THE TWO FUGITIVES.
It will be remembered that when Buffalo Bill and Doctor Dick rode away
from the caved-in mine and crushed cabin of the two gold-hunters in the
Grand Canyon, there were human eyes following their movements that they
little dreamed were upon them.
Gazing at them from a hiding-place half a mile away were two men whose
faces showed much anxiety as they saw the scout and the gold king moving
about their quarters, when they had believed themselves hidden from all
search by friend or foe.
Those two were Andrew Seldon and Lucas Langley.
Their escape had been miraculous, from being buried in the mine beneath
the cliff, and they had established for themselves new quarters up the
Grand Canyon a few miles away from their former home.
This new camping-place was more secluded than the former one, and
approached by a narrow ridge that no one would believe a horse could
pass along, for in places it was only eighteen inches wide.
But Andrew Seldon had gone first along it on foot, and found beyond, up
in the depths of a large canyon opening into the mightier one, a perfect
garden spot and scene of beauty.
A crystal stream trickled down a lofty precipice and flowed through the
canyon, and in its bed glittered grains of gold innumerable.
Back under the shadows of the towering cliffs there were found veins of
precious metal giving promise of rich mines.
There were trees growing luxuriously in this nature's park, velvety
grass covering acres of meadow-land, wild fruits that were delicious,
and everything to make this home a most charming one.
They first made the effort to get their horses across the narrow ridge,
upon either side of which was an abyss a quarter of a mile in depth,
seamed with ravines, and looking like the craters of defunct volcanoes.
The first horse tried, Andrew Seldon's own riding-animal, followed his
master without hesitation along the dizzy, awful pathway.
Turning, Seldon led him back again, and then the other animals followed
slowly, and though nervously, yet without accident.
They were repaid for their fright when turned loose upon the acres of
luxuriant grass in the valley.
A fence of poles made a barrier across the narrow entrance of the
valley, and so the horses were allowed to roam at will.
A stout cabin was next built, and the two men having made themselves
comfortable for the winter, were ready to begin their search for gold,
feeling safe once more in their retreat, for who would believe that they
had crossed that narrow ridge to find a hiding-place beyond?
And here these two men, so strangely met, with mysterious lives, and
both in hiding from the world, settled down to win a fortune from the
generous earth, to earn riches that would make them comfortable in their
latter years far from the scenes that had known them in other days and
to which they dared not return.
Each day they worked several hours in their gold-hunting, and then one
of them would take his gun and go in search of game, while the other
would do the chores about their cabin.
It was upon one of these hunting expeditions one day that Andrew Seldon
found himself belated from having pursued his game much farther than he
had thought.
It was some miles back to camp and the sun had long since ceased to send
its rays down into the depths of the mighty chasm of the Grand Canyon.
He started back, with his game swung up on his back, and the shadows
rapidly deepening about him.
As he neared his old destroyed home he stopped suddenly, for across the
canyon a light flashed before his gaze.
"It is a firelight as sure as I live," he muttered.
"What does it, what can it, mean?"
He stood like one dazed by the sight for some time, and then slowly fell
from his lips the words:
"It can mean but one thing--_that some one has come into the canyon_."
After a moment more of silent thought he said almost cheerily:
"Ah! it is Lucas."
But again his voice changed as he added:
"No, he dreads the spot where he was so nearly buried alive and will not
go there. Whoever it is, he is a stranger. I must know, for if they have
come here to remain, if they are our foes we will be forewarned and
hence forearmed.
"I will at once solve the mystery, for I had hoped never to behold a
human face here other than Lucas Langley's and my own," and the
gold-hunter walked away in the direction of the firelight which had so
startled him.
He went cautiously, for he knew well the danger if he was discovered,
and the builders of the camp-fire proved to be foes.
He knew the locality well, and that he could approach within a hundred
yards of the fire, and discover just what there was to be seen.
Arriving within an eighth of a mile of the spot he halted, laid aside
his game and rifle, and then moved forward from rock to rock, tree to
tree, armed only with his revolvers.
He now saw that there were three fires, two near together and one a
couple of hundred feet apart and off to itself.
The scene of the camp was a small canyon near his old home and on the
trail leading to it. There was gold in the canyon, for he had discovered
it there and taken some away, while he had marked it as his claim, it
having been already staked as one of the finds and claims of the real
Andrew Seldon.
In truth, there were a dozen such claims in the Grand Canyon found by
Andrew Seldon, all of them paying finds.
Having reached a point within a hundred yards of the camp-fires, Seldon
leaned over a rock and began to survey the scene.
The three fires were burning brightly, and beyond the light fell upon a
number of horses corralled in the canyon, where there was grass and
water. There were brush shelters near, three in number, and about the
fires in front of them were gathered a number of men.
Counting them, Andrew Seldon found that there were eight in sight.
There appeared to be no guard kept, and the camp was certainly not a
very new one, apparently having been made there several weeks before.
Emboldened by his discovery, the gold-hunter crept nearer and nearer,
and then could see that the men were all masked.
This struck him as being a very remarkable circumstance, indeed, since
they were clad like miners, some of them wearing beards that came below
their masks. All were armed thoroughly.
They were eating their supper as Andrew Seldon looked at them.
Gaining a point of observation still nearer, the gold-hunter obtained a
view of the camp-fire apart from the others. A comfortable little cabin
was just behind the fire, and a rustic bench had been made near it.
A blanket hung over the door of the tiny cabin, and about the fire was
the evidence of a supper recently eaten, for a cup, tin plate, and
knives, with the remains of a meal, were upon a rock that served as a
table.
Upon the rustic seat sat one whose presence there was a great surprise
to Andrew Seldon.
"By Heaven, it is a woman!" he almost cried aloud in his amazement.
Then he determined to get a still nearer view, and after surveying the
position, he decided that he could do so by passing around to the edge
of the cliff and creeping along it to a point not sixty feet away.
As he, after very cautious work, reached the point he sought, some forty
feet from the one at the camp-fire, gazing upon her he muttered to
himself:
"It is a young and beautiful girl, and why is she here with those
strange men? Who is she, and what is this mystery? I must solve it."
He noted that the single fire was just around a bend of the canyon, and
that the men were camped below her.
"This looks as though she was a prisoner. But how did they find this
spot, and how dare they venture down that dangerous trail?
"Well, Andrew Seldon the real did it, I did it, Lucas Langley also, and
Buffalo Bill and the comrade with him were two more to make the
venture, so why not these men?
"But why are they masked, and what does it mean that they have that
young girl in their midst? Beyond doubt she is a captive, and yet I dare
not communicate with her. It would betray my presence and I would lose
all, perhaps my life.
"They do not know of my presence here in the Grand Canyon, and they will
hardly find our camp, at least as long as they find gold where they are.
Well, I will return to my home and tell Langley of my strange
discovery."
After so musing, and gazing the while at the girl, Andrew Seldon was
about to leave his position, when he saw a horseman ride into the lower
camp. The horse seemed to have been hard ridden, for he came in with
lowered head, and that the newcomer was in authority there was shown by
the men rising as he approached the fire, while one of them took care of
his horse.
"I will see what this arrival means," muttered Andrew Seldon, and he
kept his position among the rocks.