It was not until the doctor rapped sharply at the wooden partition that
separated the boys' from the men's quarters at the shanty, that the
murmuring buzz ceased. "Look here, you two," he said; "if you don't
want to sleep we do, so just be quiet. It's somewhere about one
o'clock, and when getting-up time comes you'll want to sleep."
"All right, father," said Chris, in a very wakeful tone; "we won't talk
any more."
But they did, in a whisper, for something in the way of recrimination
began.
"It was all your fault," said Ned. "I wanted to go to sleep hours ago,
but you would keep beginning again about the bothering old chart."
"Oh come, I like that!" replied Chris. "Who kept on wondering whether
we should meet Indians, and whether they scalped people now!"
"Well, yes, I did say something about that. Only fancy, though, how
horrid!"
"Shan't! We're to go to sleep. I say, though, Ned; think we shall
really get away from this bothering old hoeing and weeding and killing
blight?"
"Can't think: I'm nearly asleep."
"Oh, what a thumper! You're as wide awake as I am."
_S-n-n-o-r-r-r-e_!
"Gammon!"
"Oh!" and a sudden jump.
"What's the matter?"
"You stuck a pin into my leg."
"Must have been a mosquito."
"I'll skeeter you to-morrow morning, Master Chris!"
"Don't wait: do it now!" (defiantly.)
"You coward! You know that if I hit at you the doctor would jump up in
a rage."
"No, he wouldn't, because we'd creep out through the open door and go
into the shed. Come on; I'm ready."
"I shan't. I want to sleep."
"I don't. I can't. I feel all over of a tingle. I should like a
set-to. Come on out, and then I should like you to skeeter me."
"Don't be a fool, Chris. Let's go to sleep and get ready for to-morrow.
My word, what a day we shall have! It seems wonderful. I can hardly
believe it's true."
"That is," said Chris, for there was an angry rap on the partition,
given by the doctor, who felt as nervously excited as the two boys.
The final rap brought calm, though, sending the lads off into a deep
sleep which lasted till sunrise, when they stepped out of their rough
bunks, hurried down to the water-pool to have a bathe, and had just
finished bathing when Chris caught sight of the tall gaunt figure of the
American striding through the Bartlett-pear plantation.
"_Coo-ee_!" cried Chris.
"Oh, there you are, young 'uns," came in reply. "Mornin'. Well, what
time will you be ready to start?"
"Directly after breakfast," cried Chris.
"Packed up your duds?"
"No, not yet."
"Well, look sharp."
"All right. But if we go--"
"_But if_! Why, we are going."
"I hope so," cried Ned. "But I say, Griggs, what are you going to do
about your shanty? Are you going to lock it up and leave the key with
the nearest neighbour?"
"Tchah! Nonsense! I'm going to put together what I want in a mule-car,
ready for hitching the two kickers on, and then I'm going to take a
hammer and a bag of spikes, and nail up the door and window. I shall
advise your gov'nors to do the same here."
"But of course we shall take no end of things with us," said Chris.
"You won't, my lad. We shall load up two or three cars, but it will be
with meal and tinned meat, bacon and ham. Tea, coffee, and sugar, of
course. Ammunition, a few tools, a waterproof or two, and a tent.
That's all."
"What about clothes?"
"Oh, we shall bring them on our backs. It's going to be light
marching-order, I can tell you."
"That won't matter," said Ned. "I shall like it. I say, Griggs, it'll
be like one long jolly great picnic."
"Yes, if we keep well, and the Indians let us alone."
"But, shall we meet Indians, Griggs?" cried Chris excitedly.
"Not we. Sooner go miles round; but they'll meet us, I expect."
"Oh!" said Chris thoughtfully. "But what for?"
"To get our mules and carts, and all we have with us."
"But what about ourselves?"
"Oh, we're no use to them," said the American dryly. "They'll pitch us
aside as so much rubbish--if we'll let 'em."
"Get on!" cried Ned. "He's talking like that to frighten us. But I
say, Griggs, what about the gold?"
"Well, what about it?"
"If there's tons upon tons of it, how are we going to bring it away?"
"Ah, yes. I've been thinking about that," said the American dryly, "and
I've settled upon this."
"Yes! What?" cried the boys eagerly.
"To find it first. It's of no use to settle how you'll cook your bird
till you've caught it."
