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diff --git a/old/69880-0.txt b/old/69880-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 2fda178..0000000 --- a/old/69880-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8322 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Valley of Arcana, by Arthur -Preston Hankins - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Valley of Arcana - -Author: Arthur Preston Hankins - -Release Date: January 26, 2023 [eBook #69880] - -Language: English - -Produced by: D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The - Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF ARCANA *** - - - - - - THE VALLEY - OF ARCANA - - BY - ARTHUR PRESTON HANKINS - - AUTHOR OF - “THE JUBILEE GIRL,” “THE HERITAGE OF THE HILLS,” ETC. - - [Illustration] - - NEW YORK - DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY - 1923 - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1923, - BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. - - PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY - - The Quinn & Boden Company - BOOK MANUFACTURERS - RAHWAY NEW JERSEY - - - - - TO - THE MEMORY OF - MY FATHER - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I AN EXTRA BED 1 - - II EL TRONO DE TOLERANCIA 9 - - III THE PROSPECTOR’S STORY 18 - - IV A MEMBER OF THE CLAN 26 - - V THE CONFERENCE AT JORNY SPRINGS 33 - - VI SECOND SIGHT 43 - - VII LOT’S WIFE AND SHIRTTAIL HENRY 54 - - VIII MISSING 65 - - IX A CASE FOR REJUVENATION 74 - - X SHIRTTAIL BEND 82 - - XI THE TRAIL TO MOSQUITO 93 - - XII THE LAND OF QUEER DELIGHTS 101 - - XIII AT TWO IN THE CAÑON 113 - - XIV THE LONG STRAW 128 - - XV VAGRANCY CAÑON 136 - - XVI THE CAMP IN VAGRANCY CAÑON 145 - - XVII BEAR PASS 156 - - XVIII IN THE PALM OF THE MOUNTAINS 169 - - XIX RIDDLES 180 - - XX THE INTERIM OF DOUBTS 190 - - XXI THE CAVE OF HYPOCRITICAL FROGS 201 - - XXII DR. SHONTO RIDES ALONE 211 - - XXIII OLD ACQUAINTANCES 221 - - XXIV MARY CHOOSES A SEAT 228 - - XXV THE DEADLY BULL AND THE SILVER FOX 238 - - XXVI THE LAST TABLET 248 - - XXVII ADRIFT ON LOST RIVER 260 - - XXVIII THE MESSAGE 270 - - - - -THE VALLEY OF ARCANA - - - - -CHAPTER I - -AN EXTRA BED - - -TRIED outlanders though they were, Dr. Inman Shonto and Andy Jerome -were hopelessly lost. Afoot, horseback, and by motor car the pair had -covered thousands of square miles of desert and forest land in Southern -California. But it was different up here in the mountainous region of -the northern part of the state, where they found themselves surrounded -by heavy timber vaster than they had dreamed could have been left -standing by the ensanguined hand of the lumberman. And, besides, thin -fingers of fog were reaching in from the sea, about eighteen miles to -the west of them. - -For hours they had been following wooded ridges, which here and there -offered a view of the seemingly illimitable sweep of redwood forests -below them. Spruce, fir, several varieties of oak, and madrones crowned -these ridges--trees of a height and girth that they could understand. -But down below them towered the monarchs of the vegetable kingdom, -straight as the path of righteousness, solemn, aloof--impossible -trees--whose height would bring their tops on a level with the clock of -the Metropolitan Building, whose boles occupied a space greater than a -good-sized living room. - -They awed the southerners immeasurably, for this was their first trip -into the northern part of their state. They were silent as they hurried -on, sliding down steep slopes, clambering up rocky, timbered inclines, -always hoping for some familiar object that would show them they were -on the campward trail. - -Each carried a .25-.35 rifle, for they had left camp early that morning -to hunt deer--and both had entertained fond hopes that a wandering -bear or a panther might cross their path. The doctor had wounded a big -six-pointer close to noon, and following the bloody trail which the -cripple left had led the pair astray. - -Now night was close at hand, and, for all they knew, they were still -many miles from camp. The trail had inveigled them down into the -mysteries of the dark forest below them, and there they had lost all -sense of direction. With the approach of night they had abandoned -the bloody trail and climbed to the ridges once more, in the hope of -relocating themselves. But an hour had passed, and they still were lost. - -“This is a little serious, Andy,” remarked the doctor. “I’m afraid we -haven’t much of an idea as to the vast scope of this forest. Of course -we’ll make it back sometime, and I guess we’re old enough hands at the -game to take care of ourselves until we do; but meanwhile we’re going -to be up against a little inconvenience, to put it mildly.” - -“It’s going to be mighty cold to-night,” was the only answer that the -younger man vouchsafed. - -He was about twenty-four, this companion of the doctor--a good-looking -youth with light curly hair and a friendly blue eye. He was of medium -height, well knit, wiry. His step was light and his muscles sure, and -more than once the older man eyed him admiringly as they hurried on -into the coming dusk. - -Dr. Inman Shonto was one of those men who command attention wherever -they go. He was tall and lean and broad-shouldered, and his outing -clothes had been fitted to his remarkable body with precision. He was -an ugly man as masculine comeliness goes, but, for all that, women -found him intensely interesting. His nose was monstrous, and lightly -pitted from bridge to tip. His mouth was big, and the lips were thick, -puckered, and firm. His hair was thin and neutral in colour--somewhere -between a dark brown and a light. His ears were rather large and a -trifle outstanding. His eyes were grey and very intense in their manner -of observing others. - -It was the strong face of a strong man. One knew instinctively that -great will power was this man’s heritage. One believed, after a glance -into that homely face, that this man took what he wanted from life, and -that his wants were by no means puny. Even in hunting clothes Dr. Inman -Shonto was fastidious. And his walk was fastidious, even here in the -wilderness. The realization that he and his young companion were lost -in the wilds did not serve to ruffle the doctor’s calm exterior. He was -nothing if not self-controlled on all occasions. - -Despite his homeliness, his smile was engaging as he turned and looked -back at Andy after topping a little bald rise toward which the two had -been travelling, hoping on its summit to gain a better view of the -surrounding country. - -“Andy,” he said, “I smell smoke. Sound encouraging?” - -The young man reached his side, and the two stood looking in every -direction and sniffing speculatively. - -“I get it, too, Doctor,” Andy told the other finally. “It seems to be -over in that direction.” - -Andy pointed west, and the doctor nodded silently. - -“There’s a ranch or a camp pretty close,” he decided. “Now let’s locate -that smoke definitely and make a bee-line for it. I don’t just fancy a -night in this cold, unfriendly forest.” - -“Do you know, Dr. Shonto,” said Andy, “that I don’t exactly -think of the forest as unfriendly. Time and again, when you and -I have been together in the outlands, you’ve thought nature -unkind--bleak--unfriendly. Nature never strikes me that way.” - -“That’s your inheritance from your Alps-climbing Swiss ancestors, I -imagine,” replied the doctor. “But, if you’ll pardon me, Andrew, I’m -more interested right now in locating a welcoming curl of blue smoke -over the treetops than I am in a discussion of the attitude of Mother -Nature toward two of her misplaced atoms. Look over there to the west. -(I suppose that’s west.) Don’t you imagine you see a thin stream of -smoke going up over there--just above that massive bull pine on the -brow of that hill? Confound this infernal fog!” - -“Yes, I believe you’re right,” Andy agreed after looking a long time in -the direction the doctor had indicated. And after another pause--“Yes, -smoke, all right. And if it weren’t for the fog it would spread, and -we’d never have seen it. Now what, Doctor?” - -Dr. Shonto gave the surrounding country careful study. - -“It seems to me,” he decided, “that, if we head straight for that tall -fir on the brow of the hill beyond the next one, we ought to see what’s -causing the smoke. But we’ve got to go down and up, down and up; and -we’ll pass through heavy timber between here and there. We must keep -our wits about us and not swerve from a straight line. And that’s hard -to do, with the fog rolling in on us. Anyway, it’s up to us to try it. -Let’s go!” - -With each of them picking his own way, they rattled down steep slopes -and came upon tiny creeks, cold, brown from the dye of fallen autumn -leaves. They clambered up slopes that seemed far steeper because of -the extra strain they put upon their hearts and muscles. Dense growths -of chaparral occasionally confronted them and made them make detours, -despite their firm resolve to keep to the straight and narrow way. But -in half an hour after sighting the thin stream of smoke they came out -in an open space on a hillside and saw the tall fir which was their -goal. - -They crossed to it on level land, to look down a more precipitous slope -than they had before encountered. And down there far below them they -saw the misty gleam of cabin lights as they struggled with the night -and the increasing obstinacy of the fog that marched in from the sea. - -“Here’s a sort of trail, Doctor,” announced Andrew Jerome. “And it -looks to be leading straight toward those lights. Shall we try it?” - -“Sure,” replied the doctor. “By all means. You’re the better -mountaineer, Andy--take the lead. We can get a shakedown on the floor -of the man who made those lights, I guess, and get set on the right -trail to-morrow morning.” - -It was dark now, and the insweeping fog added to the density of the -surrounding gloom. Far to their left coyotes lifted their mocking, -plaintive yodel to the Goddess of Darkness, their patron saint, who -shielded their stealthy deviltry from the eyes of men. But the blurred -lights beckoned the wanderers downward, and they obeyed the signal, -slipping over rounded stones, staggering into prickly bushes, sliding -over abrupt ledges. - -Andrew Jerome followed the trail by instinct, and Dr. Shonto was glad -to follow Andy. The youth’s aptitude in the mountains was ever a -source of wonder for the doctor, and often he had told the boy that -he attributed it to heredity. For on his mother’s side of the family -Andy’s ancestors had been of Alpine Swiss stock, by name Zanini. Dr. -Inman Shonto was a firm believer in heredity, anyway, and his young -friend’s dexterous mountaineering presented a sound basis for his -theorizing. - -They came out eventually on level land, heavily timbered with pines. -Straight through the pines the trail led them, and soon they were -confronted by a set of bars. Beyond the bars the fog-screened lights -still invited them, so the doctor lifted his voice and called. - -There came no answer from the gloom. No dog rushed around an invisible -cabin to challenge them. - -“Let’s take a chance, Andy,” said the doctor. “If a pack of hounds -leaps out at us, we can retreat as gracefully as possible. We’ve got to -get closer to make ourselves heard.” - -They crawled between the bars and struck out along a beaten path. -Still no outraged canine came catapulting toward them. Still the house -remained invisible. Only the smeared lights stared at them through the -fog. - -Dr. Shonto came to a halt, and Andy stopped beside him. - -“In the cabin there!” called Shonto. “Cabin ahoy!” - -Several silent moments followed, and then, between the window lights -that had lured them there, a new streak of muddy brilliancy grew to a -rectangle, and a woman’s figure stood framed by a door. - -“Hello!” shouted the doctor. “We’re lost in the woods and hunting -shelter for the night. Our camp is far from here, and we can’t find it. -Can you help us out? There are two of us--two men! We’ll gladly pay you -for your inconvenience.” - -They saw the figure of the woman turn. She was speaking with somebody -within the cabin, and her profile was toward them. It vanished as she -once more turned her face their way. - -“Come on in!” came her invitation. “She says she’ll do the best she can -for you.” - -“She,” muttered the doctor. “I once knew a man that never called his -wife anything but ‘she.’ Come on--I smell baking-powder biscuits, or my -name’s not Shonto. Here’s the backwoods for you.” - -And then, as if to give the lie to his words, he stepped upon a broad -stone doorstep and was faced by a radiant girl in a sky-blue evening -gown, with precious stones in her dark hair, and gilded, high-heeled -slippers on her feet. - -“Good evening,” she greeted them easily. “Welcome to El Trono de -Tolerancia. There are baking powder biscuits, venison, and chocolate -for supper, and we’ve an extra bed.” - - - - -CHAPTER II - -EL TRONO DE TOLERANCIA - - -DR. INMAN SHONTO was not easily moved to a display of surprise, but for -at least once in his life he found himself unequal to the occasion. - -The girl in the doorway was galvanically pretty. Her features were of -that striking, contrasty quality that is the result of an artistic -makeup--but she was not made up. She was dark, red-lipped, large-eyed, -and her figure brought a quick flush of masculine appreciation in -the doctor’s face. Physically, it seemed to him, he had never before -seen so gloriously all-right a girl. But the desirable physical -characteristics which she displayed were not what had caused the cat to -get the physician’s tongue. It was the low-neck, sleeveless gown, the -sparkling hair ornaments, the gilded slippers and the creaseless silk -stockings--all of which had for their background the coal-oil-lighted -interior of a log cabin lost in the wilderness--that had wrecked his -customary poise. - -Her ringing laugh served in a measure to readjust his scattered wits. -She had interpreted the meaning of his surprise. - -“It’s my birthday!” was the girlish announcement that followed her -fun-provoking laugh. “It’s my birthday--and I’m twenty-two--and my -name is Charmian Reemy. _Mrs._ Charmian Reemy, I suppose it is my duty -to inform you. Aren’t you coming in, Dr. Shonto?” - -At last the doctor’s hat was in his hand, and Andy Jerome, standing -just behind him and equally amazed, removed his too. - -Shonto was mumbling something about the unexpected pleasure of meeting -a girl in the wilderness who knew his name while Andy followed him -inside. The girl hurried on before them and was arranging comfortable -thong-bottom chairs before a huge stone fireplace. Skins and -bright-coloured Navajo rugs half covered the puncheon floor. Dainty, -inexpensive curtains hung at the windows. Deer antlers and enlarged -photographs of wildwood scenes broke the solemnity of the dark log -walls. - -Before the fireplace another woman bent and cooked in a Dutch oven on -red coals raked one side from the roaring fire of fir wood. - -“This is Mary Temple, my companion, nurse, cook, and adviser in all -matters pertaining to my general welfare,” announced the girl. “I love -her companionship, appreciate her nursing, rave over her cooking, and -ignore her advice entirely. Mary Temple, this is Dr. Inman Shonto, lost -in the woods with a friend whom I have not given him time to introduce.” - -Once more the bombarded doctor stood by his guns, bowed gravely -to middle-aged Mary Temple--who smiled over her lean shoulder but -continued to hover her Dutch oven--then turned to Andy. - -“Mrs. Reemy, permit me,” he said. “My friend, Andrew Jerome.” - -“Mr. Jerome,” laughed the girl, extending her hand, “I am happy to -welcome you to my birthday party.” Then, with one of her amazingly -swift movements, she swung about to the physician. “And you, Dr. -Shonto, are to be the guest of honour--and you are going to tell us all -about glands and things like that.” - -“It is absolutely impossible,” Dr. Shonto returned gallantly, “that I -could have met you and forgotten you, Mrs. Reemy.” - -“Very well spoken, Doctor,” she retorted, with a smile that twisted up -a trifle at one corner of her mouth. “But I have heard that before. -One would expect Dr. Inman Shonto, renowned gland specialist, to say -something more original. There--I’m being impolite again! (Beat you -to it that time, didn’t I, Mary Temple!) But you are pardoned for a -commonplace speech, Doctor. It must have stunned you not a little to -come upon a dolled-up flapper out here in the forest. I’ll relieve your -mind instantly. We have never met before. But I have read about you for -years. And this morning, when I was down at Lovejoy’s for my mail--and -incidentally a big piece of venison which I hadn’t expected to be given -me--I saw you and Mr. Jerome walking up the road with your guns. I -inquired about you, and was told that the eminent Dr. Shonto and his -friend Mr. Jerome, of Los Angeles, were in our midst. And, though I -saw only your backs this morning, those shoulders of yours, Doctor, -are as wide when seen from the front as from the rear. And when I saw -them threatening to push to right and left the uprights of my door -frame, I thought Samson was about to bring the house down on us two -Philistines. For that’s what we are, gentlemen--outlawed Philistines. -And this is the house called El Trono de Tolerancia--which in Spanish -is equivalent to The Throne of Tolerance. All right, Mary Temple--I see -your shoulders quivering! I’ll stop right now and let somebody else get -in a word. But since I already know the doctor and his friend--and a -great deal about the doctor that he doesn’t suspect--doesn’t it stand -to reason that they ought to hear about us before sitting down to my -birthday dinner?” - -“You oughtn’t to’ve called yourself a flapper,” said the kneeling Mary -Temple, showing one fire-crimsoned cheek. - -With her ready laughter, which was hearty and whole-souled without a -suggestion of boisterousness, Mrs. Charmian Reemy seated herself. Then -Andy and Doctor Shonto found seats one on either side of her. - -“This is certainly a refreshing experience, Mrs. Reemy,” were the -younger man’s first words since acknowledging his introduction to her. - -“I’m glad you think so,” she replied. “I dearly love to make life -refreshing for folks. For myself as well. I thought it would be -refreshing fun to dress to-night, with only Mary Temple and me ’way -out here in the woods. It was just a freakish whim of mine. I get ’em -frequently. Don’t I, Mary Temple?” - -The firelight showed red through one of Mary Temple’s thin ears as she -half turned her head, doubtless to administer a reproof, and executed -“eyes front” again when she changed her mind. - -“I had no idea at the time, though, that two distressed gentlemen were -to come to my party and admire me and my table decorations.” - -She swept a white arm in the direction of a table at one side of the -large room, on which were a spotless cloth, china and silver, and an -earth-sweet centerpiece of ferns and California holly berries. - -“Now I’ll tell you who I am, so that you will be better able to -celebrate properly with me--and then for the glands. I’m dying to learn -all about glands. Could you rejuvenate me, Doctor Shonto? Now’s your -chance for that pretty birthday speech!” - -“I think,” said Shonto, with his grave smile, “that you, Mrs. Reemy, -are a far more successful rejuvenator right now than I shall ever be. -I’ve sloughed off five years since entering your door.” - -“Better! That was extremely well done. And now let’s get down to -business: - -“I am Charmian Reemy, aged twenty-two to-day. I was born in San -Francisco, and live there now. When I was seventeen I was married to -Walter J. Reemy, a mining man from Alaska. To be absolutely frank, that -marriage was the result of a plot by my father and mother to marry -me off to a wealthy man. And I was too young and pliable to put up a -decent fight. - -“I went to Alaska with my husband, where we lived two years. He was -killed in a gambling game, and his will left everything to me. I sold -out his Alaska mining property and returned to the United States, -where I lived with my parents in San Francisco until both were taken -away in the recent flu epidemic. - -“Since then I have been alone except for Mary Temple, who was with me -in Alaska. She had returned to San Francisco with me after Walter’s -death. So when I was left entirely alone again I hunted her up, and she -has been my companion and housekeeper ever since. - -“When I was little I was what is generally called a misunderstood -child. Whether that was true or not I can’t say, but I know that, -almost from my earliest remembrance, my home life was unpleasant. My -parents were plodders in the footsteps of Tradition. At an early age I -showed radical tendencies. - -“I am a radical to-day. I am intolerant of all the intolerance of -this generation of false prophets. I come up here to forget man’s -stupidity. And I call my retreat in the big-timber country The Throne -of Tolerance. Wait until to-morrow morning. Then, if you can look from -those west windows and be intolerant of anything or anybody, you don’t -belong to my clan. - -“I make pilgrimage to El Trono de Tolerancia whenever I begin to choke -up down in San Francisco. Mary Temple and I live simply up here in the -woods until the suffocation passes, then we return to the city--and -boredom. I learned to love the outdoors up in Alaska. And sometime I’m -going on a great adventure. I’m going to some far-off place where man -never before has set his foot. And maybe I shan’t come back. - -“That’s about all there is to be told about me. Except that I never -intend to marry again. Oh, yes!--and I always call Mary Temple Mary -Temple. If I were to call her Mary it would sound disrespectful from -one so much younger than she is. If I called her Miss Temple it would -sound stiff and throw a wet blanket over our comradeship. And I’m too -human, and I hope too genuine, to ape high society and call her Temple. -So she’s Mary Temple to me, and everything seems to move smoothly. Now -I’m through--positively through. Now tell me about the glands, Doctor -Shonto.” - -Shonto was smiling in quiet amusement. He could not quite make out this -girl. Shonto was very much a radical himself, and he believed that she -knew it. But he considered her too young to hold such a pessimistic -outlook on life as she had hinted at. That she was ready to worship him -because of his reputation as a specialist in gland secretions seemed -apparent. The doctor had been fawned upon by many women intellectually -inclined, and they had nauseated him immeasurably. He admired Charmian -Reemy for her physical charm, her vivacity, and her good-fellowship; -but he was experienced and therefore wary. - -But he was saved for the present from committing himself by Mary -Temple, who had completed her ministrations over the Dutch oven, and -had carried the result to the table. - -“Dinner’s ready,” she announced unceremoniously. - -Whereupon Charmian rose and seated her guests. - -Dr. Shonto was not a little puzzled at the behaviour of his friend. -Andy Jerome had spoken to Mrs. Reemy but once since their entrance -into her home, aside from muttering her name when the doctor had -introduced him. It was true that their hostess had done most of the -talking herself, but Shonto had managed to get in a word edgewise now -and then. While Andy had showed little or no inclination to talk at all. - -For the most part he had sat and almost stared at her, as if never -before had he seen a beautiful girl in an evening gown. The doctor knew -that this was far from the case, and that Andy ordinarily was quick to -respond to pretty women. He usually could hold his own with them, too. -But it seemed that Charmian Reemy had fairly swept him off his feet. -Shonto felt a slight twinge of regret. He found that he himself was -rather impressed by this frank, free-spoken girl of the woods and the -cities. - -Mary Temple occupied the foot of the table, where she sat stiffly -and with an austere mien, and attended to the greater part of the -serving. They were no more than seated when Charmian Reemy again began -begging the gland specialist to initiate her into the mysteries of -his witchcraft. But Shonto, seeking an avenue of escape, hit upon a -topic that at once changed her thoughts into another, though no less -interesting, channel. - -“You say, Mrs. Reemy,” he began, “that you are contemplating going -off for a big adventure some day. If you haven’t anything definite in -mind, I’d like to offer a suggestion. How would you like to make an -attempt to explore a lost valley--a forgotten valley--in reality, an -undiscovered valley?” - -“What?” Her dark eyes were sparkling. - -“Just that. Andy and I heard about it the other day. And on the way to -this undiscovered valley you may hunt for opals. Of course, a fellow -may hunt for opals anywhere he chooses. But in this case he may do so -with reasonable hopes of success.” - -“Do you mean that, Doctor Shonto?” - -“Absolutely. But I have only the story of a couple of prospectors, one -of whom has been an old-time opal miner in Australia. They are both -intelligent men, and their story rang true.” - -“Please let’s hear all about it!” begged Charmian. “An undiscovered -valley! How can it be undiscovered when these prospectors know about -it? And opals! You’ve lured me away from glands for the present, -Doctor. Give us the yarn!” - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE PROSPECTOR’S STORY - - -“WELL,” began Dr. Shonto reflectively, “Andy and I were in our camp on -the North Fork of the Lizard, about two and a half miles from Lovejoy’s -place. Two men came along with pack burros, bound up into the Catfish -Country--if you know where that is.” - -Charmian nodded eagerly. - -“They stopped, and as lunch was about ready we invited them to eat with -us. - -“They called themselves Smith Morley and Omar Leach. They are both -middle-aged men and seem to have had a great deal of experience at -prospecting. - -“Well, Andy and I are old-time ramblers ourselves. We spend a great -deal of time together in the outlands, mostly just loafing around and -enjoying camp life and the scenery. We were able to talk with the -pair about many things of interest to both factions. One thing led to -another, and finally Smith Morley mentioned that he had hunted for -opals with a camel train in Australia. We