A short halt of a day or two only was made by the lake at first, and
then an excursion which had been made successfully in search of game
having resulted in the discovery of a more suitable spot higher up
towards the mountains, a week was spent there in a beautiful little
valley, where an abundant stream of crystal purity emptied itself into
the wide-spreading lake. Pasturage was there for the horses and mules,
and almost without effort food was to be had at the expense of a few
cartridges, while very little skill was needed for Griggs and the boys
to draw salmon-like and trout-like fish to the banks.
In a day or two the perils and sufferings of the journey across the salt
plains were forgotten, and careful searching for signs of Indians having
proved that they were the sole occupants of the district, the whole
party gave themselves up to the pleasures of the peaceful life they were
enjoying. But not for long.
Griggs had entered into the spirit of the chase, the fishing and the
search for vegetable food. He was as eager too when the doctor led
excursions into gully and up hill-sides of a part of the world that
seemed to the adventurers as if it had never before been trodden by the
foot of man, and ready to point out fresh flowers, or indications of
metal or other minerals where the cliff was bared or splintered by some
fall from above. But over the camp-fire at night, in some rocky nook,
or beneath the spreading boughs of a gigantic spruce-fir, a hint or a
word or two brought him back to the prime motive of their journey.
"I'm ready when you are, gentlemen," he cried. "I don't say this isn't
grand, and that we oughtn't to be as happy as the day is long in a place
like this, but we didn't come out here only to enjoy a hunting-party.
There's that map, you know."
"Yes," said the doctor gravely, "there's the map. But you don't think
this is a likely part of the country?"
"Not down here, sir; but from where we stood to-day after stalking those
birds, I could see the mountains opening out in gulch and rift and
hollow, beyond which there was peak and point and pass that looked as
much like the sort of country as could be."
"I noted the grand scenery too," said the doctor.
"And I," added Wilton. "It's made me long to begin exploring again, for
there was no sign of desert that I could see."
"It's a grand country," said Bourne, "and the wonder to me is that it
has not been settled. Why do you laugh, boy?"
"Oh, it was only at something I thought, sir," said Chris.
"What was it?"
"That the salt plains were enough to keep anybody from coming as far as
this."
"That's it, my lad," said Griggs. "Men may have come prospecting in
this direction for gold, but I shouldn't be a bit surprised to find that
this is only a patch of good land round and about these mountains, and
that if we went far enough in any direction we should come to the salt
plains again, shutting it in and keeping people back."
"It is possible," said the doctor.
"It's more than likely, sir. If it were not so, wouldn't people have
settled here?"
"It is very far from civilisation, Griggs," said Bourne.
"Most new places are far from civilisation, sir," cried Griggs. "But
look all round here, sir; if a good strong party of men came here with
their wives and children they'd make their own civilisation, for it
seems to me that we can find here already pretty well everything a man
could want. See what it would be after a few years of farm-stock
rearing and gardening."
"Then why not stop and settle here?" said the doctor, smiling.
"Because we've got gold on the brain, sir," replied Griggs grimly. "We
set ourselves to see if that poor old fellow's story was a fact, and
having started, I say let's carry out our work. If we don't find out
that his map told the truth, I'm ready to come and open out this bit of
country, if you like, for it's ten times the place that we came from.
Even now if you say we'll go no further, I'll set to work with you; but
because it's so beautiful ought we to forget how we're cutting ourselves
off from the rest of the world?"
"No," said the doctor emphatically. "I propose we make a fresh start
to-morrow farther up into the mountains, and see what there is yonder."
There was a murmur of agreement at this, in which the boys joined.
"Yes," said Chris, as he sauntered away soon after with his eyes roaming
in every direction in search of danger or something new. "Griggs is
right. It's as fine as fine here, and I don't like leaving the fishing;
but I am beginning to want a change, aren't you?"
"No going down-hill again to be roasted and choked with thirst."
"Of course not," said Chris; "we've had enough of that. I want to do
some of that shooting Griggs was talking about last night."
"What, the goats up in the mountains?"
"Yes, and those big horned sheep; but I feel sure he was laughing at us
about their jumping about the precipices, and running along ledges full
gallop when they're only a few inches wide."
"Oh, I don't know; he hadn't got that queer cock of the eye that he has
when he's spinning a yarn."
"Well, no; but it was a good deal like throwing the hatchet. Didn't you
see how serious your father looked?"
"Yes, but not so serious as your father did when Griggs declared that
he'd seen flocks of those sheep running away from people stalking them
till they got to the edges of the precipices where they could go no
farther; and then jump down head first so as to come on the great thick
twisted horns which cover their foreheads, and bounce up again, and go
on running along a lower part."
"Yes, I saw. Why, a big, heavy sheep if he came down like that would
break his horns."
