THE WESTERN SHORE.
The departure of Shasta gave rise to all manner of doubt and
speculation. None of them believed he meditated bidding the party
good-by until he went through the ceremony of shaking hands. This
settled the matter, and they could have no cause for hope of seeing him
again.
"That must have been a party of his people," said Howard, "or he would
not have taken the pains to help us out of sight."
"At any rate, he has done us good service," replied Elwood. "I don't
know what would have become of us but for him."
They had not yet begun using their paddle, but were drifting with the
current, debating upon their course of action.
"I think I understand why he left us," added Howard, after a moment's
pause.
Tim and Elwood looked up in his face.
"I think we have passed through most of the danger, and he thought we
were just as safe without him as with him. Don't you see, Elwood, that
we have come a good ways down the river, and we must be near some
settlement. I think there is a place called Soledad somewhere along this
river, but whether on the eastern or western bank I cannot tell."
"It is a good ways off, I should say fifty miles, and is on the western
bank."
"How comes it that _you_ are so well informed?" asked Howard, repeating
the question that had been asked him by his cousin when on the steamer.
"It is only accidentally that I know that. A few weeks ago I was
comparing an old and new geography and noticed what different views they
gave of the western part of our country. The old maps had the
Buenaventura so wrong in every particular that I learned considerable
about the true one, which you know is called Salinas by most people."
"If we are very careful, I think we can get home without trouble; but
although there must be white people--settlers and miners--in these
parts, still they are so scattered that we are less likely to see them
than we are the Indians."
"Boys," said Tim O'Rooney, who had not let his pipe go out since
morning. "Shall I give yez some good advice?"
Both expressed their eagerness to receive it.
"There bees plenty of the rid gintlemen yet in this counthry, and we
haven't got beyant them. If we goes paddling in this canoe when the sun
is shining overhead, some of 'em will see us, and if we don't put into
shore they'll put out after us--that they will."
"What is it that you propose, then?"
"That we turns the night into day, and slaaps and smokes and meditates
by sunlight, and does our traveling by moonlight, or what is bether,
without any light at all."
This proposal suited the boys exactly. It was so plainly dictated by
common sense that the wonder was they had not thought of it long before.
Elwood took the paddle in his hand and held it poised.
"Which way--east or west?"
Howard pointed to the left bank.
"That is the side where _they_ are," replied Elwood, referring to the
Indian party they had passed.
"And where _he_ is," meaning their good friend, the Pah Utah.
"To the left--to the left," said Tim. "Didn't I git into the worst
throuble of me life--always barring the repulse me Bridget give me--by
hunting in them parts?"
Elwood delayed no longer, but plied the oars with a dexterity that
showed his experience had not been lost upon him.
"You understand it quite well," said Howard approvingly.
"Yes; but my arms ache terribly."
"Ah! here we are."
The prow of the canoe moved as silently and easily into the undergrowth
as if it were water, and our friends at a step passed from every portion
of it to dry land.
As they intended remaining in their present quarters until darkness,
they took some pains to select a suitable place. They finally hit upon a
spot, on an incline of the river bank, and about a dozen yards distant.
Here the grass was green and velvety, and the wood so thick that they
had little fear of discovery, unless by some who had seen them land and
took the trouble to hunt them out.
It was about noon when they landed, and as they had all spent a wakeful
night, their first proceeding was so to arrange themselves as to enjoy a
quiet sleep. Terror was placed on duty as sentinel, and all lay down
with a sense of security to which they had been strangers in a long
time.
As usual, the boys were the first to awake, doing so almost at the same
moment. They saw by the sun that the afternoon was about half gone, but
they were not troubled from hunger, as their morning meal may be said to
have been their midday one, and had been one of those royal ones whose
memory is apt to linger a long time with us, especially if we are boys.
"This is tiresome," said Elwood, yawning and stretching his limbs, "let
us take a tramp of discovery."
The proposal suited Howard, although prudence told him to remain where
he was and keep his friend with him. But the restraint was so irksome
that he was all too willing a listener to the persuasions of his
companion.
"I noticed there was quite a high range of hills just back of us," added
Elwood. "Let's take a look at them."
"Is it prudent?" and Howard only repeated audibly the question that his
conscience had just asked him.
"Prudent? Of course it is, if we only take good care of ourselves."
"Shall we awake Tim before we go?"
"No; he will sleep until to-morrow morning."
"We must leave Terror to watch him then, for it wouldn't do for him to
lie alone and asleep."
"Of course not."
The Newfoundland, which had risen to his feet, was told to remain on
guard, and the boys started off on a ramble that was to be a most
eventful one to them.