at once became interested -and asked him all about the life. It is vastly entertaining, from his -account. - -“Then he told us of the California opals, but when Andy asked if he -ever found any in this state he grew reticent. Finally, however, when -he learned that both of us were men of some means, he told us about -certain opal claims that he and his partner had filed on this year, -and which they would be obliged to lose because they were financially -unable to get into the country and do their assessment work. - -“They offered to sell the claims to us, and to take us to them and -establish us if we would defray the expenses. Morley showed us -one of the handsomest opals I have ever seen. Its fire was simply -wonderful--I’d never before seen anything to equal it. - -“We weren’t greatly interested, however, until they mentioned the -undiscovered valley. While Andy has nothing much to occupy his time, -I have my investigations to carry on and a great deal of laboratory -work, though I am not practising medicine regularly. Anyway, we didn’t -want to go into the opal-mining game. But, as I said, the undiscovered -valley enticed us, and we wanted to know all about it. - -“The opal claims are on the desert in what is called the Shinbone -Country. It is very difficult to get to them, and the soft, deep sand -makes automobiles a failure. One must use horses and pack burros, -and at best the water supply is dangerously short. However, the -undiscovered valley is something like thirty miles beyond the desert, -in the mountains, at an elevation of perhaps eight thousand feet. - -“From the description they gave us, those who know of its existence say -that it is about thirteen miles long by seven or eight miles in width. -It is surrounded by high peaks upon which the snow lies for almost the -entire year. These peaks are said to be straight up and down, to use -Morley’s phrase, and heavily timbered up to the snow-line. The valley -is therefore like the crater of an extinct volcano, and many claim that -it is just that. To reach the timbered section, one must cross miles -and miles of country covered with the densest chaparral. He must either -cut his way through it with a knife and an ax or crawl on all fours. -This stretch is waterless, and exposed to the sunny side of steep -mountains, where the heat beats down unmercifully. - -“But assuming that a fellow gets through this chaparral country, he has -yet to scale those grim peaks which Morley calls straight up and down. -And if he reaches the summit, he then will be obliged to get down into -the valley, perhaps several thousand feet in depth. - -“The valley was discovered some years ago by a forest ranger. He had -climbed to a high peak about sixteen miles distant from it, and assumed -that, even then, he was on ground where no man of to-day, at least, -had ever stood before. He suffered a great deal on that trip, but -determination kept up his courage and he finally reached the goal for -which he had set out. And from the summit of that peak he glimpsed the -unexplored valley. - -“It seems strange that, in this day and age, such a valley could remain -unknown. But such seems to be the case. Andy and I have found in our -travels over the state that there are vast stretches of forest land -where a white man has probably never set his foot. But in almost every -case, there was nothing to draw him. This instance is different. - -“Fortunately the ranger had a telescope with him, and was able to see -a portion of the valley between two of the peaks that surround it. He -circulated the report that the valley is wooded, and that a fair-sized -river flows down the centre of it. He saw great quantities of meadow -land, and on it animals were grazing, but he could not determine what -they were. Altogether the valley presented a pleasing outlook, and he -made up his mind to explore it. - -“He made many trips, alone and with friends, which occupied months. -They strove to get at that valley from every angle, and one man lost -his life in the attempt. Finally they were obliged to give it up, -though they estimated that they had approached to within three miles of -their goal. So throughout the Shinbone Country the undiscovered valley -is well known to be in existence, but that’s the end of it. The country -is thinly populated, of course, and the people who live there mind -their own business pretty well and are completely out of touch with the -outside world. And thus it transpires that the unexplored valley is not -generally known to be in existence. - -“One of the most remarkable features concerning it is the river that -flows through it. All rivers in this country flow in a general westerly -direction, of course, toward the Pacific Ocean. Not so the river that -flows through the undiscovered valley. It runs due east, according to -the ranger, though that may mean much or nothing at all, for it may -change to a westward course farther on. - -“But the question is, where does it come out of the valley? All of -the rivers and streams in that section are known and named. No one can -account for a river without a name, flowing toward the coast on the -west side of the range. But farther back in the mountains, estimated at -about ten miles from the peaks that surround the undiscovered valley, -there is what is known as a lost river. In fact, it is called Lost -River. - -“The source of Lost River is known. It rises from springs high up in -the range, and is fed by other springs as it flows westward and gathers -width. Then, about ten miles from the high peaks, it vanishes--is -swallowed up by the earth in a mountain meadow. It is not just soaked -up by the ground, but plunges into a cave in the side of a hill. And, -so far as anybody knows, that is the end of it. - -“Of course, it is assumed that this river runs underground from that -point and eventually reaches the undiscovered valley, where it rises -again and flows serenely across the valley--quite a large stream, it -seems--and then vanishes once more. And for the remainder of its course -to the sea, it may be any one of the known rivers in the Shinbone -Country. It probably would not pop up out of the ground in the lowlands -so abruptly as it plunges into the cave in the high altitudes. It may -rise again as springs--seep up from the soil in a natural way. Or its -waters may separate during their underground journey after leaving -the unexplored valley, and they may form two or more streams in the -lowlands. - -“So that’s about all there is to be said about the undiscovered -valley--or perhaps the unexplored valley would be more proper--and the -river that loses itself in the ground. Andy and I grew quite excited -over it, but when we tried to pump Morley and Leach to find out the -location of the Shinbone Country they refused to come across. Shinbone -is a local name, it seems, and few besides the people who live there -know it as such. We don’t even know what county it is in. Leach and -Morley, however, promised to tell us all about it and to take us to it, -provided we would interest ourselves in their opal claims. So, as we -didn’t care to do that, we let the matter slide.” - -Charmian Reemy had forgotten her dinner and was resting her bare elbows -on the table, nesting her chin in her hands. Her dark eyes were fixed -on Inman Shonto. And Andy’s eyes were fixed on her. - -“Where,” she asked in a low voice, “are Morley and Leach now?” - -“Still on their way to the Catfish Country, I suppose,” Shonto replied. - -“When was it that they were in your camp?” - -“Day before yesterday, about noon--wasn’t it, Andy?” - -Andy Jerome nodded absently. - -“Then they can’t have reached the Catfish Country yet,” said Charmian. -“I’m going after them to-morrow morning. Now, for the first time in my -life, I wish I had a car. I could travel in it as far as Jorny Springs, -and there I could get a saddle horse and run them down before they get -into the wilderness.” - -“Do you really want to go after opals and the unexplored valley?” asked -Andy suddenly. - -She turned her dark eyes on him. “I want to more than anything else -I’ve ever wanted to do,” she told him. - -“Then you can have my car to-morrow morning. And, if you’ll let me, -I’ll go with you after Leach and Morley. And if we find them, and can -come to terms with them, I’ll--I’ll-- Well, if we can arrange matters -to suit you, I’d like to go with you to the Shinbone Country.” - -For a short time they gazed into each other’s eyes. Andy Jerome’s lips -were parted, and Shonto noted the quick rise and fall of his breast. -Then a slight flush covered Charmian Reemy’s cheeks, and her long, dark -lashes hid her eyes. - -“If we can arrange matters,” she said, “I’d--I’d be glad to have you, -Mr. Jerome.” - -Then, with another pang, Dr. Inman Shonto interpreted the strange -silence that had existed between these two. It was the result of an odd -embarrassment that both had felt since they first clasped hands. It was -love at first sight between them, and they were backward and afraid of -each other. - -The eyes of both now were lowered. Shonto glanced quickly at Mary -Temple. Her gaunt face was set in hard lines. She knew, and she -disapproved--at least until she knew more about this handsome young man -who had invaded their quiet retreat. - -And Shonto-- Well, Shonto disapproved, too. Shonto was far older than -Andy--too old, perhaps, to think of loving a woman of Charmian Reemy’s -age. But he put all this behind him. If Andy and Charmian were going -in search of the unexplored valley, he meant to go along. Several -years her senior though he knew himself to be, Shonto believed that he -was the man for a woman like Charmian Reemy rather than Andy Jerome. -Anyway, he meant to know more about her. It would not do for Andy to -win her away from him if she was what he believed her to be. Yes, -Shonto would go along, and his life’s work could go hang, for all he -cared. Until he knew the truth about Charmian Reemy, at any rate. - -“We could find it easily, I guess, in an airplane,” Andy suggested. - -“An airplane!” scoffed the girl. “Not I! I hate airplanes--I hate -anything mechanical. I’ll find that valley as my forefathers would have -found it, or I’ll stay away. And I must think up an appropriate name -for it. Doctor Shonto seems undecided between ‘the undiscovered valley’ -and ‘the unexplored valley.’ Neither is romantic enough. I’ll think up -a name before morning. I like to name things. And I’m going, really--if -we can overtake Leach and Morley. Do you approve, Mary Temple?” - -“No!” snapped Mary Temple, and passed the venison to Andy with jerky -hospitality. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -A MEMBER OF THE CLAN - - -DR. INMAN SHONTO, always an early riser, was the first one stirring at -El Trono de Tolerancia the following morning. He left the log house by -the door through which he had entered it the night before, and gazed -off into the timberland to the east, through which Andy and he had -reached the place. He turned and walked around the cabin, and then he -realized what Charmian Reemy had meant when she stated that it was next -to impossible for one to be intolerant when he looked from her home to -the west. - -The cabin was set on a gigantic rock that overhung the brow of the -mountain. A metal railing had been erected along the edge of the rock -to prevent the unwary from plunging down at least forty feet to the -rock’s massive base. From the base the land sloped off sharply for -perhaps half a mile. And beyond that it continued to slope more gently -to level wooded stretches below. The great forest over which one looked -would have seemed endless were it not for the broad Pacific in the far -distance, which began at the end of the mass of green and rolled on to -the uttermost ends of the earth. - -Never in his life had the nature-loving man seen a more gorgeous -picture. It seemed that the very world was laid out for him to gaze -upon from that gaunt pinnacle. He stepped to the iron rail, cold -and dewy, grasped it in his strong, lean hands, and stood there, -bareheaded, reverent. - -“Do you feel tolerant of all mankind now, Doctor?” came a low voice at -his elbow. - -Shonto wheeled about, startled, as if awakened from a dream. Charmian -Reemy stood beside him, dressed in a man’s flannel shirt, a divided -whipcord skirt, and high-laced boots. She had combed her dark brown -hair, but had not stopped to do it up. It fell in a cataract, gleaming -bronze-gold with the rays of the early-morning sun behind her, almost -to her knees. She was smiling that smile which lifted one corner of her -mouth in a whimsical little twist. - -“I am tolerant of all mankind,” said the doctor seriously. “But now -that you have come, I don’t know whether to look at you or--that.” And -he pointed over the mysterious forest to the sea, which seemed to stand -upright before him as if painted on a huge canvas. - -“Do you think I’m pretty?” - -“I know it--you’re almost beautiful.” - -“But that,” she said, pointing over the forest, “is not only beautiful -but mighty--stupendous. You’d better look at that, Doctor.” - -“The redwood forests are mighty,” he told her, “but they are no more -beautiful than the redwood lily that hides in the perpetual shade they -cast. One cannot say that the giant redwood tree is more wonderful -than the slender lily at its feet. Both are the product of nature’s -mysterious laboratory. And you are, too.” - -“Speaking of tolerance,” she went on, without comment upon his -comparison, “don’t you think that we could all be more tolerant of -others if we only would look at every one we meet as a distinct product -of nature? I mean this: We say, ‘Here is a redwood tree. Isn’t it -magnificent?’ Or, ‘Here is a redwood lily. Doesn’t it smell sweet?’ -Or, ‘Here is a buckthorn bush. Aren’t its spines prickly?’ We never -think of comparing them. We would not say, ‘This redwood lily is puny -compared with a redwood tree.’ Or, ‘This buckthorn bush is so prickly. -I don’t think nearly so much of it as I do of the whitethorn bush, -which has beautiful flowers and is soft to the touch.’ Wouldn’t that -sound ridiculous! We accept all things in nature as they are, except -man. For man we have set a standard, and he must live up to it or be -forever displeasing to us. I wonder if you know what I’m talking about.” - -“I think I understand you perfectly,” replied Shonto. “And I believe -that you are entirely right. In fact, my life’s work is based on what -you have just expressed.” - -“The glands?” she asked eagerly. - -“Yes.” - -“Won’t you please explain? We have lots of time. None of the others are -up yet.” - -Dr. Shonto was tempted. “It is my firm belief,” he said, “that man’s -daily life--all that he does and all that he is--depends almost -entirely upon his gland secretions. His height, his attitude toward -others, the colour of his complexion, his strength or weakness, his -ability or lack of ability--all this, and much more, is controlled by -his glands, or their secretions. The glands are collections of cells -which make substances that bring about a specific effect on the economy -of the body. The microscope proves that every gland is a chemical -factory, and the product of these factories is their secretions. For -instance, the sweat glands manufacture perspiration, the lachrymal -glands manufacture tears. - -“The thyroid gland--the most interesting of all--consists of two -dark-red masses in the neck, above the windpipe, and near the larynx. -A narrow strip of the same tissue connects them. The secretion of the -thyroid glands is called thyroxin, and it contains a relatively high -per cent of iodine. The more thyroid a person has the faster does he -live. An abundance of thyroid causes one to feel, sense, and think more -quickly. The less he has the slower will be his mental processes. And -the thyroid gland puts iodine into our blood. - -“Sea water, you know, contains iodine. And as man was originally a -creature of the sea, iodine is necessary to his existence. There is -little or no iodine in the food we eat, so, when man became a land -animal, Nature gave him the thyroid gland to supply him with this -necessary element. In certain parts of the world--in high altitudes and -fresh-water regions--the water does not contain enough iodine. In such -regions goiter is prevalent. - -“To sum up very briefly the workings of the thyroid gland, life is -worth while when it is sufficiently active; and when it is not, life is -a burden to the unfortunate individual so affected. It is my belief, -then, that when we come to know more about the glands we will realize -that man is regulated by them. Then we will be more tolerant, won’t -we?--and seek to rectify the errors rather than condemn promiscuously? - -“It would be next to impossible for me to tell you all that has been -discovered about the functions of the various glands. There are the -thyroids, the pituitary, the adrenals, the pineal, the thymus, the -interstitial, the parathyroids, and the pancreas to be dealt with; but -for you and me the thyroids are by far the most important. And I regret -to say that I am not in a position to go into the matter thoroughly -with you at this time.” - -“But you haven’t told me anything!” she expostulated. - -He looked at her gravely. “I really do not feel free to discuss the -subject,” he said. “I hope you’ll pardon me.” - -Her dark eyes showed a trace of embarrassment as she turned them upon -his face. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I guess it -was stupid of me to ask a specialist to disclose his secrets to me.” - -“It’s not that,” he told her. “But there is a reason why I must refrain -from discussing this subject with you just now. Perhaps at some later -date I shall find it possible to go into the matter more fully. And -you don’t need to apologize. I have no professional secrets. But, as I -said, for a rather strange reason, I must not be the one to initiate -you into the mysteries of the gland secretions, and what science has -accomplished in the way of treating patients who are lacking in these -secretions. I’m extremely sorry, Mrs. Reemy, for I must confess that, -ordinarily, I like to talk about my work.” - -She continued to gaze at him, completely mystified; then she showed her -good breeding by dropping the subject entirely. - -“I have thought up a name for the undiscovered valley,” she announced. - -“Good! Let’s have it.” - -“The Valley of Arcana.” - -Dr. Shonto lifted his scanty eyebrows. “Arcana,” he repeated. “That -sounds familiar. Let me paw through my vocabulary.... I’ve got it. -‘Arcanum’ is the singular, isn’t it? And it means something hidden from -ordinary men. In medicine it means a great secret remedy--a panacea. -But you use it in the first sense--a mystery. Or in the plural, -‘arcana’--mysteries. The Valley of Mysteries. Good! A dandy!” - -“Give Webster the credit,” she said demurely. “I stumbled upon the word -by accident last night, browsing through the dictionary in search of -something new. I’m surprised, and a little piqued, that you knew the -meaning. I thought I was springing something on you.” - -She turned her head quickly as she spoke, and once more the doctor saw -the pink creep into her cheeks. - -“Mr. Jerome is up,” she said, “and is coming around the house to find -us. Don’t say anything. I mean, don’t call his attention to that.” She -pointed over the glistening forest to the sea once more. “I want to -see how he reacts to it when he steps up here and finds it suddenly -stretched out before him.” - -“I’d like to ask you a question,” the doctor declared quickly. “Do you -really intend to go to the Shinbone Country?” - -“Why, certainly--if everything turns out all right.” - -“When?” - -“Right away.” - -“But it is rather late in the season for such an undertaking, isn’t it? -Winter is almost upon us.” - -“But doesn’t the assessment work have to be done on the opal mines -immediately in order to hold them?” - -“I’d forgotten about that,” said Shonto. - -And then came Andy’s “Good morning,” as he stepped to the rail beside -Charmian and caught his first glimpse of the stupendous scene below him. - -“Lord!” he breathed. “Oh, Lord! Look at that!” - -And Charmian Reemy smiled. Andy Jerome had shown himself to be a member -of her clan. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE CONFERENCE AT JORNY SPRINGS - - -IT was seven o’clock in the morning when Andy Jerome set off on -Charmian Reemy’s gray saddler for his camp. A trail led direct from El -Trono de Tolerancia to the county road, and once upon it Andy could -not possibly miss the way. He was to leave the horse at Lovejoy’s, -a wilderness resort, and continue on afoot to camp. There he would -get his big touring car and drive back to a point in the county road -opposite Charmian’s home. She and the doctor were to travel after him -afoot and meet him there. And Mary Temple had flatly refused to allow -Charmian to “go traipsin’ off with a couple o’ strange men the Lord -knew where,” so she had truculently constituted herself one of the -party. - -Andy met the trio about noon. Dr. Shonto took the seat in the tonneau -with the stern-faced Mary Temple, and Charmian rode in front with -Andy. The handsome big car purred along through the solemn redwoods, -following the level valley which paralleled the coast, with a range of -wooded mountains between. Gray squirrels scurried across the narrow -road, to scamper up lofty trees and bark at them mockingly. The streams -that they crossed were riotous and roared about the huge boulders -in their courses. The sun scarcely penetrated the dark avenues of -the forest. Huckleberry bushes lined the road, the berries ripe and -coloured like grapes. - -They estimated that the prospectors would not make over twenty miles a -day with their slow-moving burros, and maybe less. It was about fifty -miles from the North Fork of the Lizard to the outskirts of the Catfish -Country; so, as they were virtually two days and a half behind the -men, Andy pushed the big car at every opportunity. But the road was so -narrow, and there were so many abrupt turns in it, made necessary by -gigantic trees, that the driver averaged little better than fifteen -miles an hour. - -But they reached Jorny Springs, at the gateway to the Catfish Country, -before four o’clock that afternoon. And there, to their great -satisfaction, they found the prospectors in camp. One of the burros -had gone lame on them, and they were resting the little animal before -beginning the rough journey into the wilds that lay before them. - -Jorny Springs was a backwoods resort conducted by an old man and his -wife. They bottled the effervescent water that bubbled up in a dozen -places from the ground, and shipped it to San Francisco, where it was -known in cafes and soft-drink establishments as Jorny Water. Every -house in that country was, on occasion, a hotel and summer resort, and -such places were known as stations. - -Smith Morley and Omar Leach were camped under the big trees by one of -the springs. Shonto went over and talked with them a little, while -Charmian and Andy ordered lunch at the house. The doctor returned to -them before lunch was ready and made his report of the preliminary -conference. - -“They are willing enough to drop their present prospecting project -right now,” he began. “They have gold claims up in the Catfish Country, -but their importance is more or less problematical. However, they had -enough capital to make this trip, they say, but could not rake up -enough for the Shinbone expedition. So they will be only too glad to -deal with us.” - -“What do they want?” asked Charmian. - -“I didn’t go into that with them,” replied Shonto. “But I imagine they -prefer to sell the claims outright rather than to take in partners. If -you’ll accept my advice, Mrs. Reemy, you’ll be mighty careful what kind -of a deal you make with these boys. They may be all right, and their -claims may be all that they say, but, somehow or other, I don’t just -fancy their looks.” - -“The one you pointed out to me as Morley,” said Charmian, “is a -delightful looking villain. I like to deal with villains. That is, I -think I should. I’ve never had an opportunity. I do hope they try to -put something over on us.” - -Shonto and Andy laughed heartily at this, but the austere Mary Temple -tightened her thin lips and glared at the young widow. - -“Mary Temple refuses to let me have any fun in life,” said Charmian. -“She doesn’t understand my romantic and adventuresome nature in the -least. She wants everything to move along smoothly. Well, everything -has always moved entirely too smoothly to suit me. I want a few -obstacles set in my path. I want to have things happen to me. I want to -live!” - -After lunch the quartette approached the prospectors. Dr. Shonto -introduced Charmian and Mary Temple, and all found seats on stones or -logs or filled pack-bags. - -Charmian was eying the two men closely. - -Smith Morley was dark and tall, and his features were fine except for -the black eyes, which were set too close together. Omar Leach was older -and heavier, with a sprinkling of grey in his hair. His face was full -and inclined to be red. He looked to be a powerful man. - -When they spoke Charmian was surprised. Both used good, everyday -English, and Morley’s account of his opal seeking in Australia was -intensely interesting and fired her imagination. They talked for -half an hour before Morley spoke of the matter that had brought them -together. And when he did so he made the plain statement that the opal -claims in the Shinbone Country were for sale, on a cash basis, and that -he and Leach would take the others to them, prove their value, and do -anything in reason to establish them. - -“And how much do you ask for the claims?” asked the girl. - -“Fifty thousand dollars,” was Morley’s prompt reply. - -Before she could express surprise at the amount, or make any comment -whatever, Smith Morley reached into an inner pocket of his canvas coat -and took out a wad of tissue paper. He deliberately unfolded it, and -dropped seven large opals into the girl’s hand. - -“Look ’em over,” he invited. “They all came from our claims. And there -are plenty more like them to be found.” - -“They’re beautiful,” admitted Charmian, turning a stone this way and -that so that it might catch the light filtering down through the -treetops. “But I can’t understand why, if you can find gems like these, -it doesn’t pay you to work the claims and make them defray their own -expenses.” - -“We