"Break his horns!" cried Ned. "He'd break his neck."
"I should like to shoot one of those fellows," said Chris.
"Or be below when one of them jumped, came down on his head, and broke
his neck," said Ned. "I say, mutton--neck of mutton--leg of mutton!
Wouldn't a good roast joint be a treat?"
"Oh, what a fellow you are for thinking about eating!" cried Chris
impatiently.
"And so are you for drinking," replied Ned. "You're always on the
lookout for water."
"Well, we must drink a great deal in such a thirsty land."
"Yes, and we must eat a deal to keep up one's strength," said Ned. "I
can't help getting hungry when we're walking about so much. I suppose
it's because I'm growing fast."
"Yea, that's it," said Chris, smiling. "I get very hungry too. It's
all right; I won't laugh at you any more. I say, what lots of those
little gophers there are here. Look there; why, there must be about a
hundred up on that patch of sandy ground. Watching us to see if we're
coming, and ready to pop into their holes."
"I see them. There's one of those little round tots of owls sitting
there too just outside the burrow. It's quite comic to see the gophers
living so sociably with the little owls."
Chris gave a shout just then, and the colony of little burrowing animals
resembling the marmots of the Alps disappeared into their holes with an
accompaniment of angry warning whistles, just as a huge eagle came
sailing along overhead, swooping so near that a good marksman could
easily have brought it down.
"Seems a pity to go away from a place where there's so much to see,"
said Chris, after a time. "And what for? To find gold. Well, it's
only yellow metal. We might stay here and find some."
"Or silver," said Ned.
"Yes, or lead, or antimony."
"Or coal," cried Ned.
"Ah, that would be useful for making our cooking fire," said Chris.
"But there's plenty of wood everywhere, and I won't complain. I want to
go on and see more. Every place we come to seems more wonderful than
the last, and there's no knowing what we may find next."
"We shall see," said Ned, yawning, for the darkness was sweeping up the
sides of the hills, leaving the hollows black, and they had had a long
and tiring day. "I suppose we shall start, then, to-morrow."
"For a certainty. I wonder what our next camping-place may be like."
"That ruined city described by the old prospector, perhaps," said Ned,
laughing. "But what are we going to do then--load the mules with gold,
and go back again?"
"I hope not," cried Chris. "I don't want to go back. Why, we haven't
shot a buffalo yet."
"So much the better for the buffalo," said Ned, yawning again.
"I say, don't do that," cried Chris querulously.
"I wasn't doing anything."
"Yes, you were; opening your mouth as wide as you could, just like old
Skeeter when he's getting ready to bray."
"Whinny," said Ned correctively. "He isn't a donkey."
"I know that. He can't bray. He whinnies and squeals; but he tries to
bray, and opens his mouth just like you do."
"Perhaps so," said Ned, changing the conversation at once. "I say,
doesn't that peak look beautiful? It's just as if it is red-hot."
"You'd find it pretty cold if you were up there," said Chris, giving up
making rude allusions to his companion's yawning.
"Yes; that always seems to me so strange," said Ned.
"What does?"
"That the nearer you get up to the sun the colder it is. It ought to be
hotter."
"Don't find fault with nature," said Chris dogmatically. "I wasn't
finding fault. I only say it seems queer. I want to thoroughly
understand why it is."
"Ask your father, he knows."
"I did," said Ned, "and he said it was because the atmosphere was
thinner, the higher you get."
"Then the lower you get I suppose the thicker it is," said Chris
thoughtfully, "and that's why it's so thick and hot down there on the
salt desert. Oh, my word, how it used to scorch! It was just as if the
haze was one great burning-glass."
"Oh, I say," cried Ned dolefully, "I wish you wouldn't."
"Wouldn't what?"
"Talk about the heat on the salt plains. We're going to start off
afresh to-morrow morning, and I shall begin dreaming about what we went
through over yonder."
"Poor old chap!"
"Ah, you may laugh, but it'll all come back like a nightmare, with the
burning thirst and giddiness, and the black spots before one's eyes."
"That's biliousness," said Chris, speaking authoritatively, like a
doctor's son.
"I don't care what it is. It's very horrible," said Ned, "and if I
thought we were going through a time like that again I should want to
stop at home."
"Where's that?" said Chris dryly.
"Ah, to be sure," said Ned, with a sigh. "I forgot where we were. I
suppose there'll be no home again till we've found the gold."
"And that won't be to-night," said Chris, as a shrill whistle rang out
through the clear evening air. "There's old Griggs calling us just as
if we were dogs. I've a good mind not to hear."
But Chris answered the whistle all the same, and the boys were soon
after joined by the American, who had come to meet them, and his first
words were--
"Now, boys, bed and a good long sleep. We're off again at daybreak."