The Haunted Mine Part 37

Having paved the way for the departure of himself and companions, Bob joined them and led the way into his own cabin. They seated themselves close together, for they did not want to talk loud enough to be heard by anyone who was pa.s.sing their camp.

"Well, they have it!" exclaimed Claus, who was so excited that he could not sit still.

"And it is gold, too," declared Jake. "Banta says so, and that is enough."

"In the morning, after we get breakfast," said Bob, "we'll hitch up and take the back trail toward Denver. We will go away from the haunted mine, and that will give color to what I told them a while ago."

"What if you should chance to miss your way?" asked Claus.

"You can't lose me in these mountains; I have prospected all over them, and I have seen where the haunted mine is located a hundred times. What a pity it was that I did not stay there. Sixty thousand dollars! Jake, if we had that sum of money we would be rich."

Jake did not say anything--that is, anything that would do to put on paper. He stretched himself out on his blanket and swore softly to himself, so that n.o.body but his companions could hear him.

"That will be three thousand three hundred dollars apiece," said Claus, who did not like the way that Bob and Jake left him out entirely. "Remember, I am to have a third of it."

"Of course; and it will be more than that. The boys will have some time to do more digging, and maybe they'll have another bagful. I understood you to say that the boys were pretty plucky."

"You may safely say that," replied Claus. "The way they stood up against those lions, when they did not know what was onto them, is abundant proof of that. You will have to go easy when you tackle them, or some of you will get more than you want."

The three continued to talk in this way until they grew tired and fell asleep--that is, all except Claus, who rolled and twisted on his blanket for a good while before he pa.s.sed into the land of Nod. But he was out before daybreak and busy with breakfast, while the others brought up the animals and packed them for their journey. There was only one man who came near them, and that was Banta, who wanted to make sure they were not going toward the haunted mine.

"Well, boys, are you going to leave us?" he inquired. "Where are you going?"

"Not giving you a short answer, we don't care much _where_ we go,"

replied Bob. "There is nothing here for us, and we will go elsewhere.

We are going to take the back track."

"Are you not deciding on this matter suddenly?"

"We determined on it yesterday. We decided to go up to the haunted mine if you came back with a favorable report of the condition of things, but you say the lead is played out, and of course that knocks us. Wherever we go, we can't find a much worse place than this."

"Well, boys, I wish you luck, and we'll all go away from here before a great while."

"Why are you so anxious to find out about where we are going?" asked Bob.

"Because I wanted to remind you to keep away from that mine up the gully," answered Banta, looking hard at Bob while he spoke. "The boys have that mine all to themselves, and we are going to stand by them."

"We have no intention of going near that haunted mine," a.s.serted Bob, rather sullenly. "If those boys have gold, let them keep it."

"All right! Then I have nothing further to say to you."

So saying, Banta turned on his heel and walked away. There was nothing insulting in what he said, but Bob and his companions knew that he was in earnest about it. They all kept watch of him as long as he remained in sight, and then looked at each other with a broad grin on their faces.

"I guess Banta didn't make anything by trying to pump me," said Bob.

"When we get a mile or two down the gully, we'll save what little provisions we want, push our horses over the bluff----"

"What do we want to do that for?" exclaimed Claus, in great amazement.

"Can't we turn them loose?"

"Yes, and have them come back here and join the old bell-mare," said Jake, in disgust. "We have to be in a hurry about what we do, for we must get a long start of the men here. If our nags appeared among the other horses here, the miners would know we had been fooling them and would start for the haunted mine at once."

"Couldn't we tie them up?" asked Claus; "or, we could shoot them. That would be an easier way than pushing them over the bluff."

"But there's the report our pistols would make," replied Bob, turning fiercely upon Claus. "The easiest way is the best. Now, if we have everything we want, let us dig out from here."

The men in the camp saw them when they mounted their horses and started down the gully toward Denver, but there was not one who shouted a farewell after them. When they disappeared from view, Banta drew a long breath of relief.

"It is just as well that they took themselves off before we had a chance to tell them that their room was better than their company. I do not like the way they have been acting since they have been here."

