The little mule-train, very lightly laden, and with harness,
pack-saddles, and loads looking ragged, patched, sun-bleached, and
repaired in every conceivable way, moved slowly along through the rich
greenery, led and followed by its sun-tanned escort, three before and
three behind. The ponies looked in admirable condition save that a
change of diet seemed necessary to do away with a swollen-out aspect due
to constant feeding upon green-stuff instead of corn. But the saddles
and bridles were as bad as those of the mules, though every bit and
buckle glistened in the sunshine through constant rubbing with sand.
The less said about the patched garments of the escort the better.
But there were no rags. Patches of divers materials, principally furry
skins, were plentiful, and the moccasins which had taken the place of
boots were either Indian and very neat, or home-made and quite the
reverse.
But here too there was something worthy of remark--each man's weapons
were admirably cared for and ready for instant use, while the occupants
of the saddles, though horribly dilapidated in the way of clothes, were
also in that grand state of vigorous health which also made them appear
ready for immediate use in any way, from hunting or shooting to obtain
the day's provision, to fighting for dear life against the enemies of
the white men who roamed the plains.
Not that these six wanderers could fairly be called white, for the sun
had burned them to a dull brick-red; but the term men is advisedly used,
for though when the party last passed that way, going in the opposite
direction, they were made up of four hale vigorous men and two boys, the
latter had been left in the desert lands through which they had been
wandering for two years--left, that is to say, by degrees, every bit
that had been boyish having physically died out, for its place to be
taken by something more manly, till on this particular day they rode
back with their feet much nearer the ground and their sturdy mustangs
appearing stunted, though quite well able to carry a far heavier load
than had been in the habit of climbing into the saddles when they
started from the plantations at the above-named distance of time.
It was only about a couple of hours before, when the party left the
shelter of a patch of great spruce-firs where they had camped for the
night, that the doctor had made a remark to Bourne, and then both had
stared hard at Chris and Ned, a proceeding which brought the blood into
the young men's faces and made Chris ask what they are to laugh at.
"You," said the doctor. "Why, when we rode away on our search you
looked a mere boy; you are coming back to the old home both of you men
grown, if you weren't so lathy and thin."
"Nobody will know them, eh, Wilton?"
"That's for certain. They will grin at you."
"I wouldn't advise them to," said Griggs slowly. "Chris has grown very
hot and peppery, and Ned here has done so much fighting that he always
seems to be, as the Irish say, spoiling for another go in. So they'd
better not laugh, for we want to settle down again as friends."
They had been journeying on since then, getting nearer and nearer to the
old settlement; but the change seemed wonderful, and they talked it
over.
"Why," said the doctor, "it isn't only the boys that have grown, but
everything here."
"Yes, wonderfully," said Bourne; "overgrown, one ought to say."
"They don't seem to have used the tracks much," put in Griggs. "It's
hard work to make sure whether we're going right."
"Oh, we're going right enough," said Chris. "I remember every hill and
dale. Look yonder; that's where the plantations are. But how they have
altered!"
"Yes," said the doctor, "the place does seem changed; but from the state
of the tracks I'm afraid that very little has been done in the way of
developing the fruit trade. Hullo! Why are you turning off here,
boys?"
"Because it was just under those big fir-trees, father, that we took and
buried that poor old prospector. Ned and I want to see the board we cut
and nailed on the biggest trunk."
"To be sure, yes," said Bourne; "let's go and see."
The mules were halted, and began to graze, while the party rode through
the lush saplings and bushes that had sprung up so that it was hard work
to get through, till they passed under the spreading branches of the
trees, where the undergrowth became thin and sparse.
"There's the old board," cried Chris suddenly, and the party drew rein
at last by the side of the heaped-up pile of stones with which they had
marked the wanderer's grave.
No one spoke for a few minutes, but they sat there thinking deeply of
the old man's coming, his death, and his legacy to the doctor, who broke
the silence at length with a bitter sigh.
"Poor old dreamer!" he said sadly. "You bequeathed us your imagination,
and sent us off on our quest for the phantom gold."
"Yes," said Bourne; "we'd better have left him his legacy and gone on
home to the old-country."
"Oh, I don't know," said Wilton. "We've had a grand time of travel and
adventure, eh, boys?"
"Splendid!" came in a breath. "I'm only sorry that we've come back."
"Yes," added Chris. "You'll think that over, father, about rigging up
another expedition and making a fresh trial?"
"We shall see," said the doctor thoughtfully; "we shall see. What do
you say, Griggs, about another search for the golden city?"
"Well, I dunno," said Griggs slowly. "Maybe I'll wait a year before I
decide one way or the other."
"Griggs!" cried the two lads together.
