The White Crystals Part 21

"Hum. Glad to hear it," responded Mr. Ranquist. "You're from New York, aren't you? Well, so are we, Mr. Dudley and I. Came here to sort of rest up and look around. Nice place, isn't it?"

"I think so," from Roger.

"Yes. Um. Well, Mr. Dudley and I had nothing to do so we sauntered out here."

"Is the railroad going through this place?" asked Adrian. "We heard you were railroad surveyors," he went on.

Mr. Ranquist glanced quickly at the two boys and seemed to be weighing something in his mind. Advancing toward Adrian, he said:

"Now you two young men appear to be smart and bright. If I tell you something can you keep it secret?"

"Yes, sir," chorused the two boys.

"Well, then, we are getting ready to lay out a line through here. But we don't want people to know it yet, because if they did they'd ask a good deal more for their land, which we might need, than it would be worth to us. We're willing, or that is the men who are putting the line through, are ready to pay a good price for the property, but not too much. So we came out here, without letting any one know, to look the ground over and see how it lays. Then if we like it we'll make an offer. But we don't want it talked about until we're ready to have it, that a railroad is likely to come through the valley. Do you understand?"

The boys nodded gravely.

"Now," went on Mr. Ranquist, "I like your looks, and as we need two bright, smart boys who know this part of the country well, we might like to engage you. How would you consider such a proposition?"

Adrian and Roger were silent a moment, thinking. They were wondering if they could properly accept the offer.

"It won't interfere with anything else you have to do," continued Mr.

Ranquist. "We shall want you only once in a while to guide us around these parts. What do you say?"

"How much?" asked Adrian, always practical.

"Five dollars each," said Mr. Ranquist, quickly.

"For which we're to show you around when you want us and say nothing about a railroad line coming through," stipulated the boy.

"Exactly. I don't mind you telling your folks, but no one else."

"It's a go, if Roger agrees."

"Oh, I'll agree fast enough," put in Roger.

"Then here's your money," said Mr. Ranquist, as if he feared the boys might change their minds. He drew some bills from his pocket, stripped off two crisp bank notes, and pa.s.sed five dollars each to Roger and Adrian. The boys took the cash as if they had been used to that sort of thing all their lives.

"Now," said Mr. Ranquist, "I guess we won't need you to-day, for as a matter of fact we're going back to the hotel. But can you come with us the day after to-morrow? We want to travel along this ridge, back into the hills, and we don't want to run the chance of getting lost. So can you meet us at the Cardiff Inn right after dinner?"

"I guess so," answered Adrian. "Yes, sir, we'll be there," and he slyly nudged Roger, warning him to make no answer.

Then the boys turned to go back down the hill, leaving Mr. Dudley and Mr. Ranquist to follow when they pleased. As Roger was about to go away he fancied he heard the older man remonstrating with Mr. Ranquist.

"We need those boys," he thought he heard the younger man say. "They'll come in handy, and I had to hire them. They were altogether too suspicious and knowing, and now I have thrown them off the track."

At which expression Roger wondered somewhat, and all the way home he was busy thinking of the mysterious operations of the new arrivals in Cardiff.

CHAPTER XVII

ROGER SUSPECTS

So quickly had it all happened that Roger and Adrian hardly realized they had just received what was, to them, quite a sum of money. They entered the house all excitement, after a brisk walk, and Adrian told his father how he and his cousin had been engaged as guides.

"Wa'al, I must say ye airned th' money easy," said Mr. Kimball.

"Yes, and we can get more," Adrian exclaimed. "We're to go with the men day after to-morrow, to show them the way. Say, dad, what do you s'pose they want of a railroad out here?"

"It's hard t' say what them railroad fellers is up t'," answered Mr.

Kimball. "Ye can't even tell whether they're goin' t' put a railroad through er not."

"But they said they were," a.s.serted Adrian.

"Humph!" was all his father answered, with a little snort. He was too concerned with his own matters to think about the possibility of a railroad, especially at this time.

