WE SEEK IN VAIN FOR A LOST TRAIL AND DISCOVER A LONE MONKEY
The sun's rays were coming down almost perpendicularly through the
interstices in that green canopy over my head, when Robert and Carlos
appeared, wading in the stream.
"Did you get the boat over?" I asked.
"Yes," said Robert, "and it's hid in the high grass not far from that
canoe."
"And you left a note on the top of the hill?"
"Yes," he answered. "I told them to wait for us."
I explained the situation to Robert, showing him where we had lost the
trail of Duran. And while we made a meal on food brought by the two, we
discussed our situation and determined our movements.
"Well, then, Bob," I concluded, "if you'll stay here and watch, Carlos
and I will have a look down stream, and then, maybe, along the cliff."
We two had soon got to the other bank, and in a few minutes had passed a
point opposite the spot where the path entered the water. We kept to the
water as we scrutinized the soft dirt banks. The brook soon widened, and
it became more shallow, till finally--some mile or more toward the
bay--it emerged from the forest and spread out to diffuse itself into a
number of bayous, taking slow movement among the grasses and reeds.
Nowhere along that course were there any signs of anyone having climbed
out over the banks. So now Carlos and I retraced our steps, and picked
our way through the forest till we came to the foot of those high
cliffs. For above two miles we searched for a break in that great wall,
and the forest continuing all that way. Then we went back to where
Robert kept watch by the stream. We stopped to report our failure, and
again set off, this time skirting the cliffs to the west.
We must have covered three miles this way, when the cliffs melted into
more sloping ground, till finally we came to where it should be possible
to climb to the heights. But nowhere did we see any path, or any mark to
show that others had trod the region before us. The afternoon now was
nearly gone, and I turned to Carlos.
"Well, Carlos," I said, "the only thing left for us is to camp back
there where we lost Duran's trail and wait for the _Pearl_."
"Yes," returned Carlos. "Duran he sure to come back sometime--maybe one
week--maybe little more."
Night was nearly on us when we had joined Robert again.
"Isn't it about time for the _Pearl_?" asked Robert.
"The moon will be up about half-past-two," I answered. "Then two of us
might go and have a lookout for her."
Taking two-hour watches turn about, we slept till morning. Then Robert
and I started, leaving Carlos to keep the watch for Duran. Crossing the
west end of Crow Bay, we made landing at the end of the trail that led
from the sea side, and by half-past-four of the morning came to Twin
Hills.
On the peak of that hill which stood nearest the beach, we came upon a
figure stretched on the ground, sleeping peacefully. It was Ray Reid. It
was good to see the dear lad.
I shook him gently.
"Don't, Wayne," he said. "You'll shake the gas out of the balloon. We've
got to make the other side of the mountain--that's where the gold mine
is."
He was either dreaming or pretending. I lifted him by the shoulders.
"Ray! We're here," I said.
"Not yet," he returned. "It's not--" And then he opened his eyes.
"What the Sam--" he began. And he gazed on Robert and myself,
wonderingly.
"Say!" he continued. "You spoiled the most scrumptious dream I ever had.
I was sailing through the clouds--that soft and nice--on the way to the
gold mine. But I suppose you kids have got your pockets full of gold;
let's see the color of it; what have you done with Duran and the rest of
those voodoos? Do you know I came up on top of this hill so's to get a
good running start if that polecat (as Norris calls him) got after me;
well, what have you been up to--why don't you say something?"
"Say something!" I mocked. I guess my smile nettled him.
"Say," he began again, "if I talked as much as you don't, Wayne, my
tongue would soon grow callouses on it. But back to business," he
continued. "What have you done with that Duran? I haven't seen him for a
coon's age. I've got so I'm not happy if I don't see him around."
"Take us to the _Pearl_," I answered, "and I'll tell you all there is to
tell."
We descended the hill, and Ray led us to that bay, a mile and a half
west, even past the spot where Robert, Carlos, and I had first pulled up
our little boat. A half mile more, and we came upon the _Pearl_, looking
pretty in the moonlight, resting just within a deep water inlet, and
hidden behind the tall cocoanut palms. A low whistle brought the small
boat to shore for us.
It was again a happy reunion, and there came the exchange of tales. That
of the _Pearl's_ adventures was simple; they had mended those
augur-bored leaks with little difficulty. But they were delayed
thirty-odd hours, waiting for a spring tide, enough to float them off.
The voyage round the upper end of the island had been without unusual
happenings. Captain Marat had seen fit to pass the city after dark; and
his chart had guided him to the present berth of the _Pearl_, the
markings on the map showing water a plenty; and it seemed a likely
hiding place, one Duran and his voodoos were not apt to visit, if
Carlos' account of their usual practice had any value.
"I mightily would like to have a look at that place where you lost that
skunk's trail," observed Norris. "That gold mine can't be very far away
from there, and we'll find it whether or no."
"And where did they go with the _Orion_, do you think?" asked Julian.
"They sail her on down thee coast, to draw us away from here, w'en we
come," said Captain Marat.