"But we couldn't expect the mules to drag tons of metal across the
desert."
"Oh yes, we could, easily. We might expect a deal more than that; but
they wouldn't do it."
"Get out! He's laughing at us, Ned."
"Of course I was. Here, are your governors up yet?"
"They weren't when we came out," replied Chris.
"Well, I wonder at them, I dew," said Griggs. "Sleeping, with an idea
like this to think about. I never had a wink all night. Say, this is
going to be a change from pruning and weeding, eh?"
"Oh, it's glorious--splendid!" cried the boys.
"Is it? Wait a bit. Now come on; you're dressed enough, ain't you?"
"Yes, quite right now."
"Then let's go and hunt up the gov'nors. I want to know whether they
really mean business."
"Oh yes, they'll go," cried Chris.
"Think so?"
"I feel sure of it."
"So do I," added Ned. "My father's quite eager to go."
"_Bagh_!" cried Griggs. "I was afraid that after sleeping on it they'd
draw back. This is good news, boys, for, oh, how tired I am of drudging
on here for nothing! Come on."
There was not much need for coming on. They had not gone half-way to
the big shanty before they came suddenly upon the doctor and his two
friends, who met them with the customary good-morning.
"Well, Mr Griggs," said the doctor, "you've come to say that the idea
of last night is wild and impossible."
"Who told you so, sir?" cried the young American.
"No one. I only came to that conclusion."
"Then you thought wrong, sir, and perhaps it was what you had made up
your mind to yourself."
"Oh no, Griggs. We have decided quite the contrary. If there is any
drawing back it will be on your side."
"That's right then, sir. When do we start?"
"As soon as we have settled our affairs and bought the necessary
stores."
"But we shall try and find a purchaser for the plantation--of course, at
a reasonable price," said Bourne. "Just about the value of what we have
put into the place, the building and the tools."
"If we wait for that, gentlemen," said Griggs, "we shall never get off.
But you try."
"Yes, we will try," said the doctor. "Of course it will be amongst the
settlers a few miles round."
This was decided upon, and the doctor and Bourne rode off that morning,
making a tour of about thirty miles from plantation to plantation,
before they returned, tired out, to the evening meal, and found Griggs
busy with Wilton and the boys just finishing up the task of thoroughly
cleaning and oiling the firearms.
"Back again, then?" said Griggs. "Will you want my hammer and spikes,
gentlemen?"
"Your hammer and spikes?" cried the doctor, wonderingly. "What for?"
"To lock up your doors and windows here, same as I'm going to do mine."
"Oh, I see," said the doctor. "Yes, I expect we shall."
"Didn't find no customers then, sir?"
"Customers?" cried the doctor querulously. "Every one wanted to sell.
My impression was that not one settler we broached the subject to would
have taken our plantation as a gift."
"That's about how it stands, sir," said Griggs. "They wouldn't. Why
should they? It would only make them more work and less profit. You do
as I do, sir--I mean, as I'm going to do: nail up the doors and
shutters. I don't suppose any one would meddle with the shanty. If he
did he couldn't take away the land, so it would be here all right if you
ever came back and wanted it, which isn't likely, is it?"
"Not at all," said Bourne emphatically.
"Didn't say you were going gold-hunting, I s'pose, sir?" asked Griggs.
"Not exactly."
"Then some one did ask questions?"
"Everybody did," replied the doctor, "and I said we were going
prospecting."
"Oh, you might have said the real thing, sir. They sneer at you as much
for one as for t'other. But that don't matter. I don't know, though:
if they knew as much as we know we should have the whole settlement
after us; not that I should mind every one I know having a nibble at the
yellow cake, but where half-a-dozen people might manage to find enough
water, fifty folk would die of thirst, and perhaps tell us it was all
our fault."
"Yes, the smaller our party the better, I say," said Bourne.
"Which means I'd better stop out of it, sir," said Griggs shortly.
"No, it does not, Griggs," cried the doctor warmly. "Cer-tain-ly not,"
added Bourne. "You will come with us, of course."
"Well, I--"
"That'll do, Griggs; no backing out," said Wilton shortly.--"Now then,
what about stores?"
"I propose that two of us decide what money will be necessary, and then
go over to Mainton with two mule-carts and spend it on such things as we
shall want. That will take a week, including the obtaining a
sufficiency of ammunition."