could do it if we were there,” put in Omar Leach. “But we’re -practically broke, and it’s a long, expensive trip to the Shinbone -Country.” - -“Then why don’t you sell these?” she asked, rattling the opals in her -hand. - -“We’ve kept them to show prospective buyers,” explained Morley. “We -tried all summer to interest somebody, and that’s one reason why we’re -so short of funds. Showing the gems and trying to induce somebody to -take hold caused us to lose lots of time, when we ought to have been -working for our winter’s grubstake. When we saw that our efforts were a -failure, we worked a little and got together a small grubstake for this -trip into the Catfish Country. Our placer claims up in there are pretty -good, and we can sometimes pan out as high as twenty-five dollars a -day. It’s seldom that we run less than ten dollars. So we thought we -could get up there and pan enough to get us down into the Shinbone -Country before winter set in. Then we could rush things and finish our -assessment work before the end of the year. But if a person had money, -Mrs. Reemy, he could get down there at once and hire half a dozen men -to finish the work in short order. Then he could sit pretty until -spring, provided he didn’t care to winter it in the Shinbone Country -and dig for opals.” - -“You’ll pardon me for what may seem to be an insolent question,” said -the girl, “but how do I know that you did not bring these opals from -Australia?” - -Smith Morley laughed and shrugged. “You have every right to look into -the matter from every angle,” he exonerated her. “We want you to be -cautious and investigate thoroughly. That’s business, Mrs. Reemy. Of -course we can’t prove to you now that those stones didn’t come from -Australia, or that they did come from our claims. But we can show you -when you reach the Shinbone Country.” - -“When can you start?” - -“Just as soon as we can make arrangements with somebody to take care -of our outfit, Mrs. Reemy. We can put the burros on pasture here at -Jorny Springs, I guess, and cache the outfit. Unless it would be more -advisable to take the outfit along. I have an idea we’ll be ready to -hit the trail to-morrow.” - -“And how do we go?” - -“Well, by train, if you prefer. Or if we had a couple of machines like -the one you drove here in--” - -“We have two,” put in Dr. Shonto briefly. - -Both Charmian and Andy Jerome glanced at him curiously. - -“Why, you’re not going along, are you, Doctor?” asked the girl. - -“If I’m welcome, I am,” he stated. - -“Why, of course you’re welcome!” cried Andy. “But--but I’m surprised, -Doctor.” - -“Don’t let it affect you too seriously, Andy,” said Shonto, with his -quiet smile. “Don’t you suppose that I am interested in a project like -this one?” - -“But you weren’t the other day,” his friend pointed out. - -“The other day is not to-day,” said the doctor. “In other words, I’ve -changed my mind. I’ll be frank. I wouldn’t consider going at all if -Mrs. Reemy weren’t taking the matter up. I think she’ll need my mature -judgment in many things; and I mean to go along--if she wants me -to--and give her the benefit of it.” - -“Nothing would delight me more than to have you go, Doctor,” Charmian -said quickly. “But can you spare the time?” - -“I can,” he replied. “I haven’t had a real vacation in the past ten -years. And it strikes me that a fellow might run across some new -medicinal herbs up in your Valley of Arcana. For all we know, there -may be valuable scientific phenomena in that valley that only await -discovery. Your valley, Mrs. Reemy, tempts me more than the opal mines. -But to find the location of the valley, it seems, we must tackle the -mines. So if everything turns out satisfactorily when we get to the -Shinbone Country, I’ll go partners with you on the opal project.” - -“Let’s make it a triple partnership,” Andy suggested. - -“That suits me,” said Charmian. “To be frank, I hardly wanted to go -into the thing alone. This is going to be my life’s big adventure--the -adventure that I have been planning for and longing for and waiting for -for several years. This looks like the big opportunity at last--and I’m -going to take a chance.” - -And here a new voice piped up. - -“Charmian Reemy,” said Mary Temple, “you are not going down into that -hideous country with the hideous name in the company of four strange -men.” - -“Why, old dear,” laughed Charmian, “two of them are not strangers at -all.” - -“What two are not, please?” - -“Doctor Inman Shonto is known all over the United States and Europe,” -Charmian pointed out. “And Mr. Jerome is his friend. What better -recommendation could one ask for, Mary Temple?” - -“There will be four men, and only two women,” Mary told her. “And -it’s--it’s all but downright indecent.” - -“Two women?” - -“Certainly. You are one, and I am one.” - -“Oh, you mean to go, too, then? I thought you would return to San -Francisco and wait there for me.” - -“If you persist in going into that boneyard country, Charmian, I am -going with you. And that ends that.” - -“Well, goodness knows you’re welcome, Mary Temple,” laughed Charmian. -“But I didn’t for a minute imagine that you would care to go.” - -“I don’t,” snapped Mary Temple. “But that’s not saying I’m not going. -And there must be two more women in the party.” - -“Oh, Mary Temple! What a prig you are! Do you want to pair us off?” - -“Common decency demands that there be as many women as there are men,” -declared Mary. - -“We might take my wife along,” Smith Morley put in. “She’s in Los -Angeles now. She could meet us at ----. Well, I’ll arrange that. -But Leach hasn’t a wife--yet. Wouldn’t three women do, Miss Temple? -Another person would make the two machines pretty full, you know. -We’ll have a world of baggage to pile in the tonneaus and lash on the -running-boards.” - -“What is your wife like?” demanded Mary Temple unfeelingly. - -“Why, Mary Temple! What an impertinent question!” cried Charmian. - -“Impertinent or not,” barked Mary, “I want to know what his wife is -like before I give my consent.” - -Morley only laughed and showed no resentment. “Why, she’s a pretty good -old girl,” he told her. “She’s a good housewife, not bad looking, a -good dresser when I’m in luck, and pretty rough and ready when it comes -to camp life in the wilderness. You’ll like her, I think.” - -“Have you any children?” demanded Mary. - -“No.” - -Mary sighed and clasped her veiny hands. “Well,” she declared, “I’d -feel safer if you had a child to take along--preferably a little girl -of seven or eight. The child, perhaps, would restrain you if you had -anything evil in your mind.” - -“Mary Temple, I’m ashamed of you!” Charmian half laughed, and the -colour flooded her face. - -“I’m only looking out for your interests, my dear,” said Mary. “If I -didn’t, who would? I distrust men on general principles, as you know -very well. But if you’re determined to go, Charmian, we can at least -travel to where we are to meet Mrs. Morley. Then if she suits me, we’ll -go on. If not, we’ll come back.” - -“You’re a regular tyrant, Mary Temple!” pouted Charmian. - -“I know it,” Mary retorted. “But I get results.” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -SECOND SIGHT - - -BECAUSE Mary Temple was afraid to ride over the narrow curving road -after dark, the four prospective adventurers remained at Jorny Springs -all night. Before going to bed Charmian, coached by the doctor, made -arrangements with Leach and Morley to go to San Francisco and sign -certain papers to show good faith, which papers would be drawn up by -the young widow’s attorney. When this matter had been settled, they -were to drive together to the Shinbone Country--wherever that was--and -make a thorough investigation of the properties. - -Both Leach and Morley had protested against entering into a written -agreement. They offered to produce references which ought to satisfy -the most suspicious, but Dr. Shonto remained firm. Finally, seeing -no way around the obstacle, they consented, but declared that they -begrudged the time that would be taken up by the trip to San Francisco. - -After the plain, old-fashioned dinner served by the owners of Jorny -Springs, Charmian took a walk through the twilight. Shortly after she -left the house Andy Jerome set off in the opposite direction, stating -that he too would like a stroll. But when the great trees hid him from -the house he made a swift circle back, and soon was on Charmian’s -trail. He found her leaning over a fence, watching a dozen fat and -shockingly muddy pigs in a stake-and-rider corral. - -“I see you prefer to choose your own company,” he observed, as he -rested his arms on the fence beside her. “I hope one more won’t -constitute a crowd.” - -“Aren’t they funny!” she laughed. “I love pigs and things like that. -Cows and chickens and horses and everything. Do you know that I, as the -head of the expedition to be, intend to make a hard-and-fast ruling at -the very outset? It’s this: No one in the party will be permitted to -kill any living thing.” - -“Why, that’s a funny idea,” he laughed. “If a fellow can’t do a little -hunting to pass away dull hours, how’s he going to amuse himself? And -it may be that we’ll frequently find ourselves in need of fresh meat.” - -“I don’t care,” she said. “I don’t approve of the slaughter of the -innocents. I used to hunt myself, but I gave it up. I can’t bear to -take a life. Man can’t create, yet in the winking of an eyelid he can -and will destroy a life that he can never reproduce. It’s the same with -a tree. One can cut down a tree in thirty minutes which nature has -spent hundreds of years in growing. And man can’t replace it. Whenever -I hear one of these giant redwoods fall groaning under the ax my heart -fairly bleeds.” - -“But man must live,” Andy pointed out. - -“I don’t know whether he must or not,” she said seriously. “He’s made -a complete botch of existence. Sometimes I wish the entire race were -wiped out, so nature could begin all over again. Man is as barbarous -to-day as he was a thousand years ago. The only difference is that he -has invented new machinery with which to practise his barbarism.” - -“Why, you’re a regular little cynic!” Andy accused. - -“Perhaps. I have little patience with mankind, if that’s what you mean. -The so-called lower animals have my love and sympathy. They haven’t -made a farce of their lives, as we have. And vivisection--that’s what -makes me wild! Man, by his own selfish indulgences, by his reckless -living, his complete disregard of the laws of nature, has succeeded -in shortening his life and depleting his physical vigour. So, in his -eagerness to continue the debauch, scared stiff at thought of the -yawning precipice just ahead of him, he turns in his cowardly way -to the so-called lower animals. He robs these helpless creatures of -their health and vitality in order to patch up his poor, miserable, -worthless body. Like the five foolish virgins, men say to these wise -virgins--these innocents of the earth who have conserved their oil of -life--‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out.’ Could anything -be more cowardly, Mr. Jerome?” - -“But aren’t the lower animals placed on this earth for the benefit of -man?” asked Andy. - -“Oh, yes--man imagines everything on earth is put here for him to -exploit and ruin! Where are the buffaloes? Where are the beavers? Where -are the elks? Where are the bighorns? Were they put here for man to -destroy--to wipe almost completely from the face of the earth? When man -has learned to step down from his papier-mâché throne of insufferable -conceit, he will find that he is only a part of nature’s scheme--that -every other atom in the universe is as important as he is. Then we can -begin to look for the dawn of civilization.” - -“I’m afraid,” said Andy, “that you and Doctor Shonto are not destined -to get along very well together.” - -“Why?” - -“Well, it is his business to exploit nature for the rebuilding of man.” - -“Yes--I know. I tried to draw him out this morning, but he refused to -be tempted into a discussion of his work. How long have you known him, -Mr. Jerome?” - -“Why, almost all my life, it seems. He is an old friend of my father -and mother. I can’t remember when I didn’t know the doctor.” - -“That seems strange. He is not so much older than you are. How old are -you?” - -“Twenty-four,” Andy replied. - -“And I should say the doctor is not much over thirty.” - -“Thirty-four, I believe.” - -“Then he was ten years old when you were born. Could you call him a -‘friend of your father and mother’ when he was ten years old? Did you -play with him when you were a boy?” - -For a long time Andy Jerome was silent. Then he said slowly: - -“I must tell you something about myself. I can recall almost nothing -of my childhood before my twelfth birthday. And my earliest -recollections are of Doctor Shonto. I remember him as about twenty-two -or twenty-three years old. And, to me, he never was younger than that.” - -“Why, I can’t understand you at all!” exclaimed the girl. - -“It’s very difficult to understand,” he said in low tones. “But when -I was about eight years old, they tell me, something happened to me. -It seems that I got a crack on the noodle while playing and lost my -memory. I remained in that condition from the age of eight until I was -perhaps between eleven and twelve. It was Doctor Shonto, who had just -been graduated from a medical college and was already making a big -name for himself, who treated me and brought me out of my coma. But, -strange to say, it left me with a weak heart. I have to take treatment -for it right along, and the doctor tells me that, if I neglect this -treatment, my old condition will come back, or I may suddenly drop -dead. For all that, I’m fit as a fiddle and strong as an ox. It seems -funny to think that I may bump off at any moment--hard to believe. But -nobody ever doubts Doctor Shonto. However, he has assured me again and -again that I have nothing whatever to worry about, so long as I take my -medicine diligently. I guess I haven’t missed a day since he began his -treatment.” - -“Why, how strange!” was Charmian’s only comment. - -“It is strange--mighty strange. Now and then I get a faint glimmering -of something that took place before I was eight years of age, but -it’s so hazy that it seems like it happened to some one else instead -of me. And it seemed that, when I gradually regained my memory, I was -being born all over again. I had the mind of a child of two or three, -though I was over twelve years old. I remembered nothing of what had -been taught me in the private school that they told me I had once -attended. I had to begin my schooling at the very bottom again. Lord, -how they made me cram! I studied night and day, and seemed eager enough -to learn. They tell me that I have caught up because of my perpetual -digging--that I now have the mentality of a normal man of my age. And -so for the past year I have studied very little, and have been catching -up on the physical end. I have lived in the open months at a time, and -frequently Doctor Shonto has been with me. He likes it himself, and he -likes to be with me. And I can tell you right here and now that I think -Doctor Inman Shonto the greatest man alive!” - -“I’ll bet you do,” said Charmian warmly. “But it strikes me as rather -strange that you should never call him Doc, since you two are so close.” - -“I guess I’d never think of calling him that,” said Andy reflectively. -“No, that wouldn’t seem the proper thing to do.” - -“What do you do when you’re at home, Mr. Jerome?” - -“Why, I hope to become a lawyer some day,” he replied. “You see, I’m -still a student. I’ve studied law a little and mean to take up a -regular course next year. But for the present my parents and Doctor -Shonto think it best for me to loaf around outdoors.” - -“I suppose your folks are wealthy,” said Charmian in her frank way. - -“Yes, they’re accounted so. Pop has retired. He was a candy and cracker -manufacturer. I’d like to have you meet my mother. She’s a peach. You’d -like her. She’d like you, too.” - -“And so your hero is Doctor Inman Shonto,” mused Charmian. “I wonder if -it would be proper for me to ask you about his work, after he himself -has refused to tell me anything?” - -“Precious little I can tell you,” laughed Andy. “But I’ll do my best. -If Doctor Shonto has any secrets, they’re safe with me because I -couldn’t explain them if I wanted to. Fire ahead. Doctor Shonto doesn’t -like to talk about himself. He’s entirely too modest.” - -“I wanted to ask you,” said the girl, “if Doctor Shonto is in any way -responsible for the horrible things I have read about in the papers -lately. Rich men hiring thugs to waylay strong, healthy men, knock them -out, and take them to doctors, who operate on them and steal their -glands, which are substituted for the worn-out glands of the rich men?” - -“Nothing doing!” loyally cried Andy. “Doctor Shonto says the most of -that news is nothing but hot air. No, he never uses human glands in -his work. He uses sheep glands exclusively. And the animals are killed -before he cuts the glands out of them.” - -“Are you positive?” - -“I have only his word for it. But he’s a very tender-hearted man--for -a surgeon. And he has a magnificent sense of justice. No, not in a -thousand years would Doctor Shonto countenance anything like that.” - -“I’m glad to hear you say so,” she sighed. “I think that is simply -horrible--ghoulish! But why was it, then, that the doctor refused to -tell me anything about his work?” - -“Well, he has accomplished wonders, they say. And, as I told you -before, he’s modest.” - -“Modesty reaps its reward only in fiction.” - -“I imagine the doctor is keener after results than rewards,” Andy -mused. “I’ll tell you the little that I have gleaned--mostly about the -thyroid gland, which, you know, is in our throats. - -“It seems that, if a fellow is shy on thyroid, he’s up against it in -many ways. He may be slow to learn, clumsy, and may have an unbalanced -sense of right and wrong. If he is fed the extract of the thyroid -glands of sheep, this can be corrected. - -“It is the same with the other glands in our system. Some control one -thing, some another. And, according to Doctor Shonto’s theory, the -time is close at hand when deficient people can be entirely remade -by injecting into them, or feeding them, the extract of the gland -secretion that they’re shy on. This will revolutionize our social -system, according to Doctor Shonto. We will know then that mental -defectives, criminals, people who are petulant and hard to get along -with--in fact, everybody who is in any way not up to normal--are so -because of the absence, or the over-supply, of the secretions of -certain glands. This science can correct, and the time may come when -we will be able to do away with prisons and corrective institutions, -and treat our fellowmen instead of mistreating them.” - -“Heaven speed the day!” said Charmian fervently. “But why, tell me, did -Doctor Shonto hesitate about telling me that?” - -Andy shrugged his broad shoulders. “_Quien sabe_,” he said, “unless his -modesty made him reticent. I think he’s afraid of being ridiculed as a -visionary theorist.” - -“Doctor Shonto doesn’t strike me as a man who would shrink from -ridicule, if he thought he was in the right,” Charmian declared. - - * * * * * - -Two days later the six who were interested in the opal project and the -Valley of Arcana arrived in San Francisco late in the evening. It was -after business hours, so nothing could be done toward drawing up the -papers until the following morning. Charmian called up her attorney, -briefly outlined the situation, and arranged for a conference at ten -the following day. Then she went to her apartments with Mary Temple, -while Andy and Dr. Shonto took rooms in the Palace Hotel. Smith Morley -sent a telegram to his wife in Los Angeles, after which he and his -partner sought a cheap rooming house on Kearny Street. They were to -meet the others in the offices of Charmian’s lawyer at eleven o’clock -next morning. - -Charmian Reemy was tired from the long automobile ride from the -wilderness, and went early to bed. Shortly after her retirement Mary -Temple stepped softly to her bedroom door and listened until convinced -that her young charge was sound asleep. Then she put on her ancient fur -coat and her surprisingly old-fashioned hat, and noiselessly left the -apartment. - -The elevator was still running, and she rode in it to the ground floor, -where she slipped out into a cold, foggy night. At the corner she took -a streetcar and rode to a point in the city directly opposite Golden -Gate Park. Here she left the car, walked three blocks, and rang the -bell of a three-story flat. - -Presently the door automatically swung open, and she entered a warm, -carpeted hall. She briskly ascended a long flight of stairs, at the top -of which a large woman in a blue-silk kimono awaited her. - -“Oh, it’s you, is it, dearie?” greeted the woman. “I thought you were -in the country.” - -“We came back this evening, Madame Destrehan,” said Mary, reaching the -large woman’s side and extending her hand. “And I came direct to you. -I’m in trouble again. That little minx has a new wild scheme in her -head. I can’t talk her out of it. But I’m afraid. I just know there’s -something wrong.” - -“Come in and tell me all about it,” offered Madame Destrehan. “I know I -can help you. I--I--” She placed a fat, white, bejewelled hand to her -forehead and brushed across it. “I see something now.” - -They entered the medium’s apartment. Both seated themselves, and Mary -Temple poured out the story of the two strangers who had invaded El -Trono de Tolerancia, and of the opal claims and the Valley of Arcana. -Madame Destrehan listened with both eyes closed. She sat immovable -after Mary’s cracked voice ceased, her eyelids still lowered. - -Then she began waving her plump hands slowly this way and that. She -did not open her eyes, but she mumbled something which Mary could not -interpret. Then suddenly she began speaking in a low, awed tone. - -“I see that valley,” said the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. -“It’s beautiful, but death stalks across it from end to end. And I -see-- Oh, horrors! I see an ugly face. The face of a man. It is bluish, -and the eyes are popping from the head. The eyes are glazed, and his -thick, blue tongue hangs out like the tongue of a tired dog. The man’s -hair is dishevelled and long. A matted beard covers his face. His eyes -stare, then gleam with ferocity. His skin is withered and yellow, -and his finger nails are long. He grits his teeth and babbles like -a madman. And--oh, horrors! He is leaning over Mrs. Reemy, and his -crooked fingers are drawing nearer and nearer to her white throat!” - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -LOT’S WIFE AND SHIRTTAIL HENRY - - -THE papers had been signed. Andy Jerome and Dr. Inman Shonto had wired -to Los Angeles to explain that they probably would not be home for a -month. Smith Morley’s wife had arrived in San Francisco, since the -adventurers’ trip to the city had necessitated a change in their route -to the Shinbone Country. Several days were spent in outfitting the -expedition. And just a week after Dr. Shonto had told Charmian Reemy of -the prospectors they set off early in the morning, with Charmian, Andy, -and Mr. and Mrs. Morley in the leading car. - -Two days later, having driven leisurely and stopped at hotels en -route, they negotiated a steep, wooded pass and saw the yellow desert -stretched out before them, three thousand feet above the sea. Across -it continued the road, straight as a carpenter’s chalk-line, until it -contracted to a pinpoint in the hazy distance and disappeared with the -curvature of the earth. - -The big cars wallowed into the sandy ruts and continued on. Weird -growths were on either side of the road--great flat-palmed cacti, -whispering yucca palms, scattering greasewood bushes. The wind was -strong, and the sand was driven into the travellers’ faces in waves. -Now and then the cars crossed dry lakes, which, before they reached -them, had looked deceptively wet. These were smooth, like hardened -plaster of Paris, except that now and then the mud, in drying, had -cracked and peeled, leaving a sea of shards that extended for many -miles. Nothing at all grew on the dark surface of these dry lakes. - -In the dim distance a hazy line of calico buttes appeared after an hour -of fast travel over the desert. As the machines neared them a long line -of mountains showed behind the buttes, and the uninitiated of the party -were told that between the buttes and the range of wooded mountains lay -another stretch of desert as barren as the one they then were crossing. -The buttes marked the beginning of the Shinbone Country, which extended -into the higher altitudes. In the buttes were the opal claims. - -They came to an oasis, green with alfalfa. Here for forty years a -family had lived because of the artesian water that spurted up from the -level land. The cottonwood trees, though they had shed their leaves for -the coming winter, looked inviting to the sand-blistered pilgrims. The -place was called Diamond H Ranch, and the owner herded his cattle on -the desert during winter months, when bunchgrass grew, and drove them -to the distant mountains for the summer grazing. - -Not until they reached the ranch did Smith Morley inform his -prospective buyers that here their journey by automobile would end. -There was a huge stable, and in it there was plenty of room to store -the cars. Also, Morley told them, they would meet with no difficulty -in buying or hiring saddle horses and pack animals from the ranchman. -Furthermore, he conducted a tiny store in connection with his ranch, -and if it should become necessary to do so, they could return to the -ranch at any time and purchase such staple articles of food as might be -needed. - -Roger Furlong was the rancher’s name. He and his family made the guests -welcome and treated them hospitably. The afternoon was spent in the -selection of saddle stock, and the rancher’s boy was sent scouring the -desert for a herd of burros, which were at large and living off the -sage. It was late in the afternoon before the herd was rounded up and -driven in to the corrals. Here Furlong picked out twelve animals that -were old-time packers. The outfit’s supplies and paraphernalia were -transferred from the tonneaus and running-boards of the machines to the -pack-bags. When darkness