"It's a wonder they didn't go into Crow Bay," said Norris. "It's a fine
hiding place, according to the chart."
"And yet Duran might have considered it too near the place he's wanting
to hide from us," I offered.
"Well, now, when are we going to get up there where Carlos is?" said
Norris, impatient to be doing.
"Say, Wayne," said Ray. "Norris has pretty nigh worn out the deck,
tramping up and down; and over there on shore his clod-hoppers have
flattened out all the grass for a mile around. For heaven's sake sick
him after that 'polecat' before he starts an earthquake."
Julian volunteered to remain behind with Rufe and the sailors to guard
the schooner. Captain Marat, Norris, Ray, Robert, and myself, set off to
rejoin Carlos. The little boat was well laden with the five of us in
her, but it was quiet water we moved on.
It was broad day, which suited us illy, since we did not wish to be seen
in the region by anyone who might get the news to Duran. But in the
crossing of Crow Bay, only Robert and I showed our faces above the
gunwale; and the visible portions of our skins, it will be remembered,
were stained black.
We concealed the rowboat again among the reeds, not far from where lay
that canoe of Duran's, and it was not long till we had joined Carlos.
"Duran--no one--come," reported Carlos.
"Well, it's up to us to find out where he's gone," said Grant Norris.
"Well, here's the chance you've been steaming for," said Ray. "Here's
the end of the trail, where it goes into the water; only I'll bet he
took to a balloon right here. You know, too, I dreamed of a balloon last
night, and if Wayne hadn't waked me just when he did, I'd be at that
gold mine right now."
"Yes," returned Norris, "and you'd have to go to sleep to dream yourself
back again."
"Well," shot back Ray, "why not? Maybe the gold mine is all a dream,
after all."
"Ah, no," declared Carlos, "it no dream. I see the gold--my father show
me."
We made up three parties for the search. Norris and Carlos went east;
Captain Jean Marat and I west; Robert and Ray remained to watch by the
stream.
Captain Marat and I picked our way through the forest to the west for
the three miles, to the place where the sloping ground permitted an
ascent to the heights backing the cliffs.
The climb was a stiff one, and there was no path or way cleared of the
brush, and so were our difficulties increased. When we had gained a
sufficient height we moved toward the east, intending to explore the
region that looked down on the stream where were Robert and Ray. But we
encountered cliffs again, above those other cliffs, that kept us off
some miles to the back of that region we hoped to penetrate.
After a short stop at noon, for a bite of food out of our pockets, we
continued moving eastward through the cedars that ornamented this new
line of cliffs, towering so many hundreds of feet above those lying
between us and Crow Bay. Now and then we got unobstructed views of that
region below, all forest-clad, and there seemed to be pits and basins
there; but nowhere a slope permitting a descent. We got a view of the
little bay where the _Pearl_ lay, but the distance (some seven or eight
miles) was too great to permit us to distinguish the masts among the
palms, even with the glasses that Captain Marat carried.
The afternoon was not far gone when we met Grant Norris and Carlos, who,
by their report, had encountered practically the same conditions as we.
Except only that they had come upon a brook that disappeared into the
hillside, a thing that Carlos declared was common enough in these
mountains. But the direction of the stream was such as to suggest that
it was the same rivulet that made its exit from the rocks right where
Ray and Robert kept watch. Norris and Carlos had ascended this mountain
brook above a mile, on the chance that it might bring them to some trail
to the haunt of Duran. But they had met with no signs, and had at last
taken to the heights.
"Now, I'll tell you, fellows," observed Norris, "I propose to follow up
that creek some miles farther, tomorrow. I've been in more than one gold
country, and that creek looks darned likely to me. I dug down at the
edge with my hand, in a couple of places, and found black sand. If there
isn't gold somewhere up that stream I miss my guess."
"Well, the sun soon be getting low," said Captain Marat. "It is time we
go back."
The way Norris and Carlos had come was considered the shorter way back,
so we took up the march, moving eastward. I was ahead with Carlos, and
we hadn't taken many steps on our way, when I was startled by the sight
of some furry object scampering up a cedar just below. Norris saw it
too, and raised his rifle. It was then I got another view of the being,
and reached out to stop Norris whose finger was on the trigger.
"Wait!" I cried. "It's a monkey."
Carlos, too, was surprised at the spectacle. He declared that he had
never heard of monkeys inhabiting the island.
"It must be tame monkey," he said.
The animal swung from a branch of the tree to that of the next, and soon
disappeared over the edge of the cliff.
"Well then," declared Norris, "if he's tame, he's either got loose in
town and wandered a long way off, or there are other people beside
ourselves about here."
No one had anything to add to Norris' observations, and we continued our
return journey, little thinking that we were destined to see that monkey
again.
We presently came to where descent was possible; and when the brook
finally came in our way, I found much interest in the spot where the
waters flowed into the hole in the rocks.
"It seems a queer freak," I told Norris, "that it should make its way
through the hill like that."
"It isn't the first time I have seen nature doing such stunts," he
returned. "I guess volcanic action has had most to do with it."