"Which means plenty, gentlemen, for we might be regularly besieged in
our wagon, and have to beat the Injuns off."
"I don't anticipate that," replied the doctor calmly, while the boys
felt their nerves tingle; "but we will be prepared. Then we shall come
back--I mean those who undertake the task will come back, and that will
be all that is necessary to be done, save having one or two good
discussions as to the route we shall take. Then we'll start upon our
wild quest."
"Wild indeed, I'm afraid," said Bourne.
"Nay! Not it," cried Griggs. "We've got plenty of time."
"And plenty of room," said Wilton, laughing.
"To be sure we have," continued Griggs. "Lookye here, I've been
thinking this little bit of a job over, and it seems to me as plain as A
B C."
"Indeed!" said the doctor, smiling. "How do you make that out?"
"This way. We've got the map of the part where it is."
"Certainly, and all we've got to find out is whereabouts that part
lies."
"Of course: and there lies the difficulty."
"Difficulty, doctor? Not it. Now, just look here. We've got, say,
three States where it's likely to be. Say, at a guess, Colorado,
Arizona, and New Mexico."
"Oh yes, and California, Texas, and you can join on Old Mexico."
"Nay, nay; the three I said will do for a beginning. If neither of them
turns out right we'll begin on one of the others. Say, we give two or
three years apiece to the first lot. We've plenty of time, as
aforesaid."
"Then you are going to set aside nine years of our lives to begin with,
and when they are gone--wasted--begin another nine years?"
"Time won't be wasted, doctor; we shall have found out something or
another."
"The question seems to me," said Bourne, "is it worth the trouble?"
"If we'd got to spend nine more years in making a fortune here, doctor,
we shouldn't think the time too long."
"Perhaps not."
"Well, it wouldn't be in getting the gold, even if it took nine years,
and if we're lucky it mightn't take nine months. It's all chance
whether we hit on the right trail to begin with or at the last."
"It's a wild and desperate adventure," said the doctor sternly, "and
only excusable on the ground that we have wasted years upon this
plantation and are now in a desperate state."
"Oh, don't call it desperate, doctor. We're going on a job that's going
to be full of fun. We've only got to hold together pluckily to do it.
Why, it's as easy as easy."
"To go and seek blindly through three great States for the spot
delineated on this rough map?" cried Bourne.
"We shan't go blindly, sir; you may depend on that. We shall keep our
eyes open pretty wide," said Griggs, with a merry look at the boys.
"Now, look here, gentlemen, I tell you I've been thinking all this out,
and it seems to me that we can cut it all down into a small patch."
"How?" said the doctor.
"By getting rid of all the outside useless bits of the job."
"I don't understand you," cried Wilton. "Hard or easy, I've made up my
mind to see the thing through; but just explain a little more what you
mean, Griggs."
"That's right enough, sir; I will. Now, look here; we've got our map,
or plan, or whatever you call it."
"Yes," said Bourne.
"It's not very good writing, nor yet nicely finished off, but to my mind
one thing's very clear, and it's this: wherever the ruined city is it
must be somewhere that hasn't been settled by emigrants and ranchers."
"Certainly," cried the doctor; "that's clear."
"Very well, then, sir; if you think a moment you'll see that you clear
away thousands o' square miles of settled country at once, where we
needn't go to look."
"Yes, he's right there," said Bourne. "Go on, Griggs."
"Give me time, sir. Well, then, the only parts we've got to search are
those where the country's quite wild, and no one been there but
Indians."
"Exactly," said the doctor.
"Then the parts we have got to search are not half so big already, being
only the bad desert lands."
"Good," cried Wilton.
"Here's where the map comes in now, gentlemen," continued Griggs. "What
does it say on it--what does it show?"
"Very little," replied Bourne.
"That's true, sir. I could make a better map myself; but it does show
one thing, and that is that the gold city lies amongst the mountains."
"Yes, quite true," said the doctor.
"Then here you are, sir: if the gold city lies amongst the mountains it
can't be any good for us to go hunting for it among the plains."
"Of course not."
"There you are, then, sir. Look, as the proper maps'll show you, what a
big hunch of these three States we're going to search is marked off as
prairie-land."
"To be sure."