CHAPTER XXVIII.

AN INHUMAN ACT.

"I'll bet no men ever went away from a camp before without somebody said good-bye to them," said Jake. "They don't care where we go, or what luck we have, provided we don't go near the haunted mine. If they will just stay that way until to-morrow, they can all come on at once, if they have a mind to."

Claus was the soberest man in the party. He was waiting and watching for that bluff at which their faithful steeds were to give up their lives to make it possible for their owners to get away with the amount they expected to raise at the haunted mine. There was something cold-blooded about this, and Claus could not bring himself to think of it without shivering all over.

"I don't see why you can't tie them there," Claus ventured to say; "they won't make any fuss until we are safely out of the way. It looks so inhuman, to kill them."

"Look here!" said Bob, so fiercely that Claus resolved he would not say anything more on the subject--"if you don't like the way we are managing this business, you can just go your way, and we'll go ours."

"But you can't go yet," interrupted Jake; "we are not going to have you go back to Dutch Flat and tell the men there what we are going to do. You will stay with us until we get that money."

"Of course he will," a.s.sented Bob. "When we get through with that haunted mine we'll go off into the mountains, and then you'll be at liberty to go where you please."

"Of course I shall stay with you," said Claus, not a little alarmed by the threat thus thrown out. Then he added to himself, "I reckon I played my cards just right. If I can keep them from searching me, I'll come out at the big end of the horn, no matter what happens to them."

For the next hour Claus held his peace; but he noticed that his horse turned his head and looked down the gully as if he feared they were not going the right away. He did not remember that he had come that route before, but concluded that Bob was gradually leaving the trail behind them, and was veering around to get behind the camp at Dutch Flat. Then the mule which bore their pack-saddle began to be suspicious of it, too, for he threw up his head and gave utterance to a bray so long and loud that it awoke a thousand echoes among the mountains.

"Shut up!" exclaimed Jack, jerking impatiently at his halter. "I hope that bluff is not far away. We'll soon put a stop to your braying when we get there."

In another hour they came upon the bluff, one side of which was bounded by a deep ravine that seemed to extend down into the bowels of the earth, and the other was hemmed in by lofty mountains which rose up so sheer their tops seemed lost in the clouds above. Here again the mule became suspicious, for, in spite of the jerks which Jake gave at his halter, he set up another bray that sounded as if the mountains were full of mules.

"Hold fast to him, Jake, until I take his saddle off," said Bob, hastily dismounting from his horse; "I can soon stop that, if you can't. There--his pack is off. Take him by the foretop--don't let him get away from you. Now, then, look at you!"

The mule got away in spite of all Jake's efforts to hold fast to him.

The moment the bridle was out of his mouth he dodged the grab that Jake made for his foretop, and with a flourish of his heels and another long bray made for the gully by which he had entered the bluff. The horses made a vain attempt to follow him, and the animal on which Claus was mounted seemed determined to go away, but he was finally stopped by his rider before he reached the gully. Bob and Jake were fairly beside themselves with anger. Bob stamped up and down so close to the ravine that the least misstep would have sent him over the brink, and Jake sat down on the ground and swore softly to himself.

"I tell you, this won't do!" said Bob, coming back to the horses. "Let us put them over without the least delay; and, mind you, we won't take their bridles off at all. That mule will be in camp in less than an hour, so we must make tracks. Let their saddles go, too."

The men went to work at pushing the horses over into the ravine as if they were in earnest. First Bob's horse went; then Jake's; and finally they took Claus's bridle out of his hands and shoved his horse over, too. Claus did not see any of this work. The animals went over without making any effort at escape beyond putting out their feet and trying to push themselves away from the brink; but the miners got behind them, and all their attempts to save themselves amounted to nothing.

He heard the horses when they crashed through the branches of the trees below him, and then all was silent.

"What else could we do?" exclaimed Bob, who thought Claus looked rather solemn over it. "Dutch Flat is not a mile from here, and some one there would have heard their whinnying. I am sorry to do it, too, but when there is ten thousand dollars in sight, I don't stop at anything. Now pitch that mule's things over, also, and then we'll get away from here."