came everything was ready for an early start -for the calico buttes the following morning. - -All of which caused Mary Temple to register a look of high disapproval. - -Mary had roughed it considerably in Alaska, so the trip in the saddle -had no terrors for her. Neither did she shrink from their proposed -sojourn in a wild, waterless, and unfriendly country. But she was -amazed and resentful over the whole proceedings. - -In San Francisco, while they were outfitting, she had done her utmost -to dissuade Charmian from continuing her erratic undertaking. But that -young lady had a mind of her own and was not to be led astray from her -life’s great adventure. Every plan for preventing her from going having -failed, Mary had recourse to a recital of what Madame Destrehan’s -second sight had revealed to her. At this Charmian had scoffed -disdainfully and laughed hilariously, for Charmian was well aware -that Mary often consulted people who claimed to have occult powers. -So Mary perforce carried out her original intention and made one of -the party, for only death could separate her from Charmian Reemy. But -as preparations for the final lap of their journey went forward she -continued to glare her displeasure and to shake her greying head with -misgivings. - -They left Diamond H Ranch at sunup next morning, driving the laden -burros ahead of them. Their course took them at right angles to -the road over which they had reached the oasis, and extended in a -northeasterly direction through the trackless sage and greasewood. - -The sand grew heavier as they progressed. The wind came up and drove -clouds of it into their faces, sometimes with stinging force. Laden -with alkali as it was, their lips and eyelids soon began to swell, and -their throats grew parched. They drank heavily of the water in the -desert bags on the burros’ backs, for Morley assured the party that -there would probably be sufficient water near the claims at that time -of year. There was an intermittent spring in the buttes, he explained, -that went dry during the hot months through evaporation. But with -the approach of winter, even though no rain had fallen, the water -rose again in the spring because the evaporation was lessened by the -coolness in the air. - -They camped at noon, halfway to the buttes. The morning had been cool -and bracing, and the temperature of the noontide was moderate. Morley -informed the newcomers that in less than a month the weather would be -cool enough to suit any of them, and that snow, even, might sweep down -from the mountains and lie on the ground for several hours. - -It was a long, hard trip, for none of them, with the exception of -the young widow, had been in the saddle to any great extent for many -months. Charmian rode just behind the waddling burros, with Andy at her -side. Shonto rode beside Mary Temple, who for the most part made an -uncommunicative companion. The prospectors rode with Morley’s wife in -the rear, and the trio had very little to say to the others. - -Dr. Shonto watched Andy and Charmian and could not help but admire -them. Physically they were well suited to each other, and both were -young and handsome. Since their first meeting Shonto had taken note -of the gradual drawing together of the two. He realized that, on the -surface of things, this was as it should be. They were equals socially -and intellectually, and few there were who would not have called it a -fine match. - -Still, Dr. Shonto knew in his heart that he could not allow this thing -to go on and culminate in the age-old life partnership between man and -woman. He sincerely believed that he himself was the man for Charmian -Reemy. Never before had he met a woman who appealed to him as she did, -both physically and mentally. Despite the difference in their ages, he -felt that he, rather than Andy, was the one to satisfy her and round -out her life to a point as near completeness as humanity can achieve. -She was far older than Andy mentally. Andy was only a strong, handsome -boy. He--the doctor--was a man of experience, of achievement, of broad -ideals. But all that aside, Dr. Shonto knew that he was falling in -love with Charmian, and that, if necessary, he would sacrifice Andy’s -friendship to win her. For love is primitive; and when a man of the -doctor’s age and experience falls in love for the first time he makes -a rival that will brook no interference. In shorter phraseology, the -doctor wanted this girl--and he meant to have her. - -As the long evening shadows crawled over the yucca- and cactus-studded -wastes the party entered the buttes. Here they found relief from -the monotonous desolation they had left, for huge rocks squatted on -either side of their course, and the yuccas were larger and seemed -more friendly. The buttes themselves showed a variety to which the -level land could not lay claim, and here and there was a juniper tree, -alone and unwatered, but displaying a greenery that made it in a way -companionable. - -Darkness had overtaken them when Smith Morley called a halt. They were -far within the chain of buttes, in an enfilade with walls of stone -towering high above them on either side. They had reached the spring, -and, after an examination of it, the prospector made the welcome -announcement that there was considerable water in the natural stone -basin beneath the drip. For some time, however, the water supply would -be short, and it would possibly prove necessary to take the saddle -horses into the mountains, the foothills of which were about five miles -distant, and leave them there in a certain well-watered meadow of -which the opal miners knew. The burros, camel-like, could live on very -little water; and the spring perhaps would drip enough for them and the -domestic use of the party. The claims were two miles farther on, in the -direction of the mountains. - -They pitched camp at once. Leach and Mrs. Morley went on a search for -petrified yucca with which to build a fire. The others unpacked the -burros, hobbled the horses, and pitched the tents. - -Mary Temple, because of her superior culinary knowledge--which no one -disputed--constituted herself camp cook; and the first thing she had -not condemned since leaving El Trono de Tolerancia was the excellent -fire that the petrified yucca made. Her appetizing supper was ready -before the last tent had been pitched, and they all gathered around it -under the cold desert stars and ate as enjoyably as their cracked and -swollen lips would permit. - -All were excessively weary, and, though the meal revived their spirits -in a measure, no one would have been averse to seeking his roll of -blankets at an early hour. This, however, was forestalled by the sound -of a voice that came suddenly from the night about them--a strange, -cracked voice that startled them. - -“Hello!” it said. “I hope and trust ye ain’t used up all the water in -the spring, ’cause I ain’t had a drop since noon, an’ Lot’s Wife ain’t -had none since yistiddy mornin’.” - -Omar Leach, who was reclining on one elbow placidly smoking a short -briar pipe, flipped himself to a sitting posture and stared at Morley. -Morley’s face twitched, and his close-set eyes seemed to narrow -perceptibly as he gazed back at his partner. - -Then Leach gave himself another flip and was on his feet. “Get outa -here!” he bawled. “Go on home, and you’ll find plenty of water. We’re -tired and want to go to bed and can’t be bothered with you.” - -“Oh, it’s you, is it, Omar?” called the voice. “An’ ye’d send me on to -the mountains without a drink, would ye? It’s like ye, by gum! Well, -I’m comin’ in for water for me an’ Lot’s Wife. Maybe the rest o’ yer -gang ain’t so all-fired selfish. C’m’ere, ye pillar o’ salt! Wait a -min-ut, can’t ye!” - -This last apparently was addressed to Lot’s Wife, who, when she dashed -into camp and buried her muzzle in the spring basin, proved to be a -slant-eared, knock-kneed female burro as shaggy as the trunk of a -shell-bark hickory. After her plodded a man, who had lost his hold on -her lead-rope. - -Smith Morley darted toward the burro and gave her a kick in the belly -that brought a grunt of pain from her. He drew back his leg for -another, but found himself facing Charmian Reemy’s flashing eyes. - -“You kick that burro again,” she said, “and I start for home to-morrow -morning. So that’s the kind of man you are, is it? You would keep a -fellow traveller in this forsaken land and his burro from drinking -water, would you? Well, Mr. Morley, I don’t know whether it is safe to -trust in a business deal a man who has such selfishness in his heart as -you have shown. I may decide to go back anyway.” - -Smith Morley looked foolish and embarrassed. - -“But you don’t understand, Mrs. Reemy,” he defended himself. “This -water is mighty precious. We’ll have to let it drip twelve hours to -get enough for ourselves and the pack animals for a day; and I can -see right now that the horses will have to go to the mountains in the -morning. And this fellow here--I know him well. He’s the recognized -nuisance of the Shinbone Country. A burro can go for days without -water--they’re like a camel, Mrs. Reemy. And this old desert rat can do -it, too. He’s less than ten miles from his home. Why don’t he go there -for his water? We were here first. It’s first come first served in the -Shinbone Country, when it comes to water.” - -“Ten miles is a long trip when one hasn’t had a drink in about seven -hours,” said Charmian. Then she wheeled upon the comical figure that -had followed the burro into camp. - -“Your burro shall have all the water she needs,” she promised him. “And -you may fill up your bags, if you have any. I’m Mrs. Charmian Reemy, of -San Francisco, and this lady is my companion, Miss Mary Temple. These -two gentlemen are Doctor Shonto and Mr. Jerome, of Los Angeles. You -know the others, it seems. We’re here to investigate their opal claims.” - -The man was tall, and his bronzed face was covered with ragged brown -whiskers. His eyes were large and blue and innocent-looking. His -clothes were far too large for him, enormous though his body was. -Quaintness stood out all over him. - -“I’m reg’lar glad to meet ye, ma’am,” he grinned, bowing profoundly. -“And, lady”--he made another impressive bow to Mary--“the same to you.” -He turned to Dr. Shonto and Andy. “Gentle-_men_,” he said, and bent -nearly double again. “I am Shirttail Henry. They call me Shirttail -because I live at Shirttail Bend, which is a hairpin curve in th’ trail -that leads from these here buttes here to the meadows up on top o’ the -mountains. My right name’s Henry Richkirk, an’ I ain’t a nuisance in -these parts, if I do say it myself. But I could name some that are, -though I wouldn’t. You,” he continued, swinging back toward Charmian -as if the wind had caught his fluttery garments and whisked him about, -“are a gorgeous pretty girl, an’ seein’ ye stood up for Lot’s Wife, -I guess ye’re perfect. If ye wanta make Shirttail Henry your friend, -stand up f’r Lot’s Wife. Ye done it, an’ I’ll tell ye somethin’ about -opals before ye go any furder. Shirttail Henry knows th’ stones that’ve -caught the colours o’ the rainbow. An’ he knows how they get them -colours. Ye stood up f’r Lot’s Wife, an’ Shirttail Henry’s gonta stand -up f’r you. Nuisance, eh! Well--” - -But here Smith Morley and Omar Leach leaped upon the man, and together -they bore him, fighting, to the ground. - -“He’s crazy, Mrs. Reemy,” puffed Leach, struggling to keep the big man -on his back. “Crazy as a roadrunner. Dangerous, too! He’s lived in this -country all alone too long--and he’s--” - -At this point Dr. Inman Shonto and Andy Jerome took a hand in the rough -proceedings. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -MISSING - - -DESPITE the fact that there were two against him, the curious man from -the mountains needed little aid. He was a powerful Cyclops, and his -columnar arms flailed out to right and left as he fought on his back -like a ’coon. He might have pounded off his enemies and gained his feet -alone in time. But Andy had grabbed the coat collar of Omar Leach, -and Dr. Shonto, himself a snarl of sinewy muscles, was in like manner -dragging Smith Morley from the prostrate mountaineer. Charmian Reemy, -biting her lips, looked on without a word. Mary observed proceedings -with an acidulous smile, which might have signified any one of several -primitive emotions. - -While the doctor and Andy held the prospectors off, Shirttail Henry -bounded to his feet and broadcasted a wide grin about the circle. - -“You boys,” he said to Leach and Morley, “come purty near goin’ too fur -that time. Some o’ these days when ye get rambunctious with me, I’ll -take a stick and knock yer gysh-danged heads off. Heh-heh-heh!” - -Despite the rather serious aspect of the situation, Charmian burst -into a fit of laughter. Nothing could have been milder than the tone -that Shirttail Henry used in reproaching his assailants. And his grin, -together with the cackling laugh that followed his words of censure, -took all of the menace out of his speech. Time and again in later days -she was to hear Shirttail Henry utter dire threats of vengeance on some -one, but invariably the sting was taken from his venomous tirade by the -cracked “heh-heh-heh” that followed it. - -Morley and Leach glowered at him, but made no further move to molest -him. They knew that they were “in bad” with the prospective buyers of -their mining properties, so they held their peace and did not struggle -to free themselves. - -It was Charmian who broke the silence that followed Shirttail Henry -Richkirk’s prophecy. - -“This is a fine set of proceedings,” she said witheringly. “Mr. -Richkirk, if you care to, we’d like to have you camp with us to-night. -We--I mean the greenhorns of the party--are ready and willing to do -anything to make amends for the inhospitable treatment Mr. Leach and -Mr. Morley have shown you. And if you feel inclined to tell me what you -hinted at--about opals, you know--I’ll certainly be glad to hear it.” - -But to her surprise Shirttail Henry had half turned from her and was -gazing through a break in the buttes at the distant mountains. The moon -was showering its pale radiance on the desert. Shirttail Henry extended -one of his long arms and pointed to a tiny cloud above the distant -range, which the moonlight now revealed. - -“See that cloud?” he asked. “Well, that means Shirttail Henry and Lot’s -Wife have gotta go. I can’t stay with ye to-night, ma’am--thank ye -kindly. I gotta be gettin’ to Shirttail Bend right quick, for maybe -that cloud means rain. C’m’on, Mrs. Lot.” He hurried to the burro -and grabbed up the lead-rope. “Good night, people. I’ll see ye maybe -to-morrow, ma’am, an’ tell ye about the opals. Good night, all--and -thank ye kindly!” - -With the newcomers staring after him in wonderment, he hustled his -dejected pack animal out of camp, and they faded away into the desert -night. - -“Well, of all things!” gasped Mary Temple. - -“You can see for yourselves,” said Leach, with a note of doggedness in -his tones, “that he’s a regular nut. He’s a hermit and lives all alone -up there, not seeing anybody in months. He traps and fishes, and makes -out in a disreputable cabin, with only his burro for company. He’s the -biggest nuisance imaginable, and, besides, he’s dangerously insane.” - -“I don’t believe that, Mr. Leach,” Charmian declared, and set her red -lips tightly after the words. - -Leach shrugged. “Can’t help that, Mrs. Reemy,” he told her in a hurt -tone. “But it’s the truth. I don’t want him in camp with me when I’m -asleep. He might sneak up and cut my throat. The one thing on earth -that I fear is a crazy man.” - -Andy and Dr. Shonto had released their captives, and now they silently -sat down on the ground and awaited the outcome of the dialogue between -Charmian and the opal miners. This was her adventure, and they did not -wish to interfere so long as their opinions were not asked for. - -“What did he mean about the cloud?” she asked. - -“Oh, that,” said Morley, and laughed shortly. “He is employed by the -weather bureau to record the rainfall and snowfall in the section -of the mountains where he lives. He gets seven or seven and a half -a month--I forget just how much--for being on hand to read his rain -gauge and sending in his reports. It’s the most ridiculous thing you -ever heard of, Mrs. Reemy. Henry will be away ’tending to his traps, -and up comes a little cloud about the size of his ear. Then he drops -everything and races home to his rain gauge, over which he’ll squat -until the cloud floats out of his section of the mountains. And when -it does rain or snow he chases with his report all the way to Diamond -H Ranch and sends it in to the weather bureau. And maybe while he’s -making the trip another cloud will show up. Then he’s between the devil -and the deep blue sea, for his report ought to go in at once, while at -the same time more rain is threatening on his station. All that for not -over seven and a half a month. Can you beat it! What do you think of -him now? Is he crazy? And the kick he gets out of that job would make -a horse laugh. He’s always calling himself a goverment official; and -when his check doesn’t arrive promptly he writes a complaint to the -President. Oh, Henry’s a scream, all right!” - -“He may be all of that,” Charmian spoke thoughtfully, “but that’s no -excuse for mistreating him.” - -“Why, Mrs. Reemy--” - -“I don’t believe that I care to hear any defence of what you two men -did to-night,” she interrupted crisply. “Please let’s drop the subject. -I’m tired; I’m going to bed. Good night, everybody.” - -She walked away toward her tent, but paused suddenly, turned, and -hurled back a parting shot. - -“And I shall have a talk with Shirttail Henry before going any further -into the buying of your opal claims.” - -Then she walked on out of the radius of the firelight glow. - - * * * * * - -It was dawn when Dr. Inman Shonto awoke. He crawled halfway out of his -blankets and parted the tent flaps. Through the inchoate light he saw -the gleam of the campfire and a figure moving about it. He heard the -low rattle of pots and pans. The figure, he knew soon, was that of the -industrious Mary Temple, and she was all alone. - -The doctor himself had intended to rise first, rebuild the fire, and -set water on to boil; but Mary had forestalled him. Provoked at himself -for allowing a woman to rise first and begin the hard work of camp -life, he struggled into his clothes without awaking Andy and hurried -out to her. - -“Good morning,” he greeted her. “It’s pretty shivery out here. You beat -me to it, and I apologize for oversleeping and allowing you to start -breakfast alone.” - -“You’re a very considerate gentleman, Doctor,” replied Mary Temple. -“But this is nothing new for me, and I like to work. I like to smell -the dawn come, too. They’ve gone.” - -“What’s that? Who’s gone, Miss Temple?” - -“Leach and Morley and his wife,” Mary replied, raking coals one side -from the fire on which to place the coffeepot to simmer. - -“Gone? Gone where?” - -“Land knows! But I guessed it last night. They knew they’d not have any -chance after Charmian talked with that Shirttail body. They’re crooked, -Doctor. A dog’s hind leg would look like a steel ruler ’longside of -Leach and Morley. I knew it--I just knew it all along!” - -“Do you mean, Miss Temple, that Morley and his wife and Leach have -ridden off and left us here on the desert?--that their opal claims are -a fake, and that they were afraid Shirttail Henry would expose them to -Mrs. Reemy?” - -“Of course,” answered Mary simply. “I knew it all along, but nobody -would have paid any attention to me, so I couldn’t say boo to a goose. -Now isn’t this a beautiful splatchet?” - -“I don’t believe I understand you,” puzzled the physician. “A -‘splatchet’?” - -Mary never seemed to find the dictionaries adequate to the needs of her -vocabulary. She invented words indiscriminately when the sound of them -seemed to suggest the thought she wanted to express. - -“A splatchet,” she said carefully, “is a double mess on the floor. If -you were baking pancakes, for instance, and turned to the sink a second -to rinse out a couple of teacups, then saw that the pancakes were about -to burn, and then you jumped for them and upset both the dishwater and -the pancake batter, you’d make a splatchet on the floor.” - -“What animals have they taken?” asked Shonto, with a smile at her droll -word coinage. “Have you investigated?” - -“Of course,” said Mary. “They’ve taken the three horses they rode here -on, a little grub, and three canteens of water. That’s all. No great -loss to us. We’ve plenty left to travel back on. They tied what grub -they took behind their saddles, for all the burros are here.” - -“You didn’t find a note or anything like that?” - -“Nothing.” - -“Well, this is a pretty mess, Miss Temple! Mrs. Reemy will be sick with -disappointment.” - -“Maybe so. It’ll do her good. If she’d taken my advice she’d be tucked -in her pretty ivory bed at El Trono de Tolerancia this minute, and I’d -be turning flapjacks at the fireplace. But, no--I don’t know anything! -Nobody listens to me!” - -“To be quite frank with you,” said the doctor, “I’m a little glad too -that things have turned out like this. I hated to see Mrs. Reemy sink -fifty thousand dollars in opal mines, so I offered to go in with her. -So did Andy. But all three of us have about as much need for an opal -mine as we have for two noses. Just the same, I was willing to put my -shoulder under a third of the proposition to please Mrs. Reemy and -help her out with her great adventure. But now, as I said, I’m rather -satisfied that it has turned out as it has.” - -“You like to see the fire flash in her brown eyes when she talks about -her big adventure, don’t you, Doctor?” Mary Temple shot at him. - -Dr. Shonto laughed, though by no means mirthfully. “What do you mean by -that?” he asked. - -Mary’s faded eyes looked at him steadily, and the thin nostrils of -her long nose twitched squirrel-like. “Oh, you know what I mean,” she -lashed out. “I can read the signs. Well, I never was a body to hold -my tongue. I say what I think. And now I’m thinking that I’d rather -see you get her than your friend Mr. Jerome. He may be all right, -so far as men go, but he’s too much like her to suit me. Too young -and rattle-headed. You could tone her down a bit. But Jerome’ll get -her--that’s plain. She’s in love with him this minute. But it won’t -last, Doctor. There’ll be a divorce if they marry. Then you can step -in. But for my part I’d rather see her single.” - -“I think,” said Shonto soberly, “that in your youth you must have sung -an old ditty that comes to my mind-- - - “What are the little girls made out of? - What are the little girls made out of? - Sugar and spice and everything nice-- - That’s what the little girls are made out of. - - “What are the little boys made out of? - What are the little boys made out of? - Rats and snails and puppy-dogs’ tails-- - That’s what the little boys are made out of.” - -“You have a pretty good bass voice,” was all that Mary said, as she -began slicing bacon on the bottom of a bucket. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -A CASE FOR REJUVENATION - - -CHARMIAN REEMY received the news of the flight of Leach and the Morleys -with equanimity. - -“I have been afraid for some time,” she asserted at breakfast, “that -there was something wrong. Oh, well, it doesn’t greatly matter. I never -should have considered buying the opal claims, anyway, if it hadn’t -been necessary to do it in order to get the location of the Valley of -Arcana. And Shirttail Henry ought to be able to at least show us how to -get a peep at it.” - -“Charmian Reemy, you’re going home,” announced Mary stiffly. - -“Wrong again, Mary Temple. We’re going to find the Valley of Arcana and -explore it.” - -“Then I’ll not move another foot, Charmian. That’s flat.” - -“So is the desert,” said Charmian demurely, “and to spend the remainder -of your life on it, Mary Temple, would be frightfully monotonous.” - -“You know what I mean well enough,” snapped Mary. “I’ll find a way to -get home without you.” - -“Mary Temple, your miner’s bread is simply exquisite this morning,” -Charmian told her placidly. “You haven’t forgotten our delightful days -in Alaska, I see. Mary Temple, hereafter I intend to refer to you as -my companion at arms. You’re so companionable that I couldn’t think of -existing without you, and you’re always up in arms. Companion at arms -is right. I’m glad I thought of that one. Naming things is my hobby, -you know, Doctor.” - -“Charmian,” quoth Mary in a sepulchral voice, “have you forgotten what -Madame Destrehan saw in your Valley of Foolishness?” - -“Let’s see. It was a madman bending over me, wasn’t it?--and stretching -out his talonlike fingers toward my throat?” - -“It was--and you know it. Well, haven’t you had warning enough?” - -“You are well aware, Mary Temple, that I put no faith whatever in the -second sight of Madame Destrehan or any other swindler,” Charmian -reminded her. - -“But in this case, isn’t her prophecy working out? Haven’t we had the -madman right here in our camp? What better evidence of her powers can -you ask for, Charmian?” - -“In camp,” said the perverse young widow, “I always take two cups of -coffee for breakfast, Doctor. One with the trimmings, and one black. -May I trouble you to pour me another cup? And do you really think -Shirttail Henry is a nut, Mary Temple?” - -“Putting aside what Leach and Morley told us about him,” Mary replied, -“didn’t we see him strike off for the mountains when he saw a tiny -cloud no bigger than a pancake? And think of him writing to the -President when his puny little check fails to come on the dot! I -wouldn’t call him a nut. I wouldn’t call anybody a nut, because that’s -vulgar. But he’s a subject for a padded cell, and he’ll choke you to -death in your old Valley of Tomfoolery if you persist in going up there -and giving him the chance.” - -“That would be a rather unique experience, don’t you think, Andy?” -asked the girl. “I’ve never even had a madman’s fingers at my throat, -let alone being choked to death by one. I think, if I barely succeeded -in escaping alive, that my life would be fuller ever afterward. And -if Henry wants to give me the delicious experience I mean to let him -have his chance. But he mustn’t overdo it. You’ll keep close and see -that Henry doesn’t go too far, won’t you, Doctor Shonto? When my tongue -lolls out and I’m beginning to get blue in the face, just yell, ‘Look -at that cloud drifting over your rain gauge, Henry!’” - -“Funny, ain’t you?” sniffed Mary. - -“Trying to be,” said Charmian humbly. - -The four ate in silence after this, Charmian’s roguish brown eyes -hidden by the long lashes. Now and then she looked up and smiled -mischievously at Andy or the doctor, for all the world like a contrary -little girl who knows she is exasperating and glories in it. - -“When do we start?” asked Mary suddenly. - -“For where?” - -“For the mountains and Henry Richkirk’s place.” - -“Why, we don’t just know how to find him,” said Charmian, winking at -the two men. “But he’s calling on us to-day, you’ll remember. I guess -we’ll just have to stay here and wait for him. Well, we’re all through -eating, and I suppose, as hostess, I ought to rise first. But I’m so -stiff from yesterday’s ride. Won’t you get up and help me on my feet, -Andy?” - -“‘Mr. Jerome’ would sound better, wouldn’t it, Charmian?” There was a -decided corrective note in Mary’s tone. - -“Oh, we can’t bother with mistering and missising and missing one -another,” protested the girl. “I call Doctor Shonto ‘Doctor,’ and -I’ve simply got to have a brief name for Mr. Jerome. Andy’s mighty -handy. And, if you don’t mind, I’d like to have you two gentlemen, -or overgrown boys, or whatever you call yourselves, address me as -Charmian. It takes all the kick out of camp life to go about mistering -and missising one another. Which would sound more practical, Mary -Temple?