But the news soon spread around Cardiff, in spite of the fact that the boys maintained a strict silence, that a railroad or a trolley line was to go through the valley, and the residents were all talking about the possibility of it the next day after Roger and Adrian had met the two engineers. For the secret of the cousins having been hired as guides got out somehow, though the boys did not tell, and they were the envy of their companions. The less fortunate lads of Cardiff determined to take the first opportunities of offering their services to Mr. Dudley and Mr.

Ranquist.

The day after the boys' engagement Mr. Kimball announced that a lot of brush in the vineyard needed burning, so that the ground might be cultivated. Adrian and Roger thought the task so much like play they asked to be allowed to build the fires.

Mr. Kimball was glad enough to have them undertake the task. Armed with long rakes the boys started up the hill and soon had heaped up several big piles of brush, dry leaves and twigs, which Adrian set fire to, taking care that none of the vines were scorched. A little wearied by his labors, Roger laid aside his rake, and while the flames were eating their way well into the debris, he strolled farther up the hill. It was rather a warm, pleasant day, and the woods, which stretched out before him, seemed to invite him to come in and see how the trees were putting on their full summer outfits of green leaves.

Before he realized it Roger had gone some distance from the vineyard, and only occasionally could he catch a glimpse of the smoke from the brush-wood fires. There was scarcely a sound to break the silence, save the piping of some early birds, and the boy sat down on a rock under a big chestnut tree to rest. On a fallen log near him a bright green lizard crawled out to bask in the sunshine. Then a rustling in the dried leaves on the ground caught his ear. He looked in that direction to see a snake wriggle into view. He tossed a bit of bark toward the reptile and in an instant it had disappeared in alarm. The lad drew a long, deep breath, filling his lungs with the sweet, balmy spring odor of the woods,--a smell that seemed laden with health.

"My! But that's fine!" he exclaimed.

The next minute he was startled by a sound, as if some one had stepped on and broken a tree branch. Glancing up the hill he saw, rather indistinctly, some moving body.

"I guess it's a cow," he remarked.

Then he looked more closely.

"Two cows," he added, as he noted a second form. "No, it isn't either,"

he corrected himself a moment later, "it's two men," and he rose to get a better view. "It's Mr. Dudley and Mr. Ranquist. I guess they didn't want to wait until to-morrow to go prospecting. I wonder what they're doing on Uncle Bert's hill. I guess it won't do any harm to watch and find out. If they strike gold, or decide to run a railroad here, I might as well know it. I suspect those men are after something, and they're not telling what it is either," he concluded, rather wisely. "Well, here goes for a little detective work."

Using as much caution as if he was trailing some wild and timid animal, Roger slowly made his way up the hill and through the woods in the direction the two men had taken. He trod lightly, being careful not to step on any twigs or branches, which might snap and betray his presence.

For he did not want the men to discover him. Not that he was doing anything wrong, or anything he had not a right to do, for the men were on his uncle's land, and Roger felt he should be interested in whatever they did. For a quarter of a mile he trailed after Mr. Dudley and Mr.

Ranquist, easily keeping them in sight, yet remaining hidden himself, since they seemed to have no suspicion they were being followed.

In a little hollow, about three hundred feet away from the spring which burst out of the side hill, and which served to furnish drinking water for Mr. Kimball's house, the two men came to a halt. Roger hid himself behind a big stone, somewhat above them, to watch. Mr. Ranquist drew from his valise a number of pieces of metal, which he screwed together until he had a rod about a yard long. Then, with a hammer, he proceeded to drive this downward into the earth. When it had been forced almost out of sight he screwed another section on from above and drove this down, and so on, until he had sent the slender steel rod to a depth of twenty feet into the earth. Roger noticed that the blows of the hammer, as they struck, produced no sound beyond a dull thud, which, close as he was, he could scarcely hear.

"He must have rubber on the hammer," said the boy, "or something to deaden the blows. He's afraid some one will hear him. I wonder what in the world they can be up to? I must get a little nearer, so I can listen to what they are saying."

He was a little fearful about advancing any farther as he could not tell but that the sound of his movements might come to the ears of the men, now they had stopped walking and could hear better. He looked to see if he could approach under cover, and then he spied a fallen log, extending down hill, toward the centre of the little glade, in which the men were at work on their mysterious errand.