The Boy Scouts In The Rockies Part 23

Aleck felt a thrill of pleasure at the way the other used that word "our;" why, it was just as though the Silver Fox Patrol had adopted him into the troop; and meant to make his cause their own. For a boy who had seldom had a friend to give him even words of encouragement, this was a glorious happening indeed. He felt that it had been the luckiest hour of his whole life when, in the midst of his bitter dejection, left alone on that high and isolated rocky ledge, he had discovered the strange movements of that fiery pencil, that seemed to be making all sorts of extravagant figures and circles in the air, which he knew stood for the means of communication between scouts.

"Let us work our way around this spur," he said, a while later, after they had continued to advance further into the depths of the mountains.

"I can guess what you are thinking," Thad went on to remark; "you believe that we must even now be in the neighborhood of that rock face."

"Well, I've tried to judge the distance, and how we got along; and it seems to me we ought to be nearly there. What do you think, Thad?"

asked the other; and from his manner it was evident that he laid considerable importance on the opinion of his companion.

"Just what you do, which is, that we must be getting close to where we saw that great head outlined just as if some scupltor had chiseled it from the solid rock. But even if we fail to find it, Aleck, that may be because of the formation of the mountain. Besides, this moonlight is awfully deceptive, you know."

"Wait, and we'll soon learn," was the confident answer. "I sat there, and looked for nearly an hour. I guess I got every rock fixed on my mind."

"Well, I've had a few of the same impressed on my knees and s.h.i.+ns,"

chuckled the scoutmaster, drily. "But we've no need to complain, because, considering all the things we've had to fight against, I reckon we've escaped pretty slick. See anything yet, Aleck?"

"No, I own that I don't; but then, that may come from lots of causes,"

the other boy replied, trying not to let his disappointment show in his manner or speech; for he knew that Thad did not believe in a display of weakness in scouts. "Perhaps, when we've pushed on a little further, we may be able to glimpse the face again."

"Wait right here," said Thad, suddenly.

"Oh! did you hear anything? Wouldn't it be too unbearably hard if we learned that some one, perhaps that cruel prospector, Colonel Kracker, had been ahead of us, and located the hidden mine? He could hurry to enter his claim, and my poor mother would not stand a ghost of a show.

Was it a voice you heard, Thad?"

"I didn't hear anything to bother me," came the reply, accompanied with a low chuckle. "I was only thinking how often we strain ourselves to see something away off, when all we have to do is to turn our eyes up and look."

Aleck instantly "caught on" to what his companion meant. He bent his head back, and gave utterance to a low cry of satisfaction.

"Well, if that doesn't beat anything?" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, apparently highly pleased; "it's the head, as sure as I live, and towering right above us, almost. No wonder I couldn't see it, looking away off, and thinking it lay further on. We've found the land-mark dad set down in his little map, Thad. And now to discover the crack in the wall, hidden by the hanging vines, where he followed a fox in, just out of curiosity, and discovered the richest silver lode he ever knew about. Oh! I'm just shaking all over with excitement. And I sure hope my mother's thinking about me right now, thinking, and praying for me to succeed!"

CHAPTER XXIII.

A WOLF BROOD IN THE WAY.

It was plain to the young scoutmaster that Aleck had studied his map carefully. For after he had taken his bearings anew, from the rocky head that towered almost above them, the other was able to make a direct course to the foot of an adjoining cliff, where the moonlight fell upon the chalky wall.

Thad saw first of all that there were strange markings across the face of this cliff, or rather running up and down. They consisted of several thicknesses, and as the boys drew closer, he discovered that what he suspected before was the truth; and that these were caused by vines that ascended for various distances, clinging tenaciously to the rock wall.

Toward their base they seemed of unusual thickness; and it was easily believable that one of these might conceal a fissure in the rock, just as Aleck had mentioned, when speaking of the way his father discovered the entrance to Aladdin's Cave of treasure.

The boy seemed to be counting these dark veins traversing the face of the cliff, and when they came to the fourth one he stopped still.

"There it is, Thad, the vines he marked, fourth from the right!" he said, in a low and trembling voice, as though the intensity of his feelings almost overcame him.

"Yes, I can see it," replied the other, steadily, feeling that he must bolster up Aleck's courage in this trying time. "And we want to know right away whether it really does hide a gap in the rock. Come on, Aleck!"