--‘Doctor Inman Shonto, I think that rattlesnake is about -to bite you’ or ‘_Jiggers, Doc! Rattlesnake!_’ I think our eminent -physician would jiggers more promptly if he heard the latter, don’t -you? Why, I seem to be in pretty good spirits this morning, don’t I?” - -“You’re talking a lot,” said Mary, and rose to gather up the “dead and -wounded” and place them in the dishwater. - -The doctor had fed and watered the stock while Mary was completing -her breakfast-getting. This ascertained, Charmian proposed a ride in -search of the opal mines of their vanished dreams. They were only two -miles farther in the buttes, the prospectors had revealed, and the -girl wanted to visit them while they awaited the coming of the devoted -weather man. Also, she wished to limber up again in preparation for -the ride to the mountains. Mary Temple refused to be lured from the -domestic duties of the camp, so the girl and the two men rode off -without her. - -As they started Mary shrilled after them: - -“Andy Jerome--if I _must_ call you Andy--did you forget to take your -medicine this morning?” - -Andy grinned sheepishly, stopped his horse, and dismounted. - -“Humph!” sniffed Mary. “I thought as much.” - -Andy went to his tent and took a tablet from a pasteboard box. As he -carried it to the spring for water to wash it down, he asked: - -“How did you know I am taking medicine, Mary?--if I _must_ call you -Mary.” - -“Humph! Haven’t I seen you swallow one of those little tablets -regularly every morning since I first met you? And I know medicine must -be taken regularly in order to get the full benefit of it. I don’t -know what you’re taking those tablets for, and I don’t care, but I do -know that, so long as I am one of the idiots in this Bonehead Country, -you’ll not miss a morning while the medicine lasts.” - -“Thanks for your thoughtfulness, Mary,” Andy laughed. “I don’t wonder -that Charmian finds you indispensable. But did you call the Shinbone -Country the Bonehead Country by accident, or--” - -“Or,” Mary interjected decisively. - -There was but one direction for the trio to travel, they found, because -they were in a pass between the two lines of buttes. It was not long -before they saw evidences of bygone mining activities--several dumps -of rather large proportions, and above them tunnels in the side of a -hill. They left their horses on the level land and clambered up among -the rocks, to find that, in some past day, a great deal of work had -been done. - -They investigated for an hour or more, and then a voice hailed them -from a distance, and they saw the gigantic figure of Shirttail Henry -approaching along the floor of the pass. He came straight toward them, -negotiated the hillside with ease, and made his profound bows all -around when he reached them. - -“No rain a-tall,” he announced morosely. “That cloud was gone before I -got there. I’m glad ye left Leach an’ Morley behind. I wanted to talk -to ye alone about these here claims here.” - -A few words sufficed to apprise him of the unexpected decampment of the -designing opal miners, and the recital brought forth Shirttail Henry’s -cackling “Heh-heh-heh.” - -“I ain’t a-tall s’prised, ma’am,” he told Charmian. “They’re ornery, -them two boys. This ain’t th’ first time they tried to sell these ole -abandoned opal mines to some one.” - -“Abandoned mines?” puzzled Charmian. - -“Course,” said Henry. “That’s what they are. Twenty year ago they was -a lot o’ fine stones took outa here. There’s lots o’ opal here yet, -but it ain’t got any fire. Ye see, ma’am, it takes time for an opal to -gather its fire. The fellas that staked out these claims got rich. I -know they sold one stone they found for ten thousand dollars--one of -the biggest prices ever paid for an opal. But the good stones run out, -so they abandoned the claims. Then Leach an’ Morley filed on ’em just -to have somethin’ to sell to some sucker. In time the opals here will -gather their fire, but you folks wouldn’t be here to mine ’em.” - -“How long does it take an opal to get its fire?” asked Charmian. - -“Oh, matter of a hundred thousan’ years,” said Henry. - -“Good night!” exclaimed the widow. “If we’d bought the claims, Doctor, -you’d have had a good chance to prove the efficacy of rejuvenation -by the gland treatment. Well, that for the opals!”--and she snapped -her fingers. “They’re unlucky, anyway. Mary Temple says so. Now, Mr. -Henry, what do you know about an undiscovered or an unexplored valley -somewhere up in the mountains?” - -“I know she’s there, ma’am--that’s about as much,” answered the -mountaineer. - -“Have you ever seen it?” - -“Onct--from the top of a high peak. But nobody’s ever been there. They -tried it--lots of ’em--an’ failed to make it. It can’t be done. Who -told ye about that valley--Leach an’ Morley?” - -“Yes,” said Charmian. “But I don’t agree with you when you say it can’t -be done. We’ll pay you well to show us the valley from the peak that -you mention, and for any hints or suggestions about reaching the valley -that you can give us. Also, we want to find a certain mountain meadow -that Morley told us of, where we can pasture our horses and such -burros as we won’t need in the undertaking. What do you say?” - -“I’ll help ye out,” Shirttail Henry promised. “An’ I’ll tell ye all I -know. That’s more’n most of ’em in the Shinbone Country know, at that. -But ye’ll never make it, ma’am. When I take ye to th’ top o’ the peak, -where ye c’n see all over this country, ye’ll know I’m right.” - -“Well, we’ll do our best, anyway,” Charmian told him. “And we’re ready -to begin when you are.” - -“Poor time o’ year to tackle a job like that. Better wait till May or -June next year.” - -“We’ll go as far as we can at any rate,” Charmian decided. “Then if we -fail we will know better how to go about it to succeed next summer.” - -“All right,” said Henry. “I’m ready now.” - -“Then if you’ll wait here for us we’ll ride back and break camp at -once. We haven’t an extra horse for you, so--” - -“I never fork a hoss, ma’am,” Henry interrupted. “I c’n go where a hoss -can’t with these here ole legs here. You ride; I’ll hoof it. Don’t -worry about Shirttail Henry gettin’ there time yer hosses do, ma’am.” - - - - -CHAPTER X - -SHIRTTAIL BEND - - -SHIRTTAIL HENRY walked ahead up the mountain trail, Ichabod Crane come -to life. His loose-jointed figure shuttled about as if the huge trunk -were threatening to topple from the legs that shook it with their -gigantic strides. His loose clothes fluttered in the wind, adding to -the shimmylike effect. But Henry covered ground. - -The four who had undertaken the exotic adventure followed on their -horses, urging the complaining burros ahead of them. When practicable -Charmian rode with Andy, Shonto with that attitudinized wet blanket -known as Mary Temple. - -Hours ago the party had left the level reaches of the desert. They now -were ascending sharply into a rarer atmosphere, and the yuccas, cacti, -sage and greasewood had surrendered to junipers, piñon pines, and an -occasional taller conifer. The trail twisted about the heads of deep -cañons in S curves, U curves, and abrupter V’s. Now and then a break in -the ever-thickening forest revealed the yellow desert below them like -a gigantic slice of buttered bread. Birds and squirrels inhabited the -trees. Once a big buck bounded across the trail ahead of them, tiny -front hoofs touching his breast as he shot himself forward and upward -like an airplane leaving the earth. The trees and the wild life made a -pleasing relief from the barren wastes below. - -For the remainder of the day they climbed, camping at noon on the -trail. As the day drew toward its close they found themselves -surrounded by a vast forest, primeval as Evangeline’s, with no view -of the desert offered. As dusk descended upon the mountains the trail -began to grow painfully steeper, and then it swung about the brow of a -rise in a long curve. Henry paused and looked back at his followers. - -“This here long curve here is Shirttail Bend,” he announced. “My -cabin’s just around th’ corner.” - -The land rose sharply at the middle of the hairpin curve, and horses -and burros panted as they struggled upward. They then reached a level -shelf in the mountainside, a small plateau of perhaps five acres. -In the centre of it, with the trail leading directly by, stood the -tumble-down cabin of the erratic weather man. - -The cabin was built half of logs, half of boards from the lumber mill. -A huge stone chimney promised the warmth of an open fireplace within. -Climbing vines fingered the walls of the structure. A spring above -it was the source of a tiny stream that trickled across the dooryard -and fed a mat of watercress. Henry had gooseberry bushes and currant -bushes, and there was a pear and apple orchard of a dozen trees. The -water from the spring eventually found its way into a man-made ditch, -from which it seeped onto a small patch of frost-nipped alfalfa. - -Henry’s dooryard was cluttered with every imaginable thing that had -seen its day, from a grindstone whose three remaining legs sagged -rheumatically beneath it to a hay rake with one wheel and a depleted -set of teeth. There were pieces of rusty iron of all descriptions, -old sets of hames, wagon wheels, joints of gaspipe of all sizes and -lengths, lopped-over wagon seats, one of which had been hung as a -swing, innumerable chains, sleds, broken pack-saddles, chicken coops -upside-down, spewing mattresses, axles, an ancient dresser minus its -mirror and resting placidly on its back, the iron-and-wood pedestal of -an office swivel chair--and from every tree hung chains, frayed ropes, -wagon-seat springs, iron hounds, countless horseshoes, more hames and -other fragments of harness, and steel traps of every size. All these -treasures, Henry confided to his guests, he had brought in, piece at a -time, on the back of Lot’s Wife or his own sturdy shoulders, imagining -that “sometime they might come in handy.” Often he had been obliged to -dismember the larger pieces of junk--the hay rake, for example--and -pack them in by sections. “Un Rincon Confusión,” Charmian promptly -christened the place, which in Spanish is equivalent to “A Corner of -Chaos.” Mary called it a whompus--which, she interpreted, was either -a dish that she made of left-over boiled potatoes, bread crumbs, and -sage, or a dog’s breakfast. - -But the home was picturesque and quaint, and the smells of the virgin -forest all about were sweet and bracing. The light mountain air hinted -at frost. Innumerable birds twittered their good-night melodies in the -treetops. Frogs croaked in satisfaction in the ditch that watered the -alfalfa. A few hens troubled with insomnia loitered about the yard, -crooning to themselves as they pecked hopefully at pebbles that looked -like grain. The brook sang softly its unchangeable song of the days -when the mountains heaved as the earth grew cold, the travail that gave -it birth. - -“Just make yerselves to home, folks,” invited the mountaineer. “Ye c’n -turn yer stock on th’ ’falfy if ye ain’t afraid o’ founderin’ ’em. -Lot’s Wife she don’t care for ’falfy. She likes to browse offen th’ -sage an’ bresh. I’ll look at my rain gauge, an’ then I’ll chop some -wood and we’ll get a fire goin’.” - -He fluttered to the alfalfa patch and gave studious attention to -something on the ground. Then he returned to the tired party, and -sighing, “Not a drop!” he began helping to off-saddle the steaming -animals. - -The quartette left Henry to his own domestic serenity in the little -cabin, themselves camping at a decent distance from the house on a spot -where Henry had neglected to distribute his heterogeneous treasure -trove. They built a cheery campfire, over which Mary Temple cooked -supper. Then when Shirttail Henry had rejoined them they settled down -for a discussion of the morrow’s undertaking. - -“She’s a rarin’ trip,” Henry said discouragingly. “First ye gotta -finish climbin’ this here mountain here, and then ye’ll come on a level -valley where they’s a lake. They’s salt grass and bluejoint around -the lake, but the frost’s ketched it by now, an’ it’ll be dryin’. Yer -stock’ll eat it, though, and fatten on it. An’ that’s th’ place to -pasture ’em till ye get back ag’in. - -“So now we’ve disposed o’ th’ critters. An’ then we hike across th’ -valley an’ cut up a cañon on th’ other side. In th’ cañon they’s a -crick that empties into th’ lake. Well, then we folly that crick for -ten miles, maybe--an’ it’s a job. All boulders bigger ner my cabin, -an’ down trees an’ th’ like. Well, then we’re pretty high up, an’ now -we cut across through th’ timber towards Dewlap Mountain. That’s where -we’re headin’ for. - -“Now and then we’ll be seein’ th’ mountain, but not often. We gotta go -by compass--at least you folks would. I go by guess and by gosh. Well, -then, that’s a matter o’ twenty mile to th’ foot o’ th’ peak, and up -it’s a heap more. - -“Now not a few folks have made this side o’ Dewlap Mountain, but mighty -few ever got on th’ other side. I done it, and so has Reed. That’s th’ -forest ranger that first saw th’ undiscovered valley. Gettin’ ’round -on th’ other side o’ the mountain is where th’ rub comes in--that is, -th’ rubbin’est rub. The top o’ th’ peak’s above th’ line of perpetual -snow, an’ up there, besides, it’s all rocks an’ steep places till ye -can’t rest. It’s skeery gettin’ ’round to th’ other side; an’ many a -time ye wisht ye hadn’t come, when ye look down on what’s below ye--or -what ain’t below ye. But I made her an’ Reed he made her, an’ ye gotta -do it to see the undiscovered valley. But gettin’ to the toes o’ Dewlap -Mountain ain’t no fun neither.” - -Shirttail Henry came to a thoughtful pause. The firelight played on -his kindly, rugged features as he sat tailor-fashion and gazed with -his dreamy blue eyes into the blaze. His was almost a poetic face, -Charmian thought, as she studied what was revealed of it above the -flaring torch of whiskers. - -“Seems to me,” the mountaineer went on softly, “that, when all’s said -an’ done, this time o’ year’d be about th’ best to tackle th’ trip. -Ye see, th’ snow’s been meltin’ all summer, more or less, an’ so fur -this season they ain’t any fell yet. So right now th’ snow’s at her -shallowest depth up on that there mountain there. An’ ye might get in -an’ out before snow begins to fly, if luck was with ye. - -“And I thought of another thing: They was a big fire up in thataway -this summer, an’ maybe it took out a part o’ th’ big bresh stretches -that lies between th’ head o’ the cañon an’ th’ toes o’ Dewlap. If it -done that th’ trip’ll be lots easier. But we’ll know more time we tried -her.” - -“Is it necessary to go over Dewlap Mountain to reach the Valley of -Arcana?” asked Charmian. - -“Well, no, ’tain’t,” replied the weather man. “Contrary to that, ma’am, -she’d be a fool way to go about it. Ye go up there to see th’ valley; -but to get to her ye’d oughta go round th’ mountain. That’s th’ way -Reed went. He tried both sides. But he never made th’ riffle. It can’t -be done.” - -“Why?” - -“Chaparral that ye can’t get through an’ walls o’ rock that can’t be -climbed.” - -“And how about Lost River?” - -“That’s another proposition, ma’am. Lost River’s forty mile to th’ -north o’ Dewlap Mountain, an’ about th’ same distance from yer Valley -of Arcana. Over toward th’ Alondra Country, where they’s an Indian -reservation that’s got gold on it. Leach an’ Morley they got run out -for pannin’ gold on that reservation, an’ gov’ment agents was after ’em -for a spell. That’s how come it they know about Lost River, ma’am. But -if Lost River runs through yer valley, that ain’t no help to ye.” - -“I thought that perhaps we might build a canoe and drift down the river -underground to the Valley of Arcana,” Charmian stated simply. - -“Holy sufferin’ cats!” bellowed Shirttail Henry. - -Even Andy and Dr. Shonto laughed at the girl’s naïve assurance. - -“You’ve been reading fantastic fiction, Charmian,” said Andy. “That’s a -pipe dream.” - -“Perhaps,” half conceded the young widow, unperturbed. She turned -her brown eyes on Henry again. “But why climb to the peak of Dewlap -Mountain merely to gain a view of the valley?” she asked. “Why not -circle the mountain when we reach it and try for the valley itself?” - -“Too late in th’ season,” Henry maintained. “Th’ snow she’d ketch us, -ma’am.” - -“I’m not afraid of snow. I’ve roughed it in Alaska. Any snow you’d have -here would be a joke, compared with what I’ve experienced.” - -“Pretty cold joke sometimes,” Henry remarked. “But I been thinkin’ -ag’in, ma’am: Reed he always tried to make th’ riffle in summer, an’ -then th’ snow over thataway’s deepest. An’ in winter blizzards are -blowin’, an’ ye can’t do nothin’. Same as in th’ case o’ gettin’ to th’ -top o’ Dewlap, right now would be th’ easiest time to tackle th’ valley -trip, after th’ snow’s melted all summer long. I guess Reed thought o’ -that, but was afraid to tackle her with winter comin’ on. If a body got -ketched in that country after th’ blizzards started-- Say, none o’ that -in mine! He’d never come out, that’s all.” - -“Nonsense!” scoffed the girl. “The chances are that Reed didn’t have -enough money to properly equip himself for a trip of that nature.” - -“No, Reed he ain’t got anything but his pay from th’ gov’ment--same as -me. An’ th’ boys that tackled th’ trip with him two three times, they -never had nothin’. If a body could get enough supplies in th’ country -to stand a siege, come blizzard time, he might get through to th’ -valley between storms. He’d want skis or snowshoes, though--and a heap -o’ grub an’ things. Once he made th’ valley everything’d be jake. It’s -like summer down in there, I’m thinkin’.” - -“I can ski,” Charmian announced. “So can Mary Temple. How about the -rest of you?” - -Dr. Shonto and Andy shook their heads. Henry professed familiarity with -snowshoes, but never in his life had he been on skis. - -“I reckon, after all,” Henry decided, “that skis wouldn’t do. Ye might -enter th’ Valley of Arcana too pronto fer yer health. Snowshoes would -be safest. You two men could learn to use them in no time, after ye’d -practised a bit.” - -“I’m for striking out direct for the valley to-morrow morning,” -Charmian said suddenly. “What’s the use hemming and hawing about it? -Nothing was ever accomplished by indecision. It’s a chance, and we take -it--that’s all. If the storms were to hold off for any considerable -time, Henry, how long ought it to take us for the trip in and out?” - -“I can’t tell ye, ma’am--never havin’ finished her. But I’d say a -month.” - -“_A month!_ So long as that?” - -“Outside time, ma’am,” Henry explained. - -“And is there any possibility of winter holding back that long?” - -“Yes’m, they is. Ye never can tell what she’s gonta do. I’m a United -States weather man, an’ I’m speakin’ from experience. One year winter -she’ll set in as early as this. Next, they maybe won’t be any snow to -speak of before Christmas. We’ve had three early winters hand-runnin’ -now an’ I’d say it’s time for a late one.” - -“Will you go along, Henry, and show us the way?” the girl asked eagerly. - -“I been thinkin’,” Henry replied. “How’m I gonta tend to my weather -reports?” - -“Take your gauge along with you, can’t you?” - -“I dunno ’bout that,” said Henry. “But if ye was to pay me well -enough--” - -“How much will your services be worth?” - -Henry pursed his lips. “I get seven and a half a month for bein’ -weather man,” he mused, “and, come next month, I’ll have a line o’ -traps strung between Rustler Crick an’ Palance Ridge. If I’m lucky, I -oughta clean up a hundred dollars at th’ traps th’ month we’d be gone. -An’ then--” - -“I’ll give you two hundred and fifty dollars to take us to where we can -continue on ourselves to the Valley of Arcana,” Charmian interrupted. - -“Well-l-l--” Shirttail Henry Richkirk puckered his lips doubtfully. - -“Or until we give up in despair,” Charmian supplemented. - -Henry rose briskly from the fireside. “Be up an’ fed by six o’clock,” -he said. “I’ll be ready.” - -He started to flutter toward his cabin when the sharp voice of Mary -Temple stayed his steps. - -“Where are your snowshoes? Where is any grub sufficient to take these -idiots on a trip like that?” she demanded. - -“Well, now, ma’am,” replied the weather man, “I think we c’n git more -snowshoes at Mosquito Ranch, which is halfway up this here mountain -here from my place to th’ lake. I got two good pair myself. An’ we c’n -git a beef critter killed for us at the ranch an’ freeze th’ meat an’ -take a lot of it along with us. Besides, I got a lot o’ jerky, which -comes in mighty handy when everything else has give out.” - -“Have you any soap?” asked Mary crisply. - -“Why, yes’m--I got a whole case of her that’s never been opened.” - -“Take it along,” said Mary. - -“Why, Mary Temple!” cried Charmian. “What need have we for a hundred -cakes of soap? Think of the weight it will add to the pack, which -weight ought to be composed of something to eat.” - -“Henry himself will need half a case,” said Mary. “Don’t for a minute -imagine, Charmian Reemy, that I mean to live like an Indian on this -fool trip. Supplies are supplies, and no supplies are complete without -an ample amount of soap. Henry, did you think about the snowshoes -and the beef when you proposed setting off at six o’clock to-morrow -morning?” - -“Well, now, no’m,” Henry confessed, shifting his great weight from one -huge foot to the other. “Maybe I just didn’t,” he added weakly. - -“And you didn’t want to go until Charmian promised to pay you even if -the expedition failed, did you?” - -“I didn’t say that, ma’am,” poor Henry tried to defend himself. - -“No, you didn’t. But your legs did when you jumped up so suddenly. -Henry, do you know that, probably because of your great service to the -government as weather man, the United States Navy has a war ship named -after you?” - -Henry’s blue eyes bugged. “No’m, I didn’t,” he gasped. “D’ye honestly -mean to tell me they got a ship they call th’ Richkirk?” - -“No,” said Mary Temple. “It’s called the Marblehead. Good night.” - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE TRAIL TO MOSQUITO - - -ANDY JEROME was up early the following morning, even before Shirttail -Henry was astir. He went to the creek, broke a thin sheet of ice, and -washed his hands and face. Then, quite proud of his achievement, he -stepped briskly back to camp to start a fire, only to find that newly -laid kindling had been lighted while he was at his toilet. - -Now came Mary Temple, her lean arms encircling a big load of Henry’s -firewood, proving that she herself was still supreme as the early riser -of the party. - -“Well, Mary, you’re a wonder!” Andy praised her. “I thought that for -once I’d beaten you to it. Good morning.” - -“Get another armload of wood,” said Mary. “Good morning.” - -Andy returned from the wood pile and let his burden clatter on the -ground. - -“What’s for breakfast?” - -“Beans.” - -“Good! Beans are the stuff in camp, all right.” - -“They’re the stuff in the Palace Hotel,” said Mary. “Beans conquered -the West. They won the war. They’re--” - -“Oh, don’t tell me about the marvellous bean,” Andy cut in. “I’ve -always been a bean hound. And I’ll bet you can cook ’em, too. You’re a -wonderful cook, Mary, do you know it?” - -“I’ve hinted as much to myself a couple of times,” Mary sniffed. “But -I’m nothing compared with my brother Ed.” Mary was diligently searching -in a pack-bag as she talked. - -“That so?” - -“Yes, Ed was a master cook--a chef. He worked for one of the big -bean-canning factories back East until they fired him.” - -“That was too bad,” Andy sympathized. “What was the difficulty?