"Oh, you needn't shout," said the American. "I've been thinking over it
a deal, more'n you have, p'r'aps, and it seems to me that even if we had
found the old place marked down on that old Rip Van Winkle map we should
have had a deal of trouble to carry back enough gold to have made the
journey worth while."
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the two young men uproariously. "There's an old
fox. He has just found out that the grapes are sour."
"Well, so they have been, boys," cried the American. "But talk about
grapes, it's just five years since I planted some fine young vines in my
patch and against the shanty. I wonder whether the blights have let
them grow. My word, I should like a few bunches now!"
"I'm afraid they'll be as sour as the gold, Griggs," said the doctor.
"There, let's ride on and leave the poor old fellow to sleep in peace.
He took his secret with him, for his map was too vague for us to find
his city of golden dreams. We have spent two years over the search, but
we have travelled well over an unknown land and come back, I hope, wiser
and more ready to do battle with the world."
"Oh, we shall try again, father," cried Chris, "and get real gold yet,
not phantom gold, as you call it. _Nil desperandum_, you know. Never
say die."
"Try again!" cried Ned.
"Hope springs eternal in the human breast," said Bourne gravely.
"Better luck next time," cried Wilton.
"Say, gentlemen," said Griggs dryly, "it don't seem to me a suitable
time for you to be firing off your copy-book maxims all over the place
when it's getting on for dinner-hour. I want to progress and ride on to
the old plantations to see which of our old friends is going to win in
the fight to have us for guests and give us a good sitting-down square
meal."
"There's wisdom," cried Chris merrily. "Griggs is always right.
Forward!"
He led the way from beneath the spreading boughs of the great spruce,
out from the solemn gloom where the old prospector lay and into the
glorious sunshine of the luxuriant, verdant country, which seemed a very
Eden after the parching sandy alkali deserts and the rocky tracts. The
mules and ponies kept on snatching at a mouthful here and a mouthful
there, as if it were too rich and tempting to be passed; but in spite of
the loveliness of all around, the adventurers became more and more
impressed by a something desolate about the attractive district over
which they passed. The hills and dales were glorious, but somehow they
came upon no signs of cultivation, nor yet of settlements, till at last,
with a feeling of sinking that was not all due to hunger, they rode
right into the very centre of the cluster of plantations they had left
two years before on their search for the golden city, to find on their
return wherever they went traces of a fire here, completely over-run
with greenery, there the remains of a shed or shanty with trees and
vines dislodging the props and boards; and though they hailed and
whistled it was only to scare birds or squirrels, and to awake no
answering call.
They rode a little here and a little there, the ponies pushing their way
through the tremendous growth; but it was all the same. Shanty after
shanty was in ruins where it could be traced, but desertion everywhere.
But during the search, moved by a strange feeling of opposition, the
friends shrank from approaching the dense grove which hid the home they
had left. They all shared the feeling that it would be too painful to
look upon the traces of the fire that without doubt had levelled with
the soil the house they had toiled over, and it was not until Griggs
spoke that something like a spell which had hung over them was driven
away.
"Seems to me," he said, "that when the fellows burned or carried off all
their stuff they made a pretty clean sweep. I'm just going across now
to have a look at my old spot; but I don't suppose there'll be any
dinner waiting there. Won't you have a look at your old roost first?"
"Yes," said the doctor, making an effort. "I couldn't go in yonder
before. Chris, boy, there's no one to blame but ourselves; we deserted
the old place; but it seemed to be hard to bear. Let's look at the
ruins, if there are any left."
They forced their way through a dense grove of fruit-trees and wild
growth which towered above the plantings of the past, the ponies
breaking down the lush vines and succulent canes, till they were brought
up suddenly by something solid which was overgrown by a vine.
"What!" cried the doctor.
"Ahoy! Griggy!" roared Chris through his hands. "Ahoy! Hooray!
Here's one of our vines loaded and breaking down with grapes."
The next minute the American and his companions had forced their way up
to the front of the big shanty and its shed--the barracks, as they had
termed it--to find that their fellow-settlers had respected the
nailed-up doors and shutters, leaving at their exodus the unlucky
district just as it had been at the peril finders' departure; but Nature
had been hard at work for her part, toiling as she toils in a rich
country to destroy man's work and restore all to its pristine state.
But though vines had draped, and shoots had dislodged shingles, the
stoutly-nailed walls stood firm. No firebrand had been set to the
sawn-up wood, and after some work with an axe to wrench away the boards
that had been nailed over window-shutter and door, there was the old
place fairly intact, with the utensils just as they had been left.
The consequence was that the wanderers, after seeing to their weary
beasts and leaving them grazing in the midst of abundance, made their
own dinner seated at the rough table, drinking the water from the swift
river hard by, and finding, half smothered by the competing growth,
abundance of peaches and Bartlett-pears to supplement the grapes
ripening on the roof of the old home.
