Part 18 (1/2)
”Please--go on!” said Joanne
”They found gold,” repeated Aldous ”They found so ray, that soold--loose gold, and MacDonald says that one day he and Jane filled their pockets with nuggets Then soreat storh which no living creature as heavy as a man or a horse could make its way It cainning they were dooone
”I can't tell you the horrors of the weeks and months that followed, as old Donald has told theine Only, when you are deep in the mountains, and the snow coht--eleven men and three woold, but who had no food The horses were lost in the storm Two of their frozen carcasses were found and used for food Two of the old behind, and probably died
”Then the first terrible thing happened Two men quarrelled over a can of beans, and one was killed He was the husband of one of the wo happened to her--and there was a fight On one side there were young Donald and the husband of the other woman; on the other side--the beasts The husband was killed, and Donald and Jane sought refuge in the log cabin they had built That night they fled, taking what little food they possessed, and what blankets they could carry They knew they were facing death But they went together, hand in hand
”At last Donald found a great cave in the side of a mountain I have a picture of that cave in my brain--a deep, warm cave, with a floor of soft white sand, a cave into which the two exhausted fugitives stumbled, still hand in hand, and which was home But they found it a little too late
Three days later Jane died And there is another picture inthere in the cave, clasping in his arms the cold for and sobbing over her, calling upon her to come back to life, to open her eyes, to speak to him--until at last his brain cracked and he went mad That is what happened He went h her lips Unconsciously she had clasped her fingers about the hand Aldous rested on her po he remained in the cave with his dead, MacDonald has never been able to say,” he resumed
”He doesn't knohether he buried his wife or left her lying on the sand floor of the cave He doesn't kno he got out of the mountains But he did, and his mind came back And since then, Joanne--for ato find that cave All those years his search was unavailing He could find no trace of the little hidden valley in which the treasure-seekers found their bonanza of gold No word of it ever came out of the mountains; no other prospector ever stumbled upon it Year after year Donald went into the North; year after year he caave up hope
”Then he began spending winter as well as suold-rush was over, and the old Telegraph trail was travelled more by wolves than men And always, Donald has told s over theto hihts Think of it, Joanne! Forty years of that!
Forty years of a strange, beautifuland never finding! And this spring old Donald came almost to the end of his quest He knows, now; he knohere that little treasure valley is hidden in the mountains, he knohere to find the cave!”
”He found her--he found her?” she cried ”After all those years--he found her?”
”Aledy of Donald MacDonald's life is yet to coray It will come when once more he stands in the soft white sand of that cavern floor, and sometimes I tremble when I think that when that moment comes I will be at his side
To me it will be terrible To him it will be--what? That hour has not quite arrived It happened this way: Old Donald was co when he came to a shack in which a man was almost dead of the smallpox It was DeBar, the half-breed
”Fearlessly MacDonald nursed him He says it was God who sent his, revealed the fact that he had stumbled upon that little Valley of Gold for which MacDonald had searched through forty years Old Donald kneas the sa buckskin sacks of yellow nuggets, of crus the memories of which stabbed like knives into Donald's heart How he fought to save that man! And, at last, he succeeded
”They continued south, planning to outfit and go back for the gold They would have gone back at once, but they had no food and no horses Foot by foot, in the weeks that followed, DeBar described the way to the hidden valley, until at last MacDonald knew that he could go to it as straight as an eagle to its nest When they reached Tete Jaune he caray--back to the Valley of Gold He calls it that; but I--I think of it as The Valley of Silent Men It is not the gold, but the cavern with the soft white floor that is calling us”
In her saddle Joanne had straightened Her head was thrown back, her lips were parted, and her eyes shone as the eyes of a Joan of Arc must have shone when she stood that day before the Hosts
”And this man, the half-breed, has sold hiht ahead at the bent shoulders of old MacDonald
”Yes, for a wohting there lory
”No, no, no!” she cried ”Oh, John Aldous! if I were only a o with you and stand with you two in that Holy Sepulchre--the Cavern----If I were a ht!”
And Donald MacDonald, looking back, saw the two clasping hands across the trail A moment later he turned his horse froe
CHAPTER XV
From the hour in which she had listened to the story of old MacDonald a change seemed to have come over Joanne It was as if she had risen out of herself, out of whatever fear or grief she ht have possessed in her own heart John Aldous knew that there was sorave under the Saw Tooth Mountain, and that fro under a tremendous mental and physical strain He had expected this day would be a terrible day for her; he had seen her efforts to strengthen herself for the approaching crisis thatHe believed that as they drew nearer to their journey's end her suspense and uneasiness, the fear which she was trying to keep from him, would, in spite of her, becoe which he saw in her was not only delightfully unexpected but deeply puzzling She see excitement Her cheeks were flushed There was a different poise to her head; in her voice, too, there was a note which he had not noticed before
It struck him, all at once, that this was a new Joanne--a Joanne who, at least for a brief spell, had broken the bondage of oppression and fear that had fettered her In the narrow trail up the mountain he rode behind her, and in this he found a pleasure even greater than when he rode at her side Only when her face was turned from him did he dare surrender himself at all to the emotions which had transformed his soul From behind he could look at her, and worshi+p without fear of discovery Every ave hiht and every darkening shadow in her shi+ hair added to the joy that no fear or apprehension could overwhelm within him now Only in those wonderful moments, when her presence was so near, and yet her eyes did not see hiht of what she had beco the first hour of their climb over the break that led into the valley beyond they had but little opportunity for conversation The trail was an abandoned Indian path, narrow, and in places extremely steep Twice Aldous helped Joanne froht travel afoot over places which he considered dangerous When he assisted her in the saddle again, after a stiff ascent of a hundred yards, she was panting from her exertion, and he felt the sweet thrill of her breath in his face For a space his happiness obliterated all thoughts of other things It was MacDonald who brought them back
They had reached the su brass telescope the oldthe valley out of which they had co sun, and it dawned suddenly upon Aldous that this was the spot from which MacDonald had spied upon his ene quickly as she looked upon the wonder of the scene below them Suddenly she turned, and encountered his eyes