--if I’m -not too inquisitive.” - -“Ed killed a woman,” Mary explained, still fumbling in the bag. - -Andy said nothing; the topic of their conversation seemed to be growing -a little delicate. - -“Killed a woman he’d never seen,” Mary added. - -“Mary Temple, are you trying to kid me?” asked Andy warily. - -“To this day we don’t know her name,” Mary went on, still searching. -“But we know Ed killed her.” - -“Spring it--I’ll bite. How’d he kill her?” - -“He put two bites of pork in a can of pork and beans instead of one,” -said Mary. “And I know the woman that opened that can dropped dead. -Anyway, they fired Ed for wasting the company’s profits.” - -She stood erect with a can-opener in one hand and a large can labelled -Pork and Beans in the other, and without a smile began the conflict -between them. “Better wake the doctor,” she advised. “The wonderful -cook will have breakfast ready in no time this morning. She and you -and the doctor can draw straws for the pork--I don’t care for it. Here -comes the good ship Marblehead.” - -Andy chuckled. He liked this droll, gaunt Mary Temple who was so -devoted to the girl he loved. “And do you never expect to find more -than one bite of pork in a can of pork and beans?” he asked. - -“I’d as soon think of finding the Valley of Arcana,” Mary replied. - -With a brief “Good mornin’, ma’am” Shirttail Henry passed Mary Temple -at the campfire and went to his tumble-down stable. When Andy had -awakened Dr. Shonto and had received a feeble response to his call from -Charmian, he returned to Mary, to find Henry there with a slim sledge -that he had found among his belongings. - -“Thought she might come in handy,” he grinned. “If we c’n pack her -on one o’ th’ burros, she’ll carry all our truck when we leave the -critters and keep on afoot. Can’t use her, though, lessen it snows. But -I thought we’d better take her along.” - -“Good idea,” said Andy lightly, and turned to Mary, who was pointing to -a small die of fat pork, a tiny monument in the pan of sizzling beans. - -“I found it,” she announced grimly. - -A great deal of time was consumed after breakfast in packing the twelve -burros, for among the party only Shirttail Henry was an expert at the -art. He was careful in his preparations, and when all was ready for the -start nobody could think of anything necessary that he had omitted -from the pack. He hazed the little animals into the trail and followed -them on foot, the remainder of the party bringing up the rear on their -saddle horses. - -The morning was crisp, the air tingling with frost. The thud of the -animals’ hoofs came clear and distinct, for the ground was frozen and -an uncanny hush dwelt in the heavy forest through which they passed. -The saddle horses frisked about, shying at this and that familiar -object, and their nostrils shot forth white steam, even as the nostrils -of fearsome dragons shoot forth smoke and fire and brimstone. Squirrels -scurried rattlingly over dead leaves from their interrupted breakfasts, -to twitch their grey plumes and wrinkle their muzzles at the travellers -from the security of lofty branches. - -“Great morning to start our adventure,” commented Andy Jerome, as they -came upon a wide stretch of trail and he urged his horse to the side of -Charmian’s. - -“Absolutely perfect,” Charmian agreed. “My, but my feet are cold! -Andy, I wonder if we _are_ absolute idiots, after all. Sometimes I -think that, if Doctor Shonto weren’t with us to lend the expedition an -air of dignity and--well, consequence--I’d lose my nerve. You and I -are mere kids, and don’t really know whether we have any business to -undertake this thing or not. But Doctor Shonto is a man of brains and -experience--a somebody--and it bolsters up my courage a lot to know -that he is with us and seems to approve. Were you surprised at his -coming along?” - -“Yes,” said Andy shortly. - -“I wonder why he did come,” mused the girl. - -“That’s a simple question to answer,” Andy told her with boyish -sulkiness. “He came because of you.” - -She looked at him quickly, then lowered her eyes. Charmian knew -perfectly well that Andy Jerome was in love with her, and this -knowledge did not distress her in the least. She did not know whether -or not she was in love with Andy, but she knew that she liked to -have his admiring eyes upon her and to note the little caress in his -tones when he spoke to her in lowered accents. She knew now that -Andy bitterly resented his friend’s interest in her. But, of course, -womanlike, she pretended innocence. - -“Do you think the doctor is interested in me?” she asked. - -“Humph!” - -“Why?--do you suppose?” - -“Heavens and earth, Charmian! Wouldn’t any he-man be interested in a -woman like you?” - -Charmian took a bold step. She was no unsophisticated débutante, this -young widow from Alaska. The relations between the sexes were no closed -book to her. She was modernly ready and willing to discuss the tender -passion. It was an integral part of life, and no false modesty caused -her to shrink from facing any of the realities. Furthermore, she was -a woman, young and pretty and desirable, and she liked to utilize her -world-old heritage of making all men admire her. - -“You don’t for a moment imagine that Doctor Shonto is in love with me, -do you?” she asked, round-eyed. - -“Humph! Of course he is. And you know it as well as I do, Charmian.” - -She threw back her head and laughed, while Andy watched her frosty -breath and suffered silently. - -“How ridiculous!” she exclaimed. “To think that a man of the calibre of -Doctor Inman Shonto could consider me in such a light as that. Andy, -you’re a scream!” - -“Then why _is_ he with us?”--still gloomily. - -“That’s just what I’m trying to find out. But your answer is -silly--stupid, Andy. But I suppose the novelty of the thing appeals to -him, as it does to you and me. After all, the doctor is not so old. I -find him quite naïve and boyish at times. Only thirty-four. Why, a man -shouldn’t begin to think of being serious until he has passed fifty. -Henry Ford says, even, that he ought not to begin to accumulate money -until he’s over forty. That from probably the richest man in the world! -And the doctor doesn’t look a day over twenty-five, does he?” - -“I’ve never given his age much thought,” said Andy with impolite -abruptness. - -“Don’t you feel well this morning, Andy? You seem so sort of grouchy.” - -“I’m feeling fine,” said Andy in the same stiff tones. - -There was a smile of vast complacency on Charmian’s lips as she looked -away from him off through the towering pines. She wondered if she -loved this boy, who carried his heart so openly on his coatsleeve. He -certainly was attractive in his handsome young manhood. He would make -an ardent lover. But what else, she wondered? He seemed to do little -or no thinking for himself. He just took life lightly and let things -slide, never worrying, never striving for anything, never revealing any -depth of soul in any of his varied moods. His family was well off, and -he did not have to work. Neither did she have to work, for that matter; -but she did work. She worked her mind. She pondered over many things. -She forced herself into deep reveries, reveries which were not consumed -with egotism. She thought of life and the problems of humanity, and -always she strove to think constructively. And thinking is the hardest -work that one can do. - -Andy loved her--or thought he did. Quite well was she aware of that. -And it pleased her. She wanted fine young men to love her. She could -not help it. She--_they_--are born that way. Would men have it -otherwise? - -But Dr. Shonto! The radiance with which the morning had endued her -transparent skin was heightened by the glowing thought. If she had -swayed Shonto, either by her physical or her mental or her plain -womanly charms, or all these combined (herself, in short), she had -made a conquest to be proud of. Of course to marry him was out of the -question entirely. The gulf of years was between them. But it was -warmly satisfactory for her to realize that a man of his importance -had entered into her novel little game of make-believe discovery, and -that he had not decided to come until she had assured him that she was -serious in her desire to undertake the trip. And she was in nowise -depressed over the thought that there was the remote possibility of -her being in the wilds, on the great, romantic adventure of which she -had dreamed so many times, with two seemly men who both were in love -with her. Born romancer that she was, Charmian Reemy could not have -pictured, in her most fantastic dreams, a situation more likely to add -a wondrous and thrilling page to a life that she had long ago decided -to make as novel as she could. - -On up the trail the party forged, the labouring burros ahead, nibbling -at this and that prospective edible along the way. The sun climbed -high and sucked the frost from the stiff, chilled leaves. A clear sky -overhung the mountains, and all was still. A stone clattering into -a deep cañon made much ado, for the reverberations of its fall came -hollowly to the listeners’ ears. The bark of a squirrel as he revelled -in the doubtful warmth of the autumn sun was heard for miles, for the -mountains were steeped in that solemn hush that almost seems to sigh -for another summer that has gone, a hush that bespeaks resignment to -the dead days of winter yet to come. - -And so to Mosquito they came, and camped there in the middle of a half -glad, half melancholy afternoon that dreamed its short hours away in -golden silence. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -THE LAND OF QUEER DELIGHTS - - -THEY left Mosquito the next morning, their pack replenished with a -generous supply of beef. Also, as the mountain ranch had a quantity of -stores on hand, they were allowed to purchase enough to bring their -supplies up to the limit of the burros’ carrying capacity. So now, -over a hundred miles from the desert ranch where they had left the -automobiles and at the beginning of their gruelling march to the Valley -of Arcana, they were as well equipped for the ordeal as at the very -start. - -Four hours from Mosquito they topped the summit of the ridge, and -looked down upon a smiling lake three miles in length by one in width. -A carpet of dying grass surrounded the lake, near which but few trees -grew, because of the strongly alkaline soil. They wormed their way down -to the floor of the level mountain valley, and here they loosed the -saddle horses and cached their equipment in a near-by cañon. Shirttail -Henry guaranteed that the animals would not stray from the grazing -ground. Once more he took the lead, and, driving the reluctant burros -ahead of him, worked around the eastern end of the lake. - -When they had completed a half-circle of the sheet of blue water and -were on the south side opposite the grazing horses, Shirttail Henry -made an abrupt turn to the left and hazed the string of burros up a -little creek. For two miles or more the creek flowed through virtually -level land, with mountain meadows on either side of it. Then gradually -the land grew steeper, and the creek banks narrowed. The forest grew -denser as they left the valley, and before half an hour had passed they -were in a country as wild and rugged as that below Mosquito Ranch. - -They camped for a late nooning before attempting the fierce climb that -awaited them. When the burros had browsed an hour they were away again, -up the ever narrowing cañon. - -The little creek was a plunging torrent now, leaping over boulders, -bellowing madly about snarls of ancient driftwood. Often there stood -in the burros’ path a huge boulder or outcropping that it seemed -impossible for them to surmount, but Henry always found a way to get -them over or around each obstacle. The burros climbed like goats when -forced to it. Several times the men were obliged to take off their -pack-bags so that they could squeeze through some gateway between -gigantic stones. - -The party was still in the cañon when the early mountain night closed -down upon them. They fortunately had come upon a tiny level spot on -which there was room to move about with comfort. Here they camped to -await the coming of another day. - -The night was cold and still, the sky cloudless. Nevertheless Shirttail -Henry set up his rain gauge, muttering that he could not imagine how he -was to send in his report if the gauge showed moisture in the morning. -But no rain or snow fell to discomfit him, and the weary trailers -passed the night in peace. - -An hour after sunup the following day they came to the end of the -cañon, to find that the source of the creek was a series of springs -in a hillside. From the springs Henry set a course southwest through -unbroken forest land, across which the going would have been easy -but for the fact that the trail led continually up and down over a -seemingly endless system of ridges. The party would struggle wearily up -one steep hill, only to be obliged to clamber and slide down the other -side of it into a deep V-shaped cañon--and then up the near side of -another hill as steep as the one just mastered. Then down again, and up -again--forever and ever, it seemed. - -“Henry,” said Mary, as they stood panting on the top of about the -fifteenth rise that they had negotiated, “is this ever going to end?” - -“Why, yes’m,” Henry told her meekly. “These here little rises here get -bigger and bigger until we’re top o’ th’ mountains. Then we begin to -crawl.” - -“Crawl!” puffed Mary. “I’ve done nothing else but crawl up and slide -down since we left the creek back there. I don’t feel like a human -being any more. I’m a four-footed beast. I growl and show my teeth when -a rock or a root gets in my way.” - -“But what I’m talkin’ about,” said Henry patiently, “is reg’lar -crawlin’. Sure enough on yer hands an’ knees, ma’am. An’ f’r miles an’ -miles at that. Th’ patch o’ chaparral we’ll have to go through ain’t -got its match in th’ whole West, I’m thinkin’.” - -“Do you mean, Henry, that we’re actually to _crawl_ for miles and -miles? Like a father playing bear with his baby on the floor?” - -“Jest crawl, ma’am,” replied Henry softly. “Unless we cut our way -through with th’ axes--an’ that would take forever ’n’ ever ’n’ after.” - -“And you realize that, do you, Charmian?” Mary asked of the head of the -party. - -“Oh, yes--it’s all been explained to me,” Charmian assured her. - -“All right,” said Mary. “Then let’s find a place to eat. I’m so hungry -I could eat quirkus.” - -“Which is?”--Andy’s question. - -“Quirkus,” Mary explained, “is the stuff you skim off the top of a -kettle of fruit when you’re cooking it for canning. Or it’s the stuff -that grows on the bottom of a watering trough in summer. Or sometimes -it’s any soft stuff that you don’t know the name of, and that isn’t fit -to eat, but looks too valuable to throw away.” - -They spent two nights in the forest, forging onward throughout the -short, cold, crystal days in the same southwesterly direction, up and -down, up and down, but always gaining in altitude. They had left the -Canadian Zone and were well into the Hudsonian, which constitutes the -belt of forest just below timberline. Lodgepole pine, Alpine hemlock, -silver pine, and white-bark pine had replaced the Jeffrey pine, red -firs and aspens of the life zone immediately below them. They were -over eight thousand feet above the sea, Henry told them, when at last, -about ten o’clock of the third day after leaving the creek, the woods -began to grow thinner, and they encountered frequent patches of short -chaparral, bleak and rugged and rock strewn. They were entering the -Arctic-Alpine Zone, comprising an elevation of from ten thousand five -hundred feet to the tops of the highest peaks. - -On and on, always climbing higher into an atmosphere more -breath-taking, more crystalline. The chilled silences became awesome. -Unfamiliar growths presented themselves, stunted, grotesque. An -occasional patch of snow was crossed. A snow-white bird as large as -a pigeon fluttered down to their camping ground, cocked his head on -one side, and surveyed them with comical curiosity. A few grains of -rolled barley, left by the wasteful burros, lay on the ground, for a -small quantity had been brought along to tempt them back to camp when -they wandered, browsing throughout the nights. The white bird pecked -contemplatively at these, chattered his bill over one, and dropped it -as unfit for avian consumption. As he hopped about, still intent on -trying the unfamiliar particles that looked like food, his course took -him directly over the foot of Charmian, who was standing very still and -watching him. Utterly without fear of these human beings, he hopped -upon the toe of her hiking shoe, and from that vantage point lifted his -body and gazed about as a robin does for worms. - -“The dear thing!” breathed the girl. “I guess he’s never before seen -a human being, and can’t have any conception of what brutes we are. I -wonder if I could pick it up!” - -“Try it,” urged the doctor softly. - -Charmian stooped, her hands outspread. The movement caused the bird to -hop from her shoe, but it did not make away. The girl stooped lower and -lower, outspread fingers on either side of it. Her hands closed in to -within six inches of the warm, white body. The bird looked up at her -and hopped off sedately, without a sign of fear, but as much as to say, -“Familiarity breeds contempt.” - -“I could have grabbed it, but I wouldn’t!” maintained the widow. “But I -_did_ just want to touch it once!” - -They decided that their visitor was an albino robin, probably a native -of the regions above the line of perpetual snow, and that never before -had it seen a human being. - -“It makes me sort of shuddery,” said Mary Temple. “That’s no way for -a bird to act, even if he is a country jake. It isn’t right that he -shouldn’t be afraid of us. It’s uncanny--and this is getting to be -mighty uncanny country. Things get queerer and queerer every day, and I -feel queerer and queerer every hour. I can just barely breathe in this -light air. My head is on a spree and my feet are dead drunk.” - -“It only goes to show,” argued Charmian, “how the wild creatures -would consider us if only we were as decent as they are. There is no -reason on earth why any wild thing should fear a human being. I have -read arguments built up about the hypothesis that wild animals fear -man instinctively, that they naturally recognize him as their master. -More of man’s monumental egotism! When an animal distrusts man, -that distrust is bred in him by reason of his ancestors having been -obliged to escape from human ruthlessness. Or the individual itself has -suffered at the hands of man.” - -And not many days had passed before she proved, in part at least, that -her contentions were correct; for the farther they forged into that -untamed wilderness the more trusting the wild life became. Small, queer -birds which none of them could name, most of them with long bills and -heads that seemed almost as large as their bodies, followed them on the -trail, perched above them in the chaparral and cocked their heads one -side to stare down in puzzlement, and often flew to their very knees or -alighted on their shoulders. - -Upward and ever upward, over the sprawling toes and then over the -generous knees of Dewlap Mountain. The only bird seen now was an -occasional rosy finch; the mammals encountered consisted of the Alpine -chipmunk, the grey bushy-tailed woodrat, and that quaint and ingenious -native of the bleak altitudes, the Yosemite cony. This little animal, -called variously rock rabbit, little chief hare, pika, or cony, is -less than seven inches over all, and, much more so than the rabbit, -has a tail which “mustn’t be talked about.” It has short rounded ears, -dense hair, and, though closely resembling the rabbit, it runs an all -fours, with a hobbling gait. It never sits up on its haunches, as does -the rabbit, nor does it leave the Alpine Zone for a warmer clime when -blizzards rage. Its home is in rock slides, where it cuts, dries, and -stores up hay for use when the land is covered deep with snow. Often -the travellers saw one perched on a lofty granite rock and heard its -strange bleating cry of alarm. - -The actinic quality of the light in this Boreal Zone made the few -plants that the trailers came upon present rare, pure colours -delectable to the eye. Most of these plants were cushion plants, -spread out over the barren rocks where a little soil had gathered, and -from the centre of the cushion the flower stalks arose. The doctor -named the golden draba, the Alpine flox, and others; but the yellow -columbine--not a cushion plant--was most remarkable of all. On the -highest peaks flourished the Alpine buttercup, the Sierra primrose, and -small Alpine willow trees, not above an inch in height. And at the very -outskirts of snow banks they discovered the steer’s head, a queer relic -of pre-glacial times, whose flowers, modestly lopped over, resembled -the heads of a sleepy bunch of cattle. Often this flower grew with snow -all about it and seemed to thrive. - -They were in a land of nothingness--cold and bleak and comfortless. On -all sides wastes of loose stones and snow patches swept away from them. -About them were the lofty peaks, so diamond clear in their dazzling -whiteness that it pained the eye to look at them. They were crossing -the knees of Dewlap mountain, making toward the south. They camped on -windswept reaches, their mattresses the cold, hard rocks. Melted snow -formed their water supply, and fuel that they had picked up in the -warmer zone below them was nursed with miserly discretion. - -After a day and a night in this forbidding land Shirttail Henry loosed -the burros, for nothing grew for them to eat except the inch-high dwarf -willows, and these were few. Burros will continue content for days and -days without food or water, but Charmian demanded their release after -twenty-four hours of deprivation. With indignant snorts, they kicked up -their heels, and the bell burro set a bee-line course over the backward -trail. When they reached the Hudsonian Zone, Henry said, they would -browse their way gradually down through the Canadian, and into the -Transition, where they would find an abundance of chaparral; and later -they would reach the horses at the lake and remain close to them until -snow drove the entire band to the lower contours, from whence they -might wander even to the home ranch on the desert. - -A rather serious catastrophe overtook the United States Weather Bureau -on the day before the burros were released. Shirttail Henry had -installed his rain gauge for the night, and had no more than turned his -back on it when the bell burro was attracted by the brightness of its -brass. She approached it with mincing steps, and, as is the custom of -her kind, began trying to eat it. A burro seems incapable of deciding -whether an object is for food by looking at it or smelling of it. He -starts in to eat it, assuming that all things are good to eat until -proved otherwise. The burro soon decided that in this instance she had -made a grave mistake, and forthwith dropped the gauge. But not until -the thin cylinder of brass had been dented and pinched in so that, as a -recorder of the fall of rain, it was absolutely useless. - -Mary Temple witnessed the desecration, but shouted too late. Henry -wheeled in time, however, to capture the miscreant. He held her by the -leather band that encircled her neck, and to which her tinkling bell -was fastened, and looked her fiercely in the eye. - -“Ass,” he said, “ye ain’t my canary, an’ I know ye ain’t got no sense. -But if ye _was_ mine, d’ye know what I’d do to ye? I’d hold ye by this -here strap here, an’ I’d get me a club, an’ I’d take it an’ I’d knock -yer gysh-danged head off. Heh-heh-heh!” - -Snow covered the greater part of the land where the explorers had -loosed the asses. Henry rigged up his drag, and on it stowed the -outfit. Henry and Andy took the lead ropes, and Dr. Shonto walked -behind to push. By following a zigzag course the leaders were able to -keep the sledge running upon snow for the greater part of the time, and -when only bare rocks lay before them the party portaged the cargo and -the sledge to snowy stretches beyond. - -Their up-and-down course continued, and many a slope taxed the strength -of all to get the laden sledge to the summit. But the general trend was -downward, for they were crossing the knees of Dewlap, the only divide -which gave access to the country wherein lay the mysterious valley of -their quest. Gradually, after days of slow travel, the snow patches -grew fewer and fewer, and the air grew noticeably warmer as they worked -downward into the Hudsonian Zone once more. Then altogether the snow -disappeared; scattering trees greeted them, Alpine hemlocks, silver -pines--trees more friendly, it seemed to the awed wanderers, than any -they ever had seen before. They saw a wolverine--infrequent animal--a -white-tailed jackrabbit, and on one rare day a pure white squirrel, -with pink-lidded eyes, quite curious and friendly. - -They discarded the sledge, cached such tin-protected provisions as -they could not carry on their backs, and forged on into a land of -growing delights. They left the semi-bleak Hudsonian Zone above them -and entered the friendly Canadian, where the Yosemite fox sparrow, the -Sierra grouse, and the ruby-crowned kinglet greeted them; and among -the mammals the jumping mouse, the yellow-haired porcupine, the Sierra -chickaree, and the navigator shrew. The forest was heavy again, and -there was firewood and the shelter of companionable conifers. Straight -into the south Shirttail Henry led the way, down into a gigantic cup of -the mountain range where grasses grew and sunlight flooded the land. - -The forest became patchy, broken by occasional mountain meadows, rubble -slides, cañons through which fires had spread their devastation and -left sentinel trees and slopes covered with chaparral. Deep, impassible -gorges forced them miles and miles to the east or the west, and -sometimes turned them in the direction from whence they came. And in -descending into one of these, after having followed its grim lip for -many miles in search of a crossing, the redoubtable Mary fell, rolled -down a steep incline, and terminated her mad descent in an ice-cold -creek. - -“Well,” she remarked, as her anxious friends stumbled and slid down to -her, “it’s lucky I landed close to water, for right here I stay until -the rest of you forsake your life of sin and come back to me on your -way home. I’ve sprained my ankle terribly. Two of you hold me while -Doctor Shonto pulls my leg.