He led the way forward, with the other half holding back. Feverish with impatience though Aleck might be, to know whether all his hopes were doomed to be shattered then and there, or allowed to blossom forth into glorious buds of promise, the poor boy suddenly felt a weakness come upon him. Only for his having such a staunch-hearted chum at his elbow, ready to take the lead, there is no telling how long Aleck Rawson might have hesitated there, before that ma.s.s of clinging vines, afraid to take his courage in both hands, and push on to the goal.

But it was different with Thad. He strode up to the vines, and with one sweep drew them aside. The act disclosed a fissure that was several feet in width at its base, and running some distance up the wall; although growing gradually smaller, until finally it merged into the gloom that held sway aloft, back of the screen of vines.

Aleck gave a low cry of rapture.

"It's here, just as he said it would be, in this map I carry!" he exclaimed, as he clutched the arm of the scoutmaster. "I hope I'm not dreaming all this, Thad; tell me I'm not, please, that's a good fellow."

"Well," replied the other, laughing gently so as to convince Aleck that he was perfectly cool and collected, and ought to know what he talked about; "so far as it goes, your map is absolutely correct, Chum Aleck; and I don't see any reason to doubt the rest of the story. In my opinion we're going to discover something fine before a great many minutes go past."

"What shall we do, Thad; you see, I'm so upset with it all, that somehow I look to you to arrange things. Perhaps if I was alone, and just _had_ to depend on myself, I'd do better; but it's so kind of you to help me out, and you're so capable of doing it all. Please fix it up as you think best."

"All right, then," returned Thad, readily. "First of all, I'll light our little glim here; for if we're going to poke along into that black hole, I reckon we'll be wanting some sort of light to see by. Don't think I'd like to take a tumble down some precipice, myself; not to speak of running across a wild beast."

"What makes you say that last, Thad?" demanded the other, quickly; "do you get a scent of it, too?"

"I had an idea I did, and somehow it made me think of a menagerie.

Hold up just a minute, and we'll be able to see something."

As he spoke Thad struck a match, which he applied to the wick of the lantern. It was a good type of its kind, and as soon as the wick had been properly adjusted no one could reasonably complain about the quality of the illumination produced.

This done, the patrol leader hastened to lower the lantern so that he could examine the ground close to the bottom of the fissure in the rock.

"Plenty of tracks, all right," was his first comment.

"Can you make them out, and is it a bear?" asked Aleck, almost unconsciously swinging his gun a little further to the front, while his fingers sought the lock.

"Well, no; the marks differ very much from the tracks of a bear, either a black or a cinnamon. They look more like made by a dog's paws," Thad replied.

"But a dog wouldn't be up here; you must mean it's a wolf, that's what, Thad," Aleck hastened to observe.

"If that was a guess, you hit the nail square on the head, Aleck,"

chuckled the scoutmaster. "A wolf has been using this hole in the rock for a den; and from all I can make out, the tracks seem pretty fresh, too."

"Then you think the old chap is in there now, do you?" asked the other.

"I wouldn't like to say;" replied Thad; "but there's just one thing we've got to do, and that is, believe it to be so. A wolf caught in a trap is some dangerous, they tell me; and in case this happens to be a mother wolf, with a litter of whelps, she'd fight like everything, believe me."

"But we're going in, Thad; ain't we; you won't let that stand us off, after coming so far, will you? Oh! if there were a dozen wolves, and every one of them ready to fight from the word go, I'd just _have_ to learn the truth before I left here. For her sake I'd take any risk to know."

"Well, I should say we were going in; and right away at that,"

returned Thad, taking a step forward. "I only thought I ought to put you on your guard, so that in case we came on the thing, you'd know what to expect. Have you got your gun all ready to shoot, Aleck?"

"Believe me, yes; and while I don't want to brag, still I've always called myself a pretty good shot, even at a jumping wolf," replied the other; since he now knew that Thad did not mean to be deterred by any sort of ordinary difficulty, Aleck began to seem like himself, being able to keep his feelings in restraint.

That was the influence of a cool, determined comrade, like the scoutmaster. Such a firm, collected spirit always exerts considerable influence over those with whom it comes in personal contact.

Thad held the lantern. He preferred doing so, even though it must necessarily interfere more or less with his taking any sort of aim, should the occasion suddenly arise whereby it become necessary for him to fire. But then, it was very important, Thad thought, that they keep the lantern intact; and of course he had never been alongside Aleck in action, so he could not tell just what sort of coolness the other would display when a time of excitement arrived.