Part 33 (1/2)

And Norris showed me two little flakes of gold he'd washed out of the black sand in the creek-bed.

”But open up now, Wayne,” he continued. ”Tell us.”

”Well you see,” I began, ”you, Norris, would have it that Duran had gone through the woods by the lianas; and you, Ray, insisted on it that he went through the air. Now none of us had thought of his going through the water--”

Instinctively we all looked into the creek, and there I discovered that the water had gone muddy again.

”Look there, see that!” I pointed. ”You know how clear that water has always been. And now see how riled it is.”

They looked intently as if expecting to see Duran appear out of the stream as I had seemed to do.

”Aw, say now, what are you giving us?” said Ray.

Norris and Carlos were already moving up toward the spot where the water poured out of the cliff. But before they were half the way, the stream cleared again.

And then I went on to tell them how I had discovered the hole behind the little cascade. And they were open-mouthed till I had completed my narration of Duran's activities in that cavern in the cliff.

”Well now, and to think--” began Norris. ”Anyway that proves that the gold mine is on a continuation of the creek where I found the colors.

That creek goes into the rocks up there and comes out into some kind of a basin, and then goes into the cliffs again and comes out here, like a train going through two tunnels.”

”Brava!” cried Ray. ”Now you ought to have told us that yesterday, and saved all that trouble.”

Norris had to penetrate the little cascade and see the beginning of the pa.s.sage into the cliff. When he came out, it was decided to wait for night and the coming of Captain Marat and Robert, with the lantern, before going into the cavern. For, since Duran was working by day he would doubtless sleep at night.

”Well,” said Ray, when we got to the camp. ”I want to see what makes that thing so heavy.”

The cylinder of bamboo was plugged at the one end with a section of wood, the edges being sealed with raw pitch. We heated the thing at the fire, and then pried out the plug of wood.

”Hooray!” cried Norris and Ray together, as I poured the contents into a tin.

There was fine dust of gold mixed with many small nuggets.

”How many of those things did you say you saw in there?” asked Ray.

”I didn't count them,” I returned. But I showed with my hands the dimensions of that s.p.a.ce that was filled with them.

”And that's only the beginning,” said Norris. ”Say, Carlos, we've found your gold mine,” he continued, seizing that black by the shoulder.

”Yes, we find him now,” grinned Carlos. ”Maybe I find where my father buried.” And his face went serious again with the sadness I saw there, something that was doubtless hatred of Duran, his father's murderer, showed too. And I wondered--and conjectured--what was in Carlos' mind, and shuddered.

Marat and Robert came at last, in the dark, and they marvelled at the tale of success we had to tell them.

”But, Bob,” said Ray, in the midst of the tale, ”to think that Wayne would play a trick like that on me!--who nursed him through measles, mumps, chicken pox, cholera morbus, and a stubbed toe, and even fed him up, dozens of times, on all-day suckers!--to pop out of the water like that, and bow, and tell me he had been playing Jonah, and that the whale had just stopped behind to wipe his feet on the mat and would be in directly.”

Everything, Captain Marat told us, was going well on the _Pearl_; and Julian, good lad, was content to wait indefinitely, while we searched for the mine.

Fortunately, Robert and Marat had brought the lantern, and Robert had thought to bring along the electric flashlights; and most of us were supplied with matches, protected from the damp in tightly corked vials.

We were soon at the little cascade, and crawling, one after the other, pushed through the curtain of water.