HAUNTED NO LONGER.
This time Julian laid out all his strength on the windlass; but the
bucket resisted, and he knew that Jack's weight was safely within it.
Presently his head and shoulders appeared above the pit, whereupon
Julian slipped a bucket over the crank, and in a few minutes Jack was
safe above ground. To tumble him out of the bucket and dash into his
face some water that he dipped up from the stream with his hat
occupied but little of his time, and almost at once Jack opened his
eyes and looked about him.
"Well, sir, you saw them, did you not?" asked Julian, with a smile.
"I tell you, you wouldn't have smiled if you had been in my place,"
replied Jack. "That thing looked awful as it came at me."
"What thing?"
"There is some animal down there who is not going to let us work this
mine if he can help it," said Jack, feeling around with his right hand
to examine his shoulder. "As I stepped into the bucket with one foot
he jumped--my goodness! I don't like to say how far it was; but I saw
his eyes shining green in the darkness, and just as I pulled on him he
sprang at me, dug his claws into my shoulder, and pulled me out. I
thought I was gone up, sure; then all was blank to me. Did you see
him?"
"I did not see anything," said Julian. "When the bucket came up
easily, as though you were not in it, I went down after you; but I did
not see a thing. What was it?"
"You tell. It was some kind of an animal that I never saw before. And
didn't he make a howling just before he jumped! I wish you would look
at my shoulder; it smarts awfully."
Jack could handle himself well enough now, and it was no trouble for
him to roll over on his face and give Julian a chance to view his
wounds. His shirt was torn completely off, and underneath were four
scratches which went the whole length of his back and spent
themselves on the thick waistband of his trousers, which they had
ripped in two. Very little blood came from the wounds, and Julian
assured him that they were not deep enough to cause him any
inconvenience.
"You must have killed him before he got to you," said Julian. "A bear
could not jump that far, and if it were a panther--why, you have done
something to be proud of. You have done it anyway, for you have
cleared up something that scared those two men away from here."
"Do you really think so?" asked Jack.
"I know it."
"But think of the howling he made! It seemed as if the pit was full of
bears and panthers, and I didn't know which way to look. Have you got
all the blood off? Then let us go down there and see about it. We
can't work our mine with those fellows in there. If I killed him at
once, how did he come to jump so far? And then he took himself off
after clawing me; that is something I don't understand."
"You have to shoot one of those fellows through the brain or in the
spine, in order to throw him in his tracks. Did you have a fair chance
at his heart?"
"I don't know. I simply shot a little ways below that green spot, in
the darkness, and the next thing I knew I didn't know anything."
"Because, if you had a fair chance at his heart, a wild animal will
sometimes run a good way before he drops. He is down there somewhere,
and I'll bet you will find him. But, Jack, there are others that we
must get rid of before we own this mine."
"What do you mean by that? I was in hopes I had shot the last one of
them."
"Well, you did not. While I was working over you I heard those moans
repeated. That proves others are there--don't it?"
"I am going down to clear it up," persisted Jack, who had got upon his
feet by this time and started toward the lean-to. "Hold on till I get
cartridges to put in this revolver. I used to grumble at you because
you spent so much money in Denver, last winter, in shooting at a
mark, but I begin to believe you were right and that I was wrong. If I
had been as awkward with this shooting-iron as I used to be, you would
have got the whole of that hundred thousand dollars to spend for
yourself."
"Don't speak about it!" exclaimed Julian, who wondered what he should
do if Jack was taken away from him. "I need somebody to grumble at me,
and you will do as well as anybody. Are you not going to put on
another shirt?"
"Not much, I ain't. Maybe I did not kill that animal, whatever it was
and he will come for me again. Now, you hold up and let me go," said
Jack, when he saw Julian place one foot in the bucket."
"I am a better shot than you are, and if I pull on one of those ghosts
you will see him drop," returned Julian, drawing the other foot in.
"Take hold of the windlass and let me down easy. If I halloo, you must
lose no time in hauling me up."
