Unexplored! Part 14

But the inky stream had once more become placid, and skirting the muddy ledge alongside, they threaded their way through arches of varying height till finally the roof was so low that they had to go on hands and knees.

Then the bank became so narrow that Ace slipped off into the unknown depths. To his surprise, his feet touched bottom. Moreover, the water was not so cold as he had imagined. (It was about the same temperature as the air).

"Come on in, the water's fine!" he encouraged Ted. "Do you know, we could swim this if we had to, and don't you think it must lead out?"

"Stands to reason. But how about our candles?"

"Hold 'em in your teeth. Haven't you ever seen any one smoke a cigarette when he was in swimming? It's a stunt, but----"

"Ever tried it?"

"Sure. Have you?"

"No." And the deepening water soon proved that he could not keep his candle going. But Ace managed it for a few strokes. Then they had to swim in darkness. An increasing roar told them that they were nearing white water, possibly the outlet, and just as the current from a branch stream would have caught them, they felt an overhanging ledge and scrambled up on it, Ace lending a hand to his less proficient chum.

From the far end of the tunnel shone a faint glow, as through a sheet of water! They had reached a cave mouth.

Creeping cautiously along the ledge, they approached the light. From its pallor and from the roaring of the rapids they at first thought they were behind a waterfall. But a closer approach showed them that it shone through leaves of plants that grew just outside, where they over-arched the escaping stream (gooseberries, they later found, and other vines that completely hid the exit of the stream).

It was a ticklish proposition getting out along the rock ledge, which narrowed to a mere rough crack into which they could dig the sides of their soles. But by holding hands and clinging with all their might, while they propitiated the law of gravity by leaning their weight against the wall, they slowly scaled a way above the churning stream, and so to where they could cling to the th.o.r.n.y bushes.

It was night. The light had been the moon shining straight into the cave mouth. But where they were, on what side of the ridge, they could not tell.

They were safe, though! Saved from the blind horror of being lost in the cave! But wet and chilled to the marrow now in the night wind that blew down canyon, famished, footsore, and aching for sleep. Still how wonderfully fresh and perfumed everything smelled after the cave.

"Got any matches in your waterproof match box?" asked Ted with chattering teeth, throwing himself flat on the up side of a rock that would keep him from rolling. "Why, this is funny!" for there was no sign of the stream a few yards beyond the cave mouth. They were at the head of some former rock slide, and the stream simply disappeared, percolating underneath it to its destination, (wherever that might be).

But an exclamation from Ace caused him to look in the direction of his pointing arm. In the canyon below them a bon-fire burst into bloom. "The folks?" cried Ace joyously.

"Maybe the Mexicans," Ted restrained him.

"Let's slip up on them and find out," urged the other. "Thunder! Wouldn't it be great if it was our bunch?"

"All the same, we gotta act just as if it was the Mexicans, till we know for sure."

"They've sure got a good fire," Ace shivered. "Let's hurry."

"All right, maybe it's Radcliffe come clear through the cave on a higher level, and maybe he's got the Mexicans."

"And Pedro?"

"And Pedro!"

"Sure, who else could it be?" they cheered each other.

But it was neither.

CHAPTER IX

TED'S FOSSIL DINOSAUR

An hour later two famished and exhausted boys were peering at the huge bon-fire by which Norris and Long Lester had decided to camp till dawn.

"Wal, durn yer hide, I'm that glad to see you I've a notion to wallop you," the old guide welcomed them. "But I'm not a-goin' to ask you a single word till you've et," and he proceeded to build up a brighter fire. "Peel off them duds, and roll up here in our blankets whilst we dry things for you."

The bedraggled boys allowed Norris to help them out of their heavy, water-soaked clothing, for their hike down the mountainside in the night wind had fairly stiffened their joints. First Long Lester administered a quart apiece of scalding tea, then insisted that, f.a.gged as they were, they bathe their feet. "A camper is as good as his feet," and Pedro had yet to be located.

It was decided that, as they were all of them worn out, and Pedro, wherever he was, would likely sleep himself when night came, they would wait till dawn to search for him and the Mexicans. While it was a question as to whether they were still in the cave, it seemed best to search there first.

At the moment of the earthquake, Pedro had been crawling through a narrow pa.s.sageway, bed of some former watercourse, whose walls dripped black in the glow of his dying torch. Then came a crash before him!--A chunk of rock had fallen from the roof into the pa.s.sageway. When the alarming swaying motion and the thunder of the bowlder's fall had subsided, and he had relighted the torch, (which had been extinguished), he found his forward progress effectually blocked. Behind were the Mexicans,--Sanchez possibly still plugging the opening into the pa.s.sageway. He was a prisoner! He was entombed!

At first, utter panic possessed him. In like situation, those of weak, nervous timbre have been known to go insane. Then he got a grip on himself and reasoned that Norris and the rest would not leave him to his fate. They would never give him up till they had searched the cave thoroughly, and had he not left his bandanna at one turn, his handkerchief at another, and the end of a freshly charred torch at a third? Besides, (he smiled grimly), if his own party did not find him, the Mexicans might. Or if they captured the Mexicans, they would wring from them a confession of his near whereabouts. (This time he laughed outright at thought of Sanchez the Stout still dangling his helpless legs when the Ranger found him. The sound echoed and reechoed weirdly.)