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -AT TWO IN THE CAÑON - - -THOUGH the afternoon was not far spent, the party immediately went into -camp in the gorge. If Mary’s sprain was severe, the doctor told the -others gravely, it would be impossible for her to touch the injured -foot to the ground for many days. The men might carry her back, but -it would be next to impossible, and altogether reckless, to carry her -forward. What were they to do? - -Mary was suffering silently beside the campfire, and the others had -withdrawn to a distance to hold their conference. Then came her snappy -voice: - -“That’s mighty impolite. I know what you’re talking about. Come over -here by the fire and I’ll relieve your minds.” - -When they had congregated about her she said placidly: - -“Now, there’s just one thing for you to do. That is to go on, and leave -me here in the cañon with enough grub to last me until you give up hope -of ever finding the Valley of Tomfoolery. Which will be in a few days, -at most, I’m thinking.” - -“Mary Temple,” Charmian told her firmly, “we’ll do nothing of the sort. -We’ll stay with you till you can walk or carry you over the back trail -right now--and that ends that. We were only trying to decide which of -the two would be the better plan.” - -“Charmian,” said Mary, “will you kindly remember that it is _my_ ankle -that is sprained. I’m running that ankle myself, and whatever I say -that has that ankle for a subject goes. This is not the first time that -I have been in the wilderness, and a little thing like this doesn’t -trouble me in the least. This expedition, foolish though it is, means a -lot to you. And I’m not going to allow you to come this far and have to -give up because of me. You’ll see this thing to the bitter end or I’ll -never move from this country, this cañon, this fireside, or this rock -on which I’m sitting. You, and all of you--even old Marblehead--have -browbeaten me, bullied me, overrun me since we lost those rascals, -Leach and Morley, on the desert. But now at last, because of my -sprained ankle, I am in command of the situation. And I mean to be -obeyed. You’ll leave me here, with provisions and an ample supply of -firewood within arm’s reach, while you continue on to the end of the -Bonehead Country. You’re not going to all this expense and deprivation -and hardship for nothing. The sky’s still clear. Henry’s late winter -seems assured. You may not have another chance in years to even come as -far as you have. And you’re going to shoot the piece while you’re about -it.” - -“Why, Mary Temple!” laughed Charmian. “What atrocious slang!” - -“It’s time for slang,” Mary declared testily. “Shoot the piece!” - -“But, Mary, it’s perfectly--perfectly _hideous_ to leave you here in -this God-forsaken wilderness all alone--and you a woman with a sprained -ankle. Neither the doctor nor Andy will consent to such a thing.” - -“They’ll either go one way and leave me, or go the other way and leave -me. This rock on which I’m sitting is my throne, and I won’t move from -it until I have my way. I’ll die right here on this rock, I tell you, -before I’ll give in one inch!” - -“But a mountain lion might attack you, Mary Temple!” - -“Go on! You talk as if I were good to eat! Lions don’t kill for the fun -of it; they kill for meat. Only rats eat leather.” - -Dr. Shonto was regarding her thoughtfully. His examination of her ankle -had puzzled him. It was not swelling, and when he felt the bones he -had been unable to detect any evidence of sprain whatever. But her -contorted features and white lips spoke plainly of pain. Now Mary -surprised him by winking at him desperately, and, wondering, he held -his peace. - -“Now all of you but Doctor Shonto go up the cañon, around that bend, -and stay there till we call you,” ordered Mary. “Maybe you can talk -some sense into one another’s heads. I want the doctor to examine my -ankle, and I’m too modest to have the bunch of you staring at me.” - -With a queer look at Shonto, Charmian led the way up the cañon for -Henry and Andy, and they went out of sight around the bend. - -“Well, Mary, what’s all this about, anyway?” asked the doctor. “You -haven’t sprained your ankle, and you know it as well as I do.” - -“Of course not,” replied Mary complacently. “But I’ve broken at least a -couple of ribs.” - -“What!” - -“I didn’t want Charmian to know.” - -“Are you in pain?” - -“Doctor,” said Mary, “if you ever tell Charmian that I said what I’m -going to say I’ll never, never speak to you again. _It hurts like -hell!_ There--now you know, I guess.” - -“Well, for the love of Mike!” gasped Shonto. “Let me help you into your -tent. Strip to the waist in there, while I rummage through the pack for -my supplies.” - -“I don’t need your help,” snapped Mary. “You forget that my ankle isn’t -sprained. I can walk, but I can’t _crawl_. And we’re getting close to -the crawling ground, Henry tells me.” - -“Oh, I understand,” said Shonto. - -Nevertheless he helped her to her feet and held her arm as she walked -slowly and painfully to her and Charmian’s tent. The doctor pawed -through the pack, found his medicine case, and brought forth a tin -spool of wide adhesive plaster. A little later, stripped to the waist -and blushing furiously, Mary Temple came from the tent and stood before -him. - -Shonto’s skilful fingers kneaded her torso as gently as possible, but -Mary’s lips were colourless and beads of perspiration stood out on her -forehead. - -“That hurt?” - -“Humph! Of course!” - -“And that?” - -“I guess you know it does as well as I do.” - -“Well, Mary, I guess you’ve cracked one of them,” remarked Shonto, -after his careful examination. - -He stepped behind her and flattened one end of a strip of adhesive -plaster at the middle of her back, then brought it around to her right -side. - -“Now get all the breath out of you,” he ordered. “Deflate your lungs as -much as possible.” - -Mary took a deep breath, and then obediently blew lustily through her -white lips until her lungs were free of air. As her chest went down, -Shonto put his strength on the plaster and brought it around the front -of her body, binding her tight. He put on one more strip, then told her -he could do nothing else for her--that the plasters would hold the rib -in place while it was knitting, and that, at her age, nature would not -complete this process until the end of about three weeks. - -“Don’t let Charmian know anything about it,” cautioned Mary, coming -from the tent again. “I’ll keep on pretending that I sprained my ankle. -She’d worry if she knew I had a rib broken. And I could manage to walk -back this way, couldn’t I, Doctor?” - -“Yes, if you walked slowly and carefully you might get by.” - -“That’s what I thought. In fact, I’ve had a broken rib before, and -while it pained me a lot--especially in bed at night--I was able to -move around. So make Charmian think my ankle is sprained and that I -can’t walk a step. Then she’ll think it’s just as well for the rest -of you to go on for a few days as to turn back--seeing that I can’t -walk either way. As I said, however, I can walk, after a fashion, but I -can’t crawl a single inch. You get the idea, don’t you? I don’t want to -break up the expedition.” - -“But, Mary,” he reminded her, “you have been against it from the start. -It strikes me that now you have an excellent excuse to call it off.” - -“Oh, I’m against everything, Doctor,” she chuckled grimly. “At first, -anyway. I have to be to keep Charmian from going to extremes. Did you -think for one moment, back there at El Trono de Tolerancia, that I’d -allow her to go on this wild-goose chase without me? Not in a thousand -years! And last night, before we went to sleep, she told me something, -with her head resting on my lean old shoulder, that would keep me going -to the end of time if she asked it.” - -“And what was that?” asked Shonto. - -“Well, that queer country we just passed through seemed to work a sort -of spell over her. Up until we struck the high altitudes this thing -has been more or less of a lark with her. But up there, it seems, the -queer things she saw made her mighty thoughtful. That was a weird, -queer country, you’ll admit yourself. It gave me the creeps; but it -fired Charmian with the realization that this is, after all, a big -undertaking, and that there’s nothing foolish or childish about it. - -“Charmian always wanted to do something different--something -outstanding. She hates a commonplace existence. She told me last night -that at last she saw a way to realize her ambition. Other women have -climbed the Alps, she said, explored the Andes, and nosed into all -sorts of queer places. She said that she had the strength and the -courage to do as much as any woman can. And she thought her trip to the -Valley of Arcana would make a good beginning. It really amounted to a -lot, she said, for a girl to be the first, so far as anybody knows, to -enter that hidden valley. It would add something to the geographical -knowledge of the state, and who knew what she might not discover? - -“I never before saw her so enthusiastic over anything. And now that she -has come so far, I’d be the last one on earth to turn her back. So you -must go on--you and Charmian and Andy and Marblehead. I can live here -quite comfortably till you get back. I’m used to it--but I know now -that I am too old to have considered coming along.” - -“Mary,” said the doctor--and his unhandsome face was aglow with -appreciation--“I am proud to know you. Your devotion to that girl is -wonderful. But I think your present sacrifice is too great. Charmian -will never--” - -Mary Temple lifted a lean hand to stop him. “I won’t have it any other -way,” she said. “To-morrow a couple of you men go back to the cache -and pack in all that you can of the provisions we left there. That -will give me an assurance of plenty, and you can start out, loaded to -capacity again, from this point. I’ll be all right. Don’t worry about -me. And what better plan have you to offer, anyway?” - -“We could all camp here until you are fit to travel back,” suggested -Shonto, “and then--” - -“Absolute nonsense!” Mary objected. “What’s the use in wasting your -opportunity that way? Don’t try to be frivolously chivalrous, Doctor. -This is no time for useless sentiment. Winter is close at hand, -and this is a hard, hard country. It’s time to look at the matter -seriously.” - -“I’ll go and talk with the others,” said Shonto abruptly, and swung -away up the cañon. - -It was a difficult situation. No one wanted to leave a middle-aged -woman alone in that wild cañon, with a vast, rugged wilderness between -her and the comforts of life. But Mary remained tyrannically obdurate, -so they decided that they would think the matter over during the two or -three days which it would take Andy and Shirttail Henry to go for more -provisions and return. - -Early next morning the two set off on the back trail. The doctor busied -himself at making a more or less permanent camp for Mary, provided they -decided in the end to accept her ultimatum. Charmian spent hours at -bringing her diary up to date. Mary, though in pain and obliged to move -about with caution, feigned a limp and kept busy in order to deceive -Charmian. - -The afternoon of the third day of Henry and Andy’s absence brought -boredom to all three. The sky still was clear as crystal, with no -suggestion of clouds; and down in the cañon it was warm while the -sun remained overhead. Mary was confined to camp, of course, but she -insisted that Charmian and Shonto go on a short trip of exploration -either up or down the gorge. - -The pair set off about two o’clock. The cañon floor was a mass of -nigger-head boulders, through which snaked the rushing green creek. The -walls were all but perpendicular in places and of a height close to two -hundred and fifty feet. Few trees grew near the floor of the cañon, but -there were numberless entanglements of driftwood from which to draw -upon for fuel. - -The birds were singing their praise of the comforting sunlight. -Delicate ferns, unmolested by the frost, waved their green fronds -above stones set in the cañon walls, their stems upreared from soft, -vari-coloured mossbanks as lustrous and yielding as Oriental rugs and -sparkling with diamonds of dew. A pensive languor pervaded the cañon, -a sort of armistice between the mellow sun warmth and the gorge’s -lifelong heritage of clammy coldness. It made these human beings moody. -The warmth was the gipsy warmth of early springtime, when the smells -of earth are sweetest, as, deep down within the soil, the sleepy seeds -begin to rub their eyes and stretch in their great awakening to a short -life of ceaseless struggles. The pair were moody because they realized -that it was not spring, that the half-hearted promise of the sun was -altogether insincere. And while they were susceptible to the indolence -of this tantalizing afternoon, the false warmth stirred their blood -and kindled their imaginations to deeds of high emprise and thoughts -of life as it ought to be, but never is. They were filled with vague -feelings of unrest; they spoke but little and dreamed ambitious girlish -and boyish dreams. - -“Let’s sit down,” said Charmian, when they were a mile or more from -camp. - -An ancient bleached pine log had drifted into a little nook of rocks, -where it was upheld from the floor by short, broken-off, horizontal -limbs to a convenient height for a seat. It looked like a great white -thousand-legged worm with porcupine quills in its back, said Charmian, -as she seated herself between two of the upper-side stumps of limbs. - -“What a day!” she continued. “I never was more ambitious in my life, -Doctor, but I just want to sit here and ambish with my eyes half -closed. I didn’t know one could be lazy and ambitious at the same -time. I imagine dope must affect one something like this. Gee, but I -could slay pirates on the Spanish Main this afternoon--that is, if -they’d move the Spanish Main up here to this log and I could keep from -gaping long enough to draw my cutlass. Don’t know that I’d want to -kill pirates, either--I’d rather be a pirate myself and murder honest -people. But either would be an effort--unless I could sit here and slay -’em with the evil eye.” - -She made an arm-rest of one of the stumpy branches and sank her round -chin in one hand. The posture pushed up one ruddy cheek and caused -her red lips to show a pout, and that odd little upward flirt at -one corner lent them an unconscious smile. The long dark lashes, so -delicately upturned at the end, drooped downward. Her profile stood out -clean-cut against the flimsy light of the winter sun. Her throat showed -soft and dimpled and dusky. Her hoard of hair had loosened and slipped -downward in artistic disarray. She relaxed, eyes half closed, and her -sinuous body slackened as it settled into unrestrained repose. Her full -bosom rose and fell as softly and smoothly as the oily ground swell of -a lazy tropic bay. - -Inman Shonto likened womanly beauty to that of flowers. He knew lily -girls and primrose girls, daisy girls and violet and pansy girls, -even sunflower girls. But here was a rose girl--a great passionate -American beauty rose, bold in colouring, strong and stanch, upright -and unafraid, dominant, outstanding amid the other flowers, but owner -of all the loveliness and grace of the lesser blossoms, as delicate of -texture and as compelling in its tenderness. - -The firm, puckered, rather thick lips of Dr. Shonto made a corrugated -horizontal line as he drank in the beauty of the picture the drooping -girl unconsciously posed for him. He thought of his own pale-blue -eyes, his sparse sandy eyebrows, his thin, neutral-coloured hair, his -pitted, Gargantuan nose. But he straightened. He had the body of a -gladiator, the heart of a knight, the soul of a poet, and his intellect -had brought both fame and wealth to his feet. The doctor knew all this; -he knew himself, his possibilities and his limitations. He wanted this -girl--he deserved her--he had given up his important work to go with -her on this impulsively planned expedition and shield her and win her. -She was a combination of all that he desired in a wife. To let Andy -Jerome take her away from him would be an injustice to all concerned. -His brains and his character and his manhood had made an appeal to her, -he felt. Were these attributes enough for her? Was not he possessed of -attributes of sufficient worthiness to offer in exchange for her beauty -and womanly charm? And some women, he knew, were strangely attracted -by an ugly man who offers them virility and a masterful personality. -And nearly all such women, he had noted in his vast experience of life, -were lovely women and intensely feminine. - -“Charmian,” he said suddenly, in a voice just loud enough to be heard -above the boisterous laughter of the creek, “I’ve been thinking, since -the night Andy and I first saw you at El Trono de Tolerancia, that -maybe you’re the woman I have been waiting for and longing for ever -since I became a man. I came upon this trip with you to find out if my -intuition had told me right. It has. The last week of you has shown me -that you and I will not be doing our full duty to life unless we are -together.” - -Her supple body tensed a trifle, then relaxed again. Her long lashes -had lifted until he saw the silken sheen of her dark eyes, but now they -were dropped once more. - -“I’ll admit that I have gone about this thing with practicality,” he -continued. “It is, perhaps, my scientific nature that caused me to. -It’s better that way. It’s safest. Boys don’t make love as I am making -it, but I’m no boy, though I’m none the less sincere. I look upon -successful marriage as the ideal partnership. And you will realize -when you are a little older, as I do, that companionship is the most -important feature of married life. Don’t think that I don’t love you. -I do--deeply. But I’m not offering you the blind, fiery, uncontrolled -passion of a youth in his twenties. I’m offering you the sincere love -of a mature, reasoning man. What do you think of it?” - -Charmian Reemy opened her eyes and stole a quick glance at him. The -colour in her face was heightened only a little; and, though her -heart may have beat a little faster, she was not greatly confused. -But a feeling of triumph glowed warm within her. That she, by the not -consciously exercised force of her personality and feminine charm, had -intrigued this man of big achievements into a proposal of marriage was -thrilling. - -He was so desperately in earnest that his homely face was transfigured. -Facial ugliness she saw only in the light of great strength. His broad -smile was winning, tolerant, unutterably tender. His eyes were kind, -whimsical, wistful; and there was in them now a lustre that she never -had seen glowing there before. - -Inman Shonto was not ugly now. The great soul of the man had enthroned -itself in his countenance. The effect was spellbinding. - -Charmian had told herself that, if ever she married again, she would -marry a big man, a man of accomplishment. Her husband had been a -big man in his small way. He had been a money-maker, a George F. -Babbitt, but the girl-wife had not been able to interest herself in his -activities. He had created nothing, discovered nothing, added nothing -to the knowledge or welfare of the race. Walter J. Reemy had been -commonplace in every way--a man whose commonplace mind followed a daily -routine of commonplaceness. - -“You and I, Charmian,” the doctor was saying while she dreamed, “can -make our life together an ideal one. Won’t you even consider it?” - -She had closed her eyes again, but now she opened them and smiled at -him half bashfully. - -“I am considering it,” she said. - -Shonto grasped her hand with eagerness and pressed it. “Thank heaven -for that encouragement,” he whispered fervently. - -“But--but could I ever understand you?” asked Charmian. “I’m -nothing--nobody--a dreamer. They say that I am pretty. If so, isn’t it -merely that which has attracted you to me, Doctor? If we were married, -wouldn’t you shut yourself away from me, treat me generously and -courteously and devotedly, but at the same time never take me into your -confidence? Don’t you want me merely as an ornament for the mantle of -your success?” - -“Why should that be, Charmian?” - -“Haven’t you already declined to take me into your confidence about -your work--about the glands? I didn’t ask much, did I? I wasn’t trying -to pry into your secrets--the mysteries of your profession. I was just -looking for a little enlightenment on a subject that has interested me -ever since it was brought to the attention of the general public. And -you shut up like a clam.” - -Shonto’s face showed troubled lines. - -“I tried to explain, very carefully,” he pointed out, “that, in this -instance, there is a peculiar reason why I cannot tell you what you -want to know. But there may come a time when I shall feel at liberty -to tell you all. Please trust me--and believe me when I say that, if -you can look on my proposal in a favourable light, I will tell you -everything. Don’t you think me worthy of such trust, Charmian?” - -There was a pleading note in his tones, though they were none the less -manly, that caused her to say impulsively: - -“Of course I trust you. I know you must have an excellent reason for -not talking over your work with me. I’m afraid I’m pretty much of a -kid at times, Doctor. And I’ll--I’ll-- Well, I’ll think about what you -said. Oh, but what a matter-of-fact way we’re taking to talk about such -a subject! I think-- My goodness! Here comes Andy--alone!” - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE LONG STRAW - - -ANDY JEROME came swinging down the cañon with the stride of a -conquering hero, straight and strong under a burdensome pack. Both -Charmian and Shonto regarded him in admiration as he came--he was so -handsome, so well fortified with the confidence of youth, so sure that -his vigorous young manhood was a match for any obstacle. - -Charmian shouted and waved her hand. The homecomer waved back and sent -the echoes cantering down the gorge after his long-drawn baritone whoop -of greeting. - -“What can have happened to Henry?” the young widow murmured, half to -herself. - -Shonto made no reply, but his face looked worried. - -“Well, for mercy’s sake!” cried the girl when Andy was close enough to -hear her high-pitched words. “Where are you coming from? Where’s the -weather bureau?” - -Andy Jerome came swinging on, slipping on the nigger-heads repeatedly, -but always catching himself with the indifference that springy, -always-ready muscles bequeath to youth. - -“Some trip!” he laughed. “I just naturally walked old Marblehead off -his feet. Then I left him to die and made the rounds alone.” - -He reached them, eased his pack to the stones with a great sigh, and -held out both hands to them--his right to Charmian. - -“Golly, I’m tired!” he ejaculated; but he looked as if any weariness -that he might feel would forsake him after an hour’s rest. - -“Where _is_ Henry?” asked Shonto soberly. “And how are you back so -soon?--and coming down the gorge?” - -“Well, last question answered first, I’m hitting her up down the gorge -because I discovered an easier route back than the one Henry brought -us over. And Henry is on his way home to write a letter to the Weather -Bureau for a new rain gauge.” - -“Andy, you don’t mean it!”--from Charmian Reemy. - -“Sure do. I couldn’t hold ’im. Thought I’d talked him out of shaking -us, but in the night, while I was pounding my ear, he ups and beats it.” - -“But his money?” said Shonto. - -“Oh, I paid him in advance,” Charmian confessed with guilty reticence. - -“The old rascal!” the doctor snorted. - -“But I’m not worrying,” Andy continued. “He’d virtually told me how to -find the Valley of Arcana, and it strikes me that he’s already about -fulfilled his contract. I believe I can go straight to it from here. -I’ll tell you later what I got out of him. - -“Personally, I won’t miss the old coot in the least. He’s not so much -in the mountains. I walked the head off the old boy on the trip back to -the cache. I let myself out--see?