Part 33 (2/2)
”I say,” began Ray, sputtering, ”I feel fit to enter the holy temple now.”
The lantern was set alight, and I led the way up into the interior of the cliff. My comrades feasted their eyes on the acc.u.mulation of gold-laden bamboo cylinders; and then they must investigate that net in the stream.
”Now I'll say that's a clever stunt that skunk played here,” declared Norris. ”Instead of toting that gold around some difficult path, he makes the creek carry it straight down here near the outlet. And he ties pieces of some buoyant stuff to each of the cylinders to make it float.”
”Here's what he used,” said Robert, who had picked up a small block of cork that he thrust into the lantern light.
”Sure, that's it,” said Norris, taking it into his fingers. ”He got his cork out of a life-belt, and he makes his little cork bricks do duty time after time. There's no telling how much gold they've floated down here.”
”And what do you suppose he does with it when he takes it out of here?”
asked Ray.
”He take eet to thad little islan' down in Crow Bay,” offered Captain Marat.
”He's planning to take over there all that he's got mined,” added Robert, looking to me for confirmation of his surmise.
”Yes,” I a.s.sented. ”And then he'll likely clear out, and keep away from this region till we've all had time to forget him, and the coast is clear again.”
”That's it,” agreed Norris. ”But now we're on his trail again, let's see the place it leads to.” And he turned up that incline, within the cavern, down which I had seen Duran come during the day.
The climb was rather arduous, as the ascent was somewhat sudden, though it was smooth going under foot. We went single file, all following Norris, who was in the van, carrying the lantern.
When we had climbed to a height of perhaps a hundred feet, we came to an exit of the cavern. We could hear the rustling of the leaves of trees in the night breeze, and stars showed above. The path continued on up, apparently on a ledge; and we must finally have attained a height of three hundred feet, when something like a plateau presented to the left.
We took the path of least resistance, picking our way carefully among rocks and scattered growth of trees. There was but the one way sufficiently free of obstacles, and on this road we moved without hitch or hindrance, till we finally brought up sharp at the edge of a precipice. Further progress appeared impossible, wanting wings, or some mechanical means of descent. It was a black abyss of unknown dimensions that lay at our feet.
”It's down yonder somewhere we'll find our gold mine,” said Grant Norris. ”And how to get down, that's----”
”It's no trick to get down,” interrupted Ray, ”but I'm thinking you'll be all out of the notion for the gold mine when you land there.”
My mind full of the notion to discover a stone stairway, or some other medium for descent used by Duran, I moved to the right, where a clump of cedars showed, outlined against the starry sky. It was here my spirit of enterprise nearly cost me my life, and did deprive me of the use of my limb and the companions.h.i.+p of my comrades for the span of a day. I got in among the cedars, and threw a gleam from my flashlight about the ground, an impulse prompting me to risk the chance that it might be seen by Duran somewhere below.
In that flash of light my eyes got on a small rope, hanging from the limbs above me, the other end gone somewhere down the cliff below. I got my hand on the rope and gave a gentle pull. It was fast above. I made a bolder pull. It gave several feet; and that unexpected and sudden release lost me my balance, and I toppled off the brow of the precipice, clutching the rope for dear life. Wildly I sought to wind a leg about the rope, for it burned and tore my fingers beyond endurance. I must have fallen forty or fifty feet, when I struck a bit of a ledge; but my fall was broken by brush and vines, and it was these vines saved my life, for they held me in some of their tangle till I finally brought up with a thump at the bottom.
I was a good deal shocked, but strange though it seems, throughout that fall I had not experienced a moment's fear for my life. There was a sharp ache in my right ankle. I wiggled my toes, and satisfied myself that there were no bones broken, but a step or two convinced me I was to be a lame brother for a greater or less period.
CHAPTER XXIV
IN THE HIDDEN VALE--A NEW ACQUAINTANCE
With crawling, I managed to get myself away from the foot of the cliff a piece, and I found I was in a s.p.a.ce of open ground. And I then began to think how I was to publish my predicament to my friends on the top of the cliff, some hundred, or perhaps two hundred feet above. I felt in my pocket for my flash-lamp, and it gave me much comfort, on pus.h.i.+ng the slide, to discover that it had not been put out of commission by the fall.
At once I began to send flash after flash up there. Almost directly, I saw answering flashes aloft. And then I spelled out, in code, a brief story of my adventure; and I asked that they throw me some grub, and then to stay away till the next night, when they were to return for news of some route by which they might join me.
I waited perhaps three-quarters of an hour, when a flash of light showed above. I answered with my light. And thus came Ray's signal. ”Here it comes,” it said. And then in a little, something umbrella-like appeared, gently oscillating between me and the stars; in the next moment quietly collapsing on the ground, near by. I took it up; it was a parachute, made of four handkerchiefs hastily sewed together. To the strings was made fast a packet of provisions; biscuit, cheese, and a cloth bag holding a mess of codfish cooked with vegetables. And there was a note from Ray. I read:
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