"Then that as good as halves what we've got to go over again. We've got
to make for the mountain-path always till we find those three
sugar-loafy bits the poor fellow marked down. Why, neighbour, we're
cutting off a lot of pieces that we shan't need to meddle with. You
see, it's coming down and getting less every time we begin to work."
"There's a deal in what you say," said the doctor thoughtfully, "but the
country is immense."
"So was the Atlantic Ocean, sir, when Mr Christopher Columbus set sail
in his ship to find land. That was jumping right into the darkness."
"Hear, hear!" cried Bourne and Wilton together, and the boys hammered
the table.
"Yes," said the doctor, more thoughtfully, "and he had nothing but a
kind of faith to work on. You are quite right, Griggs; we have some
grounds to go upon."
"Instead of deep water, sir," said the American, grinning.
"And you being captain of the expedition, Lee," cried Wilton, "will have
a far better chance of success."
"Shall I? I don't see why."
"You will, because you'll have a smaller crew, one that will not rise in
mutiny against you and want to go back."
"How do I know that?" said the doctor dryly.
"Because we promise you, to a man--and boy--eh, Chris--Ned?--that we'll
stick to you to the end."
"Of course," cried the boys together; while the others said, "Hear,
hear!"
"That's all very well," said the doctor dryly. "We're sitting here
comfortably at this table, and in this shanty, and rough as it is we
have found it a comfortable home. We've had our evening meal, and we're
going to lie down for a good night's rest. But wait till some day when
we're all worn out with hunger and fatigue--out, perhaps, in some
thirsty desert--without a roof to cover us, and surrounded by dangers
such as at the present time we cannot conceive. How will you feel
then--what will you say then?"
"Never say die, father," cried Chris.
"Britons never shall be slaves," cried Ned.
"Nor Yankee Doodles neither, doctor," cried Griggs, laughing.
"I say we'll all stick to our captain like men," said Wilton warmly.
"And I that I shall clap you on the shoulder, Lee, and say, Thank
goodness, we've fought through our troubles so far, and that, please
goodness, we'll go on bravely to the end."
"Hah!" exclaimed the doctor, uttering a long-drawn sigh. "Yes, I find I
shall be better off than Columbus, and I begin to feel that with such
help I shall have a much easier task. There: we'll go. Our friend
Griggs has put quite a different complexion on the expedition, and I
begin to think now that all we have to do is to keep on till we find the
ruined city."
"If it exists," said Bourne.
"If it exists? Oh, it must exist, if you can say that of a dead city,"
cried Wilton.
"The poor fellow we buried may have invented it all, being so bent upon
his search, and gone crazy at last and made up that chart out of his own
head."
"No," said the doctor thoughtfully. "I had the advantage of you others
in being with him during his last moments, and hearing him talk calmly
and sensibly to the end. He had suffered horribly from fever, and
doubtless had been delirious again and again, but that chart was the
work of no madman; half-an-hour's conversation with him satisfied me
that he knew perfectly well what he was talking about, and, after all
said and done, there is nothing preposterous in what he told me. We
have had proofs enough of there being rich gold-loving nations in North,
South, and Central America who built great temples--the Mexicans, the
Peruvians, and the nations who have left the huge ruins in Yucatan. I
do not see why there should not be another gold city and temple here."
"Here!" said Bourne dryly. "Where?"
"In the desert place among the mountains that we are going to find, my
dear sir," said the doctor firmly.
"_Bagh! Bagh! Bagh! Bagh_!" roared Griggs enthusiastically, and the
boys joined in the "tiger," as he called it.
"Don't say any more, doctor," he cried. "That's enough. I began to
think you were playing fast and loose, and I said to myself, Doctor's
got too much shilly-shally, willy-nilly in him to make a good leader of
this expedition, but I don't now. I can see farther than I did, and
that you've been weighing it all over and looking before you leaped.
And that's the right way to succeed. Gentlemen, and you two youngsters,
we've got a grand captain--one that can lead us and guide us, and cure
us, and set us up when we're down. What more can we want? We're sure
to succeed. I won't sell my share now for anything."
There was a fresh cheer at this, and the party broke up to take the
necessary rest.
"Ned," said Chris, after they had been in bed a short time, "we're off."
"Yes," said Ned. "_Bagh! Bagh! Bagh_! as Griggs has it."
"Hush, or you'll wake my dad."