Jack was obliged to submit to this arrangement, and he carefully
lowered Julian out of sight. When the bucket stopped he seized the
rope, and in a moment more stood beside him.
"I am glad it is animals that are interfering with us, for I am not at
all afraid of them," declared Jack. "Now, where is that other sound
you heard?"
The question had hardly been formed on Jack's lips when that sound
came to their ears--not faint and far off, as was the one that caused
Julian to handle his revolver, but louder and clearer, as though the
animal that made it was close upon them. Sometimes they thought it was
in front, and they held their revolvers ready to shoot at a moment's
warning, and then, again, it sounded behind them; and in a second more
it appeared as if the rocks on each side of them concealed the enemy
that was uttering those startling sounds.
"It is the echo--that's what it is," said Julian. "There is only one
animal in here, and we can't shoot him any too quick."
Julian, aided by his lamp, led the way cautiously along the
subterranean passage, which would have been level but for the
carelessness or haste of the men who had worked the pit before them,
peering into every little cavity he saw, until at last he stopped
suddenly and pointed his revolver at something that lay upon the
floor.
"What is it, Julian?" whispered Jack, pressing eagerly to his side.
"Well, sir, you have done it now," answered Julian, bending over and
examining the animal as well as he could by the light of his lamp.
"This is the thing that frightened the other two men away."
"What is it?" repeated Jack. "A panther?"
"No, sir; this animal will make two of the biggest panthers you ever
saw. It is a lion!"
"In America?" said Jack, in astonishment.
"It is what the miners call them, anyway. When we get it into the
bucket I will let you have the crank, and we will see if it does not
weigh almost as much as you do. This animal is a mother, and her
babies are crying for her."
Jack was surprised when he saw what a monster animal his lucky shot
had put out of the way, for he did not lay any claim to his skill as a
marksman in making that shot. He must have shot her plumb through the
heart, or else she would not have died so quickly. She looked as big
as a yearling, marked for all the world like the panthers he had seen
in the shows which he had attended; but it was her size more than
anything else which impressed him. It was wonderful, too, what a
change the sight of this animal made in Jack. His courage all came
back to him, and after taking a hasty glance at his trophy he took the
lead and pressed on toward the farther end of the passage. Every few
feet he found what the miners called "false diggings"--that is, places
that they had dug, either on the right-hand side or the left, to see
if the vein they were following turned that way. In one of these
"false diggings" Jack stopped and pointed silently before him. Julian
looked over Jack's shoulder, and saw that the miner had dug through
the embankment there and into a cave which extended through into the
gulch--the boys could see that by the little streaks of light which
came in at the other end. On a slight shelf which formed one side of
the passageway some leaves had been gathered, and in this bed were two
cubs about the size of full-grown cats, while a third had crawled out
and was trying, in his clumsy way, to follow his mother into the mine.
The little thing was wild, and set up a furious spitting as the boys
approached.
"These things account for the noise you heard," remarked Jack, picking
up the cub and beating its head against the floor.
"What made you do that, Jack?" exclaimed Julian. "We ought to save the
young ones alive."
"Well, suppose we do; what will we raise them on? It is true that we
might tell the milkman to leave us an extra quart or two to feed them
on, for such little things can't eat bacon and hard-tack. Now, after
we get through--"
"By gracious, Jack--look out!" exclaimed Julian, suddenly. "The old
man is coming home to see what's the matter with his young ones!"
Jack dropped the cub he had picked up, and which he was about to serve
as he had the first, and, looking toward the farther end of the
passageway, saw that the light was shut off by the head and shoulders
of another monstrous lion that had stopped when he discovered the
boys. In an instant two revolvers were aimed at the white spot on his
chest.
"Be sure you make as good a shot as you did before," whispered Julian,
whose face was as pale as Jack's was when he pulled him out of the
pit. "It's a matter of life and death with us."
