MAROONED
Billy's announcement seemed to strike a chill of terror to the hearts
of his chums. They stood there, at the mouth of the treasure cave, and
looked at the water below them--a vast lake that was slowly growing in
size, and increasing in depth as the river backed up against the dam,
the gates of which had been, in some manner, closed.
"It--it can't be possible!" gasped Andy.
"But it is!" cried Frank. "Here's the lake, and here we are on Golden
Peak, and there's no way of getting off!"
"Unless we swim," put in Billy, "and that's no easy job, with the
horses----"
"And the gold," added Andy. "What are we going to do?"
No one could answer him. Their situation was desperate, and yet, after
the first feeling of fear and terror, the boys looked at the situation
more calmly. They were not the sort of lads to give up easily.
"We'll find a way out; or, rather, a way off," said Frank, after a
bit. "It's queer that this should happen, and, I suppose, if we hadn't
been so busy getting out the gold, and stayed in the cave, we would
have noticed the water rising, and we could have gotten away in time."
"That's right," agreed Billy. "There's been some mistake, I'm sure.
Uncle Richfield must have thought we had left the Peak, and closed the
gates. You know we did stay here longer than we said we would."
"Yes, but he was not to close the dam until he got word from us,"
declared Frank "And we didn't send any word. How----"
"No, but someone must have!" cried Billy, now much excited. "I begin to
see it now. Those fellows--Shackmiller's gang--they knew we were here.
Probably they've been spying on us all the while, though we could see
no trace of them. They could not find the treasure themselves, and they
decided to leave, for they must have realized that the game was up.
Then they had it in for us, and hit on this revenge. They sent word to
Uncle Richfield that we had left, as we said we would, and he closed
the gate."
"But how could they have known we were going to send any word?" asked
Andy.
"We talked of it at the dam, where all the men were working," went on
Billy; "and unless I'm mistaken Shackmiller must have had a spy or two
among the construction men. It would have been easy enough to do that."
"But would your uncle accept word that we had left from someone he did
not know?" asked Frank.
"Probably the man, whoever he was, never saw my uncle at all,"
explained Billy. "He may have just ridden up to the dam and called to
the foreman that we were off Golden Peak, and that the water could be
backed up. We didn't say we would send word by any special messenger,
you know."
"That's right," agreed Andy. "It could have been done that way. Well,
we're in for it now, all right. What a lot of water!"
It was indeed a large lake that they were gazing over, and it was
constantly growing larger. The river, augmented by the cloudburst, and
by the continued heavy rains, had swollen greatly in size, and, in
consequence, the water backed up much more rapidly than would otherwise
have been the case.
"Well, what's to be done?" asked Andy. "We can't stay here--that is,
not much longer. The hill will be under water in a few hours more."
"That's true," said Frank. "We've got to do something, and that soon."
It was curious to see now how the Racer boys had, in a measure, taken
charge of things. Now that an emergency had arisen--one that did
not have to deal directly with range matters, with which Billy was
familiar--his chums came to the fore, as they had often done in times
past.
"What can we do?" asked Billy, half gloomily. "I don't believe we can
swim that distance. It must be miles to the nearest shore."
"Fully three," said Frank. "Yes, it would be a pretty long swim, though
we might do it. But I have a better plan than that."
"What is it?" asked Billy, eagerly.
"Well, there are two things we can do," went on the elder Racer lad.
"In the first place we must go to the highest part of the Peak, the one
that will be the longest out of water. Then I want to see just how fast
the water is rising, and we'll know how much longer we have."
"But that isn't getting us away from here," said Andy, impatiently.
"We're marooned on Golden Peak. What is to be done?"
"I'm coming to that," said his brother, calmly. "We can do two things.
One is to make a signal fire on the highest point of the Peak. The
smoke will be seen at the ranch, for they must be watching the forming
of the lake. So get some wood from the cave and we'll climb to the top,
and make the signal fire."
"What's the other thing?" asked Billy, as Frank paused.
"The other thing is to cut down some trees and make a little raft that
we can float on until we're rescued, after this hill is under water."
"But the horses and burros," spoke Billy. "What about them?"
"They'll have to take their chances," replied Frank. "They may be able
to swim to shore. We'll have to save ourselves."
"And the gold," added Andy, quickly. "Don't forget the treasure of
Golden Peak."
"We're not likely to," answered Frank, in a low voice. "It came near
being the end of us--and may yet," he added. "Come on," he cried, more
cheerfully. "Get to the top, and start the fire. It ought to smoke well
with all this rain."