The Peril Finders Part 46

Half-an-hour later the little train was steadily advancing, the mules making light of their loads, and proving by their playfulness--which took the form of a disposition to bite or kick every one of their fellows within reach--that they were thoroughly rested, refreshed, and ready for as much work as would be demanded of their st.u.r.dy legs.

A sharp lookout was kept to their left over the open country as the leading mule was steered, as he called it, by Griggs, close in to the high gra.s.s, which acted as a screen against which they would have been hardly seen; but nothing alarming appeared in the distance, and no footprints of man and horse other than their own in the soft soil showed that any enemy had crossed their trail to make for the hunting-grounds to their right.

But night came on ere the slow pace of the laden mules had covered the distance the explorers had got over by the previous afternoon, and there the little caravan was guided right into a sheltered valley to the borders of an elongated pool, where, well hidden from the plain, preparations were made for their next camp.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

BEAR AND BUFFALO.

Distance is illusive in the clear atmosphere of high mountain lands, and it took two days longer than had been calculated before a position well upon the slope of the giant peak was reached--a grand shelf, covered with verdure close to where a sparkling stream gushed out of a patch of rocks and made a leap of fully a hundred feet down into a rift, along which it gurgled musically beneath a rainbow-like arch of ever-changing beauty on its way to the plain below.

A more beautiful spot could not have been selected for the camp, presenting as it did shelter, shade, a comprehensive view of the country for probably a hundred miles round, and of the valleys that ran down and opened out from the mountain side into the plains, so that the presence of enemies could be made out and favourable parts selected for finding game.

But Chris was not satisfied, and Ned expressed his disapprobation plainly to Griggs.

"I thought we were going right up to the top of the peak," he said.

"This isn't more than a quarter the way."

"It's as far as we could get the mules and ponies by now," replied the American. "What do you want to go up higher for?"

"Why, to see, of course," cried Ned.

"You're a hard one to satisfy," said Griggs. "There's hundreds of times as much down yonder as you can see anyhow. Besides, do you know how it would be if you climbed higher?"

"Splendid."

"No it wouldn't," said Griggs. "It would be so cold you couldn't bear it."

"What, up there in the blazing sunshine?"

"Yes, up there in the blazing sunshine. That only lasts till sundown; after that ice would be forming in the water-bottles, while the wind would be so cold that you couldn't bear it. We should want bearskin coats," added Griggs meaningly, as he sheltered his eyes from the sun's glare.

He and the boys had climbed, after helping with the camping arrangements, some three or four hundred feet above the shelf, armed with the doctor's gla.s.s.

"We could keep ourselves warm enough, I dare say," said Ned surlily, for the ponies had been walked up the final portion of that day's journey so as to relieve them of their loads.

"Strikes me," said Griggs, "that this place will about do for a couple of weeks, and then we can get right round to the other side for a day or two to see what we can make out there."

"I should say we had better start right off there to-morrow," said Chris, after taking a comprehensive glance round. "How far can I see, do you think?"

"From here? Why, big things a hundred miles off, I dare say."

"Then it's all a failure, so far," said Chris; "there's no sign of the mountains on the map. This is not the right part."

"I didn't expect it would be," said the American coolly.

"Then why did we come?" cried Chris.

"Just to make sure, my lad. That's the sort of thing we shall have to do: keep on trying, and always expecting we are not right."

"Oh!" cried Ned impatiently.

"Ah, you may 'Oh,' my lad, but that's the way to succeed. We shall go about to hundreds of places before we've done, and out of those hundreds there's only one can be right, and it isn't natural to expect that it will be ready for us at the start. There's no hurry."

"No hurry?" cried the boy, staring.

"Not a bit. You chaps are a long way off twenty yet, and if you find the gold city before you're seventy you'll do well."

"Hark at him!" cried Chris merrily. "Griggs turned philosopher. What about you then? You're past thirty."

"Ever so much," said the American, "but I don't mind if I never find it.

This life's quite good enough for me."

"Do you mean to tell me that you don't want to find the old city?" cried Chris.

"No, of course not. I should like to find it, my lads, and be a rich man; but I shan't break my heart if we never go near the place. We shall have travelled half over America and seen plenty of the country.

That's good enough for a man who only wants to live."

"You're a rum chap, Griggs," said Chris.

"I am, my lad, but I can't help it. Now, let's see: we came up here to see what there was to be seen, and you wanted to go up higher."

"And you said we should want bearskin coats."

"To be sure I did," without moving a muscle. "Well, there's one over yonder."

"A bearskin coat?" cried Ned. "Nonsense! Bearskin coats don't grow on trees."

"Thank you for the information," said Griggs, "but tell me something else; I knew that."

"Tell us something else," cried Ned. "A bearskin coat on the mountain side! Where?"

"Over yonder, I tell you, with the gentleman it belongs to wearing it.

A splendid fit too, I should say, but it's too far off to make sure."

The boys involuntarily c.o.c.ked their pieces, as Chris said excitedly--

"A man in a bearskin coat--an Indian?"

"Oh no. Can't you see him?"

"No! Where?"

"Look yonder across that bare slope that glistens in the sun as if the rock were granite."

"Yes, I see where you mean--a little higher up than we are."