The revolvers cracked in quick succession, raising an echo that almost
deafened them. Without a moment's delay they fired again, then threw
themselves prone upon the floor of the cave, for they saw the lion
coming. He had evidently got all ready for a spring, and when the
first two bullets struck him he made it, jumping over them and landing
in the pit beyond. The moment he touched the ground two more balls
went into him, and then the boys jumped to their feet; for they did
not want the lion to spring upon them while lying down. But the
animal made no effort to recover his feet; he was too badly hurt for
that. He struggled frantically, springing from the ground as high as
the boys' heads, and his motions were so quick and rapid that there
was no chance to shoot him again; but this lasted only for a few
seconds. His struggles grew weaker, and he soon lay upon the floor,
stone dead.
"There, sir," said Julian, who was the first to speak; "this is a
haunted mine no longer. Our little 44-caliber revolvers did as good
work as Banta would have done with his Winchester."
"Whew! I am glad it is all over, and that we were not frightened out
of coming here. I don't believe in ghosts, anyway."
"How do you account for that man in the mine up the country who always
gets farther and farther away every time anybody tries to touch him?"
asked Julian.
"I believe that story originated in the minds of some miners who were
afraid to go there. And as for their shooting at him, I don't take any
stock in that, either. Now, I will finish what I was going to say
when the old gentleman came in and interrupted me. After I have killed
these cubs, we will go to work and fill this cave so full of the rocks
which some of the miners have left scattered about that there won't be
a chance for any other animal to make a commotion in this mine."
The work of dispatching the cubs was very soon accomplished, and then
the boys wanted to get the lions above ground, so that they could see
how they looked. But when they undertook to lift the "old gentleman,"
to carry him to the bucket, they found they had more than they could
do; so they each took hold of a hind leg and dragged him to the shaft.
When they came to put him in, they saw there was not room enough for
the cubs, for the bucket would not hold any more.
"I'll go up and haul the old fellow out," said Jack. "I tell you, he
is big enough to scare anybody--is he not?"
"Yes," answered Julian, with a laugh; "and if we had been frightened
away, and somebody else had found out that they were lions, and not
unearthly spirits, it would have been all over Denver inside of a
month."
Jack, who said he thought that was so, seized the rope and began
working his way toward the top. Then the bucket began to move, and
presently Julian saw it go out over the top. In a few minutes Jack
came down again, and they got the mother of the family ready to be
hoisted up. Julian went up this time, tumbled the lion out beside his
mate, and let down the bucket for the dead cubs and Jack, who, when he
stepped out, found Julian with his hat off and drawing his
shirt-sleeves across his forehead.
"I tell you, Jack, if the dirt you send up weighs as much as these
ghosts did, the one who pulls it out will have the hardest part of the
work," said Julian. "Now let us sit down and take a good look at
them."
The longer the boys looked, the larger seemed to grow the animals that
had created so great an uproar in the country for miles around. They
regretted they had not brought a tape-line with them, that they might
take measurements; but they came to one conclusion--if they found an
animal like either of those in the mountains, they would give it a
wide berth. They had read of encounters with them by men, and during
their stay in Denver had listened to some thrilling stories, told by
miners, of their fierceness, and they decided that those men had more
pluck than they had.
"Let us take the skins off, and by that time it will be night," said
Julian. "We can fill up the hole to-morrow."
"I don't know how to go to work at it--do you?" asked Jack, taking off
his hat and scratching his head. "I never did such a piece of business
in my life."
"We are not going to take them off with the intention of selling them;
we are going to show them to the miners. If we tell them our story
without anything to show for it, they will think we are trying to
shoot with a long bow. If we make a few holes in the skins by a slip
of our knives, who cares?"
The boys went to work on the cubs first, one holding the hind legs and
the other doing the skinning, and they got along so well with them
that they went to work on the big ones with more confidence. By the
time it grew dark the skins were removed, and the carcasses were
dragged away and thrown into the ravine. Then the boys began supper
with light hearts. The mystery of the haunted mine had been unearthed,
and Julian and Jack were ready to dig up the treasure--that is, if
there was any there waiting for them.