gave me to tend, but I too
must see the place of which you speak."
Jim groaned, and Jack laughed lightly. "Come on, Carlos," she said
kindly. "Partner," she turned to Jim, "no matter what happens from this
day's outing, remember you are responsible for planting the gold microbe
in Carlos and me." For the rest of their tramp Jack could not but amuse
herself, whenever her companions were silent, with wild dreams of what
joy it would be for them to come across a gold mine and get suddenly
very rich. She kept guessing and planning what she and the other girls
would do. More than anything, she wished to play fairy godmother to the
overseer of their ranch. During the week of their caravan trip, Jim had
showed so plainly that only Ruth and Frieda were still unconscious of
it, how much he cared for the ranch girl's chaperon. And Jack knew how
little, except the strength of his love, he had to offer her. Jim had
been running the Rainbow Ranch, receiving a salary so small for the
value of his services that it made Jack blush to think of it.
Time after time had she begged him to manage the ranch on shares, but he
had always refused, saying he had no need of money, and the place made
only enough to pay expenses, take care of the girls, and put a little by
for their futures. And Jim knew they would need more money some day if
they were ever to see anything of the great world which lay outside
their ranch lands.
Jim paid no heed to Jack's unnatural silence, for his mind was fixed on
a discovery that absorbed his entire interest. Other travelers had
lately crossed the trail which he and his companions were following.
Footprints were fresh upon it, and in an out-of-the-way spot a tin can
showed a bright new label. The footprints not only followed the path
along the side of the ravine, but marked the same track through the more
open country. Without these signs, Jim knew he could never have traced
the old trail so easily, yet he felt the gold prospector's hot glow of
resentment--another man had located his claim. Then he smiled,
remembering he had turned his back on it as no good, nearly fourteen
years before. Without a word to his companions, however, he kept his
eyes fastened steadfastly on the ground and his ears alert for every
sound each step of the way, but no other human being appeared in the
vast solitude. Once Jim and Jack sighted a covey of quail and killed
half a dozen. Ruth and the other girls were willing to eat quail so long
as they did not have to see them killed.
About three o'clock in the afternoon the travelers had their first
vision of Jim's three pine cone hills with the stream of brackish water
running down the side of one of them, and in the background a dense
thicket of evergreens. Forgetting their tired feet, Jack and Carlos made
a sudden rush, but Jim caught hold of them, making them keep close to
his side until he saw the place was deserted. At last he brought them in
breathless silence to a yawning cave in the middle hill. It was only a
great, black hole, dull and uninteresting. Jack peered well into it for
a sign of anything that sparkled or shone like a precious metal. It
showed only a mixture of earth and stones and sand, and the whole place
was so gloomy it gave her a shiver of apprehension. The sun was not so
bright as it had been a short time before. Suddenly she felt cold and
weary, though she could not explain the cause.
"It's a pretty dismal place, isn't it, Jim?" Jack said quickly. "I am
awfully glad to have seen it of course, but I don't wonder you ran away.
I am sure no gold could be discovered here." And the girl heaved a sigh
of fatigue and disappointment. She was sure she had made the trip simply
from idle curiosity, yet the chance of their finding a gold mine had
been lurking in the back of her mind.
Jim was stalking about the deserted mine like a hound that had been
given a scent. He had seen, not far from one of the hills, a piled-up
heap of ashes, which showed that a fire had been built there within the
past few days, and the rank grass in the vicinity pressed down by human
bodies. Jack had picked up a tool from the earth immediately in front
of the mine, and the tool had been lately used.
"Wait here for me, Jack," Jim suggested finally. "I know you are tired
and need a rest before we start back. Carlos, look after Miss Jack and
don't go out of sight. I want to explore the neighborhood a bit. I will
not be long. Nothing will happen, but if you want me call out."
Jack paid no special attention to Jim's departure. She found a
comfortable place, sat down and closed her eyes. How soon she fell
asleep she did not know, but she heard no sound from Carlos when he
slipped away into the woods back of them. Tempted by the possession of a
new gun, the boy disobeyed a second time that day.