"I say, Chris," said Ned, with his mouth full, or nearly so, of juicy
pear, "is this all a dream?"
"My peach tastes just like a real one," was the reply. "But I say,
father, the fruit never used to grow like this."
"No, my boy," said the doctor; "I feel half stunned in my surprise. A
complete change seems to have come over everything. The weeds and wild
things have run rampant, but the fruit-trees, such as I can see, all
look clean and free from blight."
"Say, neighbour," cried Griggs, "I'm going over to my place now, if some
one else will help at the clearance. These grapes, you know."
"They're splendid," said the doctor. "What about them?"
"Why, this," said Griggs; "I planted lots, and they'd never grow any
more than my oranges would."
"Oranges!" cried Chris. "Here, father, we haven't looked at our grove."
"Come on with me, then," said Griggs, "and we'll take it on the way. I
want to see mine too. As to the grapes, if yours'll grow like this so
ought mine; and if they have--But wait a bit."
All mounted again, to make their mustangs breast their way in the
direction of the dried-up peach and orange-grove which they had toiled
over in despair, and at the first glance a shout of delight arose.
"Why, father," cried Chris, "what was the good of going there through
thirst and starvation to find phantom gold when it is glowing and
growing, and breaking down the branches here?"
For it was a golden sight indeed for weary, longing and disappointed
eyes.
Progress was difficult after they had literally gloated over the beauty
and promise of the orange-grove, for the tracks were wonderfully grown
over, everything showing that the settlement must have been forsaken
almost directly after the departure of the adventurers. Then Griggs'
plantation was reached and found to be as full of promise as that which
they had so lately quitted; and this proved to be the case wherever they
rode, for the change everywhere was complete, the crops, as far as the
encroaching wildings would allow, being abundant, but not a hand left to
gather, those whom the party had known having forsaken the place to a
man.
The rest of the day was devoted to cleaning and making the old home
suitable for temporary if not for permanent habitation. Creeper and
vine had to be cut back, so as to admit light and clear the choked-up
chimney, while with the growth endless intruders, insect, reptile, and
bird, were banished. The remaining stores, now very low, were brought
in, and what all declared to be a very jovial supper prepared and most
thoroughly enjoyed.
"One never knows what a day will bring forth," cried Bourne, smiling
upon his listeners. "Here we were this morning weary and despondent,
looking forward to someone taking us in to-night by way of charity,
while now we find that we have fallen on our feet, and are quite at home
in the midst of abundance."
"Yes," said Wilton; "I've seen enough to prove that Nature has retaken
possession here, and that an hour with a gun will give us all we want
to-morrow in the way of game."
"Yes," cried Chris; "and look there, Ned--fish."
"What about them?"
"The river's full, and I saw plenty leaping, waiting for rod and line or
net."
"That's good," cried Ned.
"Oh yes; we shan't starve," said Griggs. "But let's see, how far used
we to be from the other settlement?"
"Forty miles," replied the doctor.
"But suppose that is deserted, the same as this?"
"Then we shall be quite a hundred from the next."
"A hundred," said Griggs dryly. "Well, that seems horribly close and
crowding one up like after living as we've been lately. It seems to me
that if we liked to stop here now we might have the pick of the whole
place, and as many patches as we like to take up."
"What about the old owners?" said Bourne.
"They've thrown up the game and gone--back to England, perhaps. I don't
believe any one is ever likely to put in claims, but we could soon get
that settled by the State law. I've nearly made up my mind to start
afresh, doctor. You see, everything is going to be quite different; but
there's one thing I can't understand. Climates don't change all at
once, but here's this place boiling over, as one might say, with plenty
now, while a few years ago we were only able to grow enough to feed the
insects and blight. How do you account for that?"
"I can only give you what I surmise to be the case," replied the doctor.
"We were tempted here by seeing how beautiful and fruitful everything
was."
"Yes; everything but what we planted, and that tried to die out of the
way as fast as it could. Well, sir, how was that?"
"Simply because the things we planted were strange to the land. All
they wanted was time--years in which to root down to the best soil. If
we had waited longer they would have appeared as good as they are now."
"That sounds well, sir," said Griggs, "and I should like to hear a
little more about it, but I think we've got as much to think about as we
can bear to-night. What say you?"
"That I shall be thankful for a good night's rest," was the reply, and
soon after all was silent within the lonely ranch, both the lads lying
listening to the varied sounds without, for to one of them it seemed as
if all the wild creatures of the forest were holding a meeting to
inquire into the fresh invasion of a tract of land out of which they had
been driven years before, but to which they had returned upon its being
deserted, while now the question was in respect of a new invasion, and
whether those who had taken possession intended to stay.