This experience had done much for Pedro's untried courage. For after all, is it not the unknown that terrifies us rather than the actual calamity to be faced? Another thing that helped the Spanish boy to be reasonably philosophical,--probably the biggest factor, after all,--was Nature's medicine, his extreme physical fatigue. Thrusting his hat through a narrow crevice so that it would be seen and recognized by any one coming that way, he stretched himself out flat on his back on a bit of smooth, dry rock, thriftily extinguished the remaining bit of torch, and was instantly asleep.

He awoke, he knew not how much later,--but he felt refreshed,--to hear the sound of voices echoing and reechoing faintly, far down the pa.s.sageway. Fumbling frantically for a match, he yelled for help with all the power of his trained voice. (And the sound echoed back and forth.) At first Norris and the boys could not tell from which direction it came.

Then Long Lester, who was in advance, saw the hat, and it but remained to remove the bowlder.

Now it was that they had use for their ingenuity, for their combined efforts did not suffice to budge the fallen rock. The cavern in which Pedro had become immured was off a lateral pa.s.sageway leading,--if he had taken the turn to the right instead of the one to the left,--to the very cave mouth by which the rescue party had reentered; for Long Lester had found, not far from the waterway through which the two boys had come,--but on a higher level,--some scratches on the rocks and a heel print in the scanty soil that told the old mountaineer as plain as words that that was the way Radcliffe had come. Every heel in the party was different, one having Hungarian hob-nails set in a semi-circle, another a solid design in the same nails, a third the larger hobs, a fourth none.

He knew the differences in size and the ones that were worn deeper on the inside of the foot. To him a footprint was as good as a signature, and better, for like an Indian, a "hill billy" can often read how fast you were going from a group of two or three footprints, how tired you were, and much besides. This knowledge had served them in good stead. He now hurried back to the cave mouth with Ace, found a down log that would serve as a lever, and they pried away the bowlder that kept Pedro a prisoner.

Sign of the Mexicans they could not find, save that Sanchez had been removed from the crevice of the stalact.i.tes, (at least he was no longer there), but whether he had had to fast or not, they could not tell. The Mexicans evidently knew the cave and they had been near the southern end of it. Though Long Lester could find no trace of their footprints at either of the exits they knew, there were doubtless others, and it seemed the wisest course now to look for them outside. For the boys were still unwilling to give up the chase.

Reporting back to Radcliffe, they learned, to their amazement, that the pack burros the Mexicans had left near the northern cave mouth had disappeared, but where, they could not tell from any sign left on the charred ground outside.

The Ranger would start a search for them in the DeHaviland, once the fire was under better control. The Forest Service finds its air service as useful in keeping track of law breakers as of fires. It would be an extraordinary thing if the careless camper should escape detection, for the air men can spy them out as easily as anything. But the fire still ate angrily through the timber, and would spread in all directions if left to itself. Fire fighting is sometimes a matter of weeks.

It was a dry summer, and all up and down the Sierras, the Rangers were kept busy fighting the fires that would break out from one cause or another. The Service 'planes were all busy.

The five campers were back at fire-fighting headquarters,--and Norris too,--when Ace had an idea. He and Ted would go in search of the Mexicans in his little Spanish 'plane. Would Radcliffe let them off the fire-fighting? He would, though he could not give official sanction to their plan. It was enough. The two boys were off before he could change his mind,--to Norris's slight uneasiness and Pedro's envy. (But Pedro was subject to alt.i.tude sickness.)

Sometime, Norris had promised Ted, they would go back into the cave and look for his fossil. But that could wait.

All that afternoon the two boys curveted over the surrounding scenery,--careful to keep their distance from the whirlwind of fire-heated air, for they were flying low. The most minute search failed to reveal the fire setters, but Ace only set his jaw the more determinedly.

They returned to sleep twelve hours at a stretch. Aviation is the best cure yet for insomnia, and neither Ace nor Ted had ever been troubled with that malady. The next day they flew farther, carrying with them an emergency camp kit. They landed about every two hours, rested awhile, and finally went into camp about four in the afternoon, intending to take a look in the night to see if the fugitives would betray themselves by a bon-fire. They camped in a meadow where they had seen something like smoke arising. This proved to be steam from a hot spring, and they thought with longing how fine their chilled bones would feel in a good hot bath. But the spring water came too hot. (If they had had eggs, they could have cooked them in it.)

Then it occurred to them to dig a little trench, line it with stones, and carry the spring water by the folding canvas pailful to fill it. It would quickly cool to the right temperature. The scheme worked wonderfully.

The water had a strong mineral taste, not altogether agreeable, but its effect on aching bones was wonderful. A flint arrowhead buried in the soil they excavated told its tale of Indians, who must have valued the spring and fought for its possession against covetous tribes.

"What makes these hot springs, anyway?" asked Ted. "Have you had that yet in your geology?"

"Yes, but you'll understand better when Norris tells us the story he's promised about the formation of the earth. I'm no professor." And he turned a former laugh on Ted. "Tell you what, Old Top, once we get these fire bugs located for our Uncle Sammy, what say we fly up and have a look at La.s.sen volcano before I send the 'plane back?"