--which I couldn’t do in travelling -with you folks--if you’ll pardon me. So I took our bold mountaineer on -for a regular ramble, and I had him begging for less speed three hours -out of camp.” - -“He’s quite a little older than you are, Andy,” Charmian made reminder. - -She did not exactly approve of Andy’s slightly boastful tone. Dr. -Shonto caught the note in her voice, and hastened to say: - -“Don’t pay too much attention to our young friend’s high opinion of his -own prowess. Ordinarily Andy isn’t the least bit boastful. But we’re -living a more or less primitive life these days. Our existence may -depend on what we can do with our legs and arms and hands. Surmounting -the difficulties of this wilderness has become the most important thing -in our lives. We must excuse one another for being primevally proud of -our little achievements.” - -“Good work, Doctor!” laughed Andy, a trifle red of face. “Was I -shooting the old bazoo too hard? Maybe so. Thanks for your explanation -to Charmian. The doctor’s a wonder at keeping the serene equilibrium of -camp life at par. He always understands that folks are different once -they’ve shaken the dust of civilization from their feet. They’re more -primitive--that’s right. - -“Well, to continue, old Henry has been worrying ever since the bell -burro made a sandwich out of his old gauge. Reading that gauge and -sending in his reports are the greatest things in life for him. And -so--well, he just up and hit the trail, that’s all. He’s got a loose -screw in his head, of course. So we were camped at the cache, ready -to start back in the morning. And when I found he’d gone I knew right -away what had happened and struck out at dawn alone. And--boasting or -no boasting--I’ve brought all that I meant to pack in and at least half -of what Shirttail Henry had laid out for his pack. So we’re not so bad -off, after all. How’s our pillar of determination and her sprain?” - -The three walked down the cañon toward their camp, Shonto carrying the -pack. Andy told the others, as they stumbled over the round, smooth -stone cannon balls of the creek-bed, what Shirttail Henry had divulged -concerning the onward trail to the Valley of Arcana. - -When they had climbed the steep southern wall of the cañon in which -they were encamped they would find themselves on a wooded plateau, -none too level. For several miles they would travel across timberland, -then the trees would become scarcer and patches of chaparral would -make their appearance. Gradually the chaparral would claim the land, -and would extend for miles--how many he did not know--to the country -immediately surrounding the valley of their quest. Halfway through this -immense stretch of prickly brush Reed, the ranger, and his companions -had been obliged to discontinue the trip. - -“But they always tried it in summer,” said Andy. “In summer or spring, -when the air is hot and a fellow needs a lot of water. It’s cool -now--cold--and we won’t suffer much along that line. We’ll pack every -drop of water we can and nurse it religiously. We won’t need much. -Strikes me a fellow could catch enough dew over night to last him all -next day. Stretch out a closely woven piece of canvas, maybe. And if it -should rain or snow, we’d perhaps be mighty uncomfortable, but we’d be -assured of plenty of water.” - -“Let’s not pray for either,” the girl suggested. “I’d rather chance a -drought.” - -“For my part,” said Shonto, “I almost wish we could go back and give -it up entirely. It’s going to be serious if winter overtakes us; and, -because of the many delays we’ve been up against, it strikes me that -that’s almost sure to happen.” - -“Can’t give up and go back now, with Mary unable to travel,” Andy -reminded him. - -“Yes, that’s so,” sighed the older man. “We’re in for it now, and -we may as well forge on as to twiddle our thumbs in the cañon while -Mary’s--er--sprain gets better. But I’ll tell you one thing: I’m never -going to consent to leave that woman alone in the gorge, crippled as -she is. Either you or I, Andy, must stay with her. Of course Charmian -must go on, if anybody does; this is her circus. And as you are the -expert mountaineer of the party, I have decided to stay with Mary. But -it’s going to give me grey hairs whether I go or stay. If I go, Mary -will be constantly on my guilty mind. If I stay with her, I won’t be -able to sleep for worrying about you two.” - -“Shucks, Doctor! You’re not like yourself at all here lately,” was -Andy’s complaint. “You used to be a sport--nothing was too rough for -you.” - -“I never had a couple of women along with me before,” Shonto defended -himself. “And I don’t know that I’ve ever before been in quite so -precarious a situation, Andy. It’s no difficult matter to become food -for the coyotes in a country like we’re in.” - -All three were a trifle serious now and talked but little. Charmian and -Andy agreed with Dr. Shonto, however, that it would be ungenerous to -leave Mary Temple alone in this dismal gorge while they continued the -adventure. Andy had made no offer to stay and allow his friend to go -with Charmian. His heart was leaping madly at thought of braving the -trail into an unknown land with her alone. - -Mary Temple listened without a show of consternation to the story of -Shirttail Henry’s duty-bound flight. - -“Well,” she observed dispassionately, “we seem destined to lose our -support. First the Morleys and Leach threw us down, and now the good -ship _Marblehead_ goes on the rocks. He was more or less of a doodunk, -anyway.” - -“What’s a doodunk?” Andy asked. - -“A doodunk,” she informed her questioner, “is something that makes a -man say damn and a woman think damn. For example, a doodunk is a lumpy -place in a mattress. But Henry’s going knocks something galley west and -crooked.” - -“What’s that?” Charmian wished to know. - -“With Henry out of it, who’s going to be the madman that leans over -you and chokes you in the Valley of Arcana?” snapped Mary. “I hope you -haven’t forgotten that, Charmian Reemy! You wait! Madame Destrehan -knows--she saw it all!” - -Mary was not exactly in an amiable mood, but the others broached the -subject of some one remaining with her, nevertheless. To their utter -surprise, she made reply: - -“Well, I’ve been thinking that over myself this afternoon. I guess -maybe you’re right, at that. Charmian must go on--that’s settled. This -is her fool party, and the rest of us are just invited guests. So -either Doctor Shonto or Andy will have to stay with me, and the other -one go on with Charmian and get the ridiculous thing over with while my -ankle’s getting well.” - -“Now, neither of you two fellows want to stay with an old battleaxe -like me. I know that. Just the same, all alone here in this cold, dark -cañon this afternoon, I changed my tune. So you’ll draw straws to see -which one is elected. And as I’m the innocent party concerned, I’ll -hold the straws. Suit you?” - -Her defiant eyes coasted from Shonto to the younger man. - -“Certainly,” both made answer. And Andy added, in tones none too strong: - -“Nothing could be fairer.” - -“All right.” Mary bent over--with difficulty and pain, the doctor -noted--and took up from the ground a box of safety matches. She -extracted two, closed the box and dropped it, and turned herself slowly -on her rocky throne until her back was toward the expectant gamblers. -“Got a piece of money, either of you?” she asked. - -Andy produced a silver coin. - -“Toss it up,” commanded the arbiter of their fortunes. “Heads, the -doctor draws first; tails, Andy gets first crack. And the one that -draws the long match stays with me. What about it?” - -“Suits me,” both men said; and Andy flipped the half-dollar into the -air. - -“Tails,” he announced as the coin rang on the stones. “I draw first.” - -Mary wheeled slowly back and faced them. She held out one big-veined -and skinny hand, above the closed fingers of which two match-heads -protruded. - -With a swift glance at his rival, Andy took a step and stood before -her, hesitated a moment, then reached out and pulled a match. - -He caught his breath, turned red, and glanced confusedly at Charmian. - -He had drawn an entire match--the long straw. He was elected to stay -with Mary Temple. - -“I don’t care if I did cheat,” Mary consoled herself as she sought -her bed early that night. “They’ll never guess that neither match was -broken. Andy had no chance to win--and I wanted it that way.” - -But at the same time that she was saying this Dr. Shonto sat alone over -the red coals of the dying campfire. Charmian and Andy were strolling -down the cañon together under the light of the moon, and the girl did -not protest when Andy’s arm stole round her waist. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -VAGRANCY CAÑON - - -“CHARMIAN,” said Andy passionately, “do you know that I love you more -than anything else in all the world? I can’t live without you, darling! -Don’t want to live without you! You know I love you, don’t you, dear? -Tell me you know it! You must know it! You can’t help but know! I’ve -loved you from the moment I first set eyes on you, when you stood in -the door in your evening gown at El Trono de Tolerancia. God, how I -love you, Charmian!” - -He stopped her, made her face him, and threw his other arm about her. -He was trembling violently, and in the moonlight she saw the twitching -of his parted lips. - -“Charmian! Charmian!” he cried brokenly, as he realized that she was -not struggling in his arms. “You love me, don’t you? I know you love -me! God!” - -He tightened his hold on her, drew her close to his breast, kissed her -dark hair, then savagely threw her body sidewise and found her lips -with his. - -She was shaken--swept away. He was so young, so handsome, so strong, so -intensely masculine. Every primitive instinct of her being went out to -him. She could no more escape the passionate appeal of the male in him -than can the innocent, nature-ruled females of the wilderness escape -at mating time. She had no desire to escape. They were man and woman, -alone under the stars and the moon, in a deep, grim cañon that scarred -the heart of this wild region; and all the sounding brass and tinkling -cymbals of our false and hectic civilization were far away. A man and -a woman, alone and aloof as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, young, -courageous, ripe for love. “Male and female created he them.” She gave -him her warm, firm lips. He kissed her lips and eyes and her dusky -throat, while the blood hammered in his veins as if freshets of old -port wine were rushing through them. - -They spoke a thousand words that night, reclining in each other’s arms -on the uncompromising floor of that severe old gorge, but they only -said, “I love you.” They said it in a hundred ways, lips to lips, but -no way was original. Love knows no originality when it is sincere. “I -love you” is all that can be said--three words, “I love you,” but they -are the hinges that swing the door of life. - -“And to-morrow you’re going with him to the Valley of Arcana, Charmian! -Will you think of me all the time, dearest? You won’t listen if he -makes love to you, will you, Charmian? I know you won’t--you’re the -dearest, truest, sweetest girl on earth! Oh, why did I have to draw the -long match! Why couldn’t I go with you instead of him? But as soon as -you find the valley, you’ll come right back, won’t you, honey?” - -“Of course”--and she smothered the words against his lips. - -“I wonder, if I were to tell him that we love each other, if he -wouldn’t consent to let me go instead. If Mary needs help, he, being a -doctor, ought to stay with her. But then I couldn’t ask it. He wouldn’t -expect me to. I know he’d give in to me--but he’d think I wasn’t a -sport. We’ve always played square--the doctor and I. I hope he doesn’t -love you too much, Charmian. Has he told you that he loves you? What -were you saying in the cañon this afternoon?” - -“He told me he loved me,” said Charmian softly. - -“He did!”--belligerently. “And what--what did you say?” - -“I--I promised to consider it, Andy. I couldn’t think of anything else -to say. And that was before you--before to-night, you know.” - -“Why didn’t you tell him there was nothing doing?” - -“I couldn’t. I didn’t want to-- That is, I--I--he took me so by -surprise. And you hadn’t once mentioned love to me then, Andy. And who -could hurt his feelings--he’s such a dear--such a manly man!” - -“But you knew I was going to blurt it out sometime--when I found my -nerve.” - -“I know--I felt it, I guess. But--oh, don’t think of Doctor Shonto -to-night. I love you--I love _you_! I don’t want to think of anything -else in all the world!” - -The hour was late when they returned to camp, floating in air. The -doctor had long since sought his blankets. They lengthened the -good-night kiss of their new-found love, for in the morning there -would be no opportunity to kiss before the parting. - -Charmian, Andy, and Shonto had talked at length over the directions -given to Andy by the defaulting Henry for the continuation of the -journey. Before the girl and Andy had gone down the gorge for their -love-making all arrangements had been made for an early-morning start. - -The four were rather silent as they ate breakfast in the frosty -cañon. Mary Temple assumed the initiative in such conversation as was -indulged in, fussing over the out-going pair, as needlessly agitated -as a mother hen, a couple of whose brood are ducklings and persist in -taking to the water. But at last the meal was over, the good-byes were -spoken, the packs and water-bags shouldered, the final love message -wirelessed between Charmian and Andy. And now Mary stood needlessly -shading her eyes with her hand as she watched the couple up the gorge, -so dismal at that early-morning hour, while Andy watched from a seat on -a large boulder, spread-legged, with hands clasped between his knees, -hopelessness in his eyes. - -Then shrilly shouted the mother hen after her erring ducklings: - -“Doctor! _Doc_-tor! Did you leave Andy plenty of his little pills?” - -Poor Mary Temple! She was not gifted with the ability to look into the -future for which she gave Madame Destrehan credit. Had she been able to -she could have envisioned Dr. Shonto trudging wearily back to her and -Andy six days later--alone. - -Half a mile up the clammy cañon from the camp Charmian and the doctor -turned abruptly to the right and entered a steep branch cañon that -tentacled from the larger one to the south. Their course was still due -south, according to the bewhiskered deserter, and, as they carried -a dependable compass, it was without misgivings that they abandoned -landmarks which they knew and clambered upward into an unknown country. - -The branch cañon was rock-tenoned and perilously steep, though -mercifully dry for a mile above its mouth. It was, said Charmian, the -most outspoken cañon in its querulous complaints over their trespassing -that they had as yet encountered. It seemed that nature had designed -it as the closest attempt to an impossible approach to what was beyond -as lay within her power. Into its V bottom she had in a fit of anger -hurled immense boulders from the heights above. She had uptilted in -her tantrum huge strata of leaflike stone whose edges were sharp -as a butcher’s cleaver. Then, out to make a night of it, she had -poured rubble from the size of an egg to that of a muskmelon down the -reaching slopes, wildly mirthful as a miser raining his shekels from -bags to glittering heaps on the table-top. These rubble slides were -sometimes half a mile in length--nothing but a slanted sea of round, -smooth stones of reddish hue, with not a grain of soil or one single -gasping blade of vegetation. Across these slides the wanderers laboured -heavily, for the stones, always eager to continue their interrupted -rush into the cañon, gave under their feet like dough; often slid under -them, carrying them along on the crest of a new slide; and, thus -releasing the pressure, caused slides above them which threatened to -swoop down and engulf them or mangle their arms and legs; threw them -headlong on occasion; twisted their ankles; endangered every bone; -made progress a nightmare of apprehensions by clutching their feet at -every step, as when the dream-tortured victim tries to flee from some -murderous phantom and terror palsies his legs. Once Shonto pitched -headlong as the rubble sank under his feet like breaking ice. The break -started a slide above him, which extended upward and upward to the lip -of the cañon until their ears were filled with the deafening roar of a -far-reaching avalanche. Large stones were pushed upward above the mass, -and, released, came bounding down alone over the top of the sliding -sea, gaining momentum at every leap, living devils of menace. - -For a brief space the two were bewildered, the doctor the more so -because his head had struck a rock in falling and left him dazed. Then -Charmian screamed, and he struggled up and ploughed a way to her side. -Almost before they could plan escape the vanguard of the great slide -was rushing past them and piling up about their ankles. - -“The other side!” shouted the doctor. - -He grasped her hand and together they plunged recklessly toward the -V bottom of the cañon. It was no longer dry, and this feature had -forced them to traverse the rubble, for the opposite wall was all but -perpendicular, with overhanging crags. There was no footing. Every -frantic step landed them on top of a rolling stone or in the midst of -a nest of them. Their ankles turned; they were pitched drunkenly from -right to left, thrown to their knees, carried downward in a sitting -posture, sometimes backward. The increasing roar was terrifying; a -tidal wave of reddish stones was vomited at them--a charging army -pursuing them, its skirmish line already heckling them, its cannon -balls pounding down from the artillery in the rear. - -Charmian pitched forward; would have sprawled on her face upon the -wriggling mass of stones had the doctor lost his crushing grip on her -hand. Her right arm was almost jerked from its socket as their arms -straightened between them and the doctor held on. She thought of her -girlhood game of “crack the whip,” when she had been the “snapper” at -the tail end of the line and had absorbed the greatest part of the -dizzying shock. Next moment she felt herself swept up into his arms, -pack and all; and then--though only Heaven knows how he did it--the man -pitched with his burden into the cañon, lunged through the water, and -started to climb the wall on the opposite side. - -Here she struggled free. “I’m all right,” she panted. “I can climb. Oh, -hurry!” - -Upwards they struggled, grasping jutting stones and the roots of -bushes. Into the cañon below them poured the avalanche of stones with -the clatter of a billion dice. They struggled on for fifty feet or -more, then the girl dropped in helpless exhaustion; and Shonto, faring -little better, threw himself down beside her. - -“We’re safe,” he gulped. “Just--just rest.” - -Gradually the roar subsided while they lay there gasping for the air -that seemed to be denied them. Only an occasional angry snarl came from -some section of the slide that tried to renew the wild dervish dance -of destruction. Then all sounds ceased, and the beleaguered travellers -sat up and gazed at the opposite side of the cañon. Everything looked -as it had looked before the doctor fell, except that the bottom of the -cañon was covered with rubble to a depth of maybe twenty feet. The -freshets of a hundred springs to come would carry these on down towards -the floor of the mother cañon below, and all would seem to be as it had -been for centuries past until some leaping deer or prowling cougar or -skulking coyote passed that way and started another slide. - -“Gosh!” breathed Charmian. “Ain’t nature wonderful! Thanks for the -lift, dear old thing. Well, who’s scared? Where do we go from here?” - -“That’s the difficulty,” said Shonto seriously. “I don’t like to risk -another slide by travelling over the rubble stones again, and if we -keep to this side of the cañon we won’t make half a mile an hour. And -to walk up the floor of the cañon means wet feet and a continual battle -with big boulders and outcroppings.” - -But time was of the essence of their contract. They risked the slides -again. - -They crossed two more as large as the one on which catastrophe had -threatened, then several of lesser dimensions until they went out -of the district of slides. Now they worked their slow way along the -same steep slope, over roots and rocks and soft black soil, mellow -with decayed chaparral leaves and foamy from the heaving frost. The -travelling was heart-breaking until they stepped into a deer trail by -sheerest accident. Birds cheered them along their way--silent, solemn -birds, but companionable in their flattering curiosity. They were -very small birds with indistinguishable necks, impossible long bills, -big heads, swollen breasts, dull colouring, and manners pontifical -in seriousness. These were the questioning little aborigines that, -on the other side of the divide, Mary Temple had called squirks, -explaining that a squirk was an important little man who looked like a -shabbily clothed preacher, but who made his living by taking orders for -enlargements of portrait photographs. - -The cañon dwindled--petered out entirely on the ample breast of a -hill. It that had been so jagged and yawning and formidable down below -now showed no cause for its being--Vagrancy Cañon, Charmian named it -because, she said, it could show no visible means of support. Over -the rounded breast of the eminence they trailed and found themselves -on virtually level land, on the wooded plateau of Shirttail Henry’s -promise. The day was almost spent; they retraced their way back to -the cañon, to where they had seen a spring. Fleecy clouds drifted -across the sky, mobilizing in the west, where the reflection of the -sinking sun on the far-off ocean was re-reflected on their snowy -scallops--orange, cerise, and giddy yellow. - -They camped by the little spring. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -THE CAMP IN VAGRANCY CAÑON - - -SHONTO collected wood and built a fire, while Charmian undid the packs. -At an early hour the sun sank behind the mountain peaks, and night -descended fast. They cooked and ate a simple meal and wasted not a -crumb, for this was a serious business that they were upon and the -success of it might depend on their husbanding of food. - -They cleaned up after the meal, and, while the thin light lasted, -sought out their sleeping places for the night and spread the blankets. -Both were ineffably weary, for even Charmian’s pack was a heavy one. -But the warmth of the leaping fire that they now built up from the -red cooking coals soothed their aching joints and muscles and made -existence rosier. They sat one on either side of it, and Shonto rolled -and lighted a cigarette to be drawn upon between sips of hot black -coffee. - -“I’ll take one too, please,” said Charmian. “I don’t often smoke, but -I know how; and it seems to me that, with only us two away out here -in the land of nowhere, I ought to smoke to keep you company. Do you -approve of women smoking, Doctor?” - -“Never before having had any women to be solicitous about,” replied -Shonto thoughtfully, as he rolled her cigarette, “I have never given -the subject much thought.” - -He arose and handed her the rolled cylinder. She accepted it a bit -awkwardly and ran the tip of her pink tongue along the edge of the -paper to moisten it. With the toe of his heavy high-laced boot he -scraped a burning twig from the fire and supplied her with a light. - -“Women who smoke not being looked upon with favour,” he remarked, as he -squatted over his coffee cup again, “strikes me as only another example -of the slavery to which woman has been subjected from the beginning -of history. Laying aside any harm that may come from the practice, -why shouldn’t she smoke? It may stain her teeth and work havoc with -her digestive apparatus, but her teeth and digestive apparatus are -identical with man’s. So we can’t justly prohibit her from smoking on -those grounds. The smoking woman is looked upon with disfavour, then, -merely because tradition has it that she cannot smoke and remain in -the good graces of conservative society. To the bourgeois mind, she is -not a lady. Now, the act of smoking is in itself absolutely no more -unmoral than spinning a top. If men derived pleasure from top-spinning, -doubtless women would be permitted to likewise enjoy themselves. Men -eat candy, and women may do so too without losing caste. Just why they -can’t smoke without getting in bad is beyond me.” - -“It’s simply another of our stupid taboos,” said Charmian, puffing -grandly to show her independence, and choking just a little now and -then. “We’re hemmed in with taboos on all sides. They are grounded in -our conservative minds from childhood, and we can’t shake them off. -Years ago some one decided that women ought not to smoke. Some one -agreed with him. Others took it up, perhaps; and finally it became the -accepted rule. So in childhood we were taught that women shouldn’t -smoke--that good women didn’t smoke. We grew up unaccustomed to see -women smoking. Therefore when we encountered an occasional individual -who did smoke, she was considered immoral. But why immoral? What is -there immoral about placing a cigarette between one’s lips, lighting -it, and inhaling and exhaling the smoke? Injurious it may be, but we’re -not discussing that phase of the subject. A man may thus injure himself -with impunity, but if a woman does so she is immoral. Now isn’t that -illogical?” - -“Logic plays a small part in our lives,” said Shonto. “We’re not on -very friendly terms with logic. Logic means thinking and shaking off -the old ideas that are handed down to us from the ancients, and we’re -too lazy to do that. Logic calls for reasoning, and why reason when our -beliefs and our behaviour have been regulated for us for seventeen or -eighteen hundred years? Why think for ourselves, when the ancients went -to so much trouble to prescribe for us our taboos and our religious -beliefs and our standard of morals? Why think, in short? It’s such hard -work. And it has a tendency to uproot old beliefs in which we are quite -comfortable. We might feel the urge to clean house if we sat down and -thought a little, and everybody knows how upsetting is house-cleaning -day!” - -“And isn’t there any hope for us, Doctor Shonto? Will nothing make us -think?” - -Shonto’s dull eyes brightened. “Yes, we’re beginning to think. The -great war did that much for us here in America, anyway. I really -believe there is a serious attempt being made to-day to think. People -are at least trying to think. They are at least reading more thoughtful -books than ever before, and, thank God, we have a few men who are -capable of writing thoughtful books! There’s a whisper going along -the line, a faint and timorous suggestion that maybe all is not as it -should be on this earth--that maybe we are selling our heritage for a -mess of pottage--that perhaps we are trampling life’s riches under our -feet, like swine trampling into the mud nuggets of gold as they rush to -the swill trough. - -“But as yet only the people who have been trying for some time to think -are absorbing the books which will help them to think. These books are -beyond the masses. The authors of many of them are slaves to style and -big-sounding words. The newspapers are the unthinking man’s school--and -what a farce, what a seedbed of corruption they are! Reporters and -editors must remain loyal to the policies of their papers, regardless -of their own opinions. They who could help us to think are forbidden to -do so on the penalty of losing their jobs. - -“And the children of this country, and doubtless every other so-called -civilized country, must depend upon the schools to learn to think. -And every thinking teacher who takes the rostrum is fired for his -attempt to break down the walls of superstition and slash the hedges -of tradition. But for all that, the youth of this country at least are -gradually--no, pretty swiftly--breaking away. The world-old conflict -between Age and Youth is at its hottest now. In the past thirty years -the world has made revolutionary discoveries which are daily changing -our lives and methods of thinking. All this came about after Age had -settled down to an acceptance of life without any changes. At forty or -fifty one does not readily change his views. The sutures of his skull -are closed, and it is difficult for him to learn new ideas. He is -beyond the plastic period, and his head is as hard as his arteries. He -is entirely unable to accept the electron theory in the place of ‘in -six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them -is.’ Simply because he never heard of the electron theory at the age -when his brain was capable of accepting a new idea. It’s too late for -him--he’s hopeless. But he’s dying off! To-morrow he won’t be running -the world. His sons and his daughters will be in the saddle. - -“And they have come upon the earth and grown to young manhood and young -womanhood while these radical changes were taking place. They are able -to consider, even accept, the findings of modern science because they -are presented to them while their brains are still in the receptive -period of life. What seems most plausible to them they accept, and they -naturally will laugh at the old traditions, superstitions, taboos, and -beliefs that have come down to us from the days of savagery, and which -were ingrained in the lives of their parents when _they_ were of a -receptive age. Fifty years, I think, will show many a mossy institution -crumbled to ashes. The Aged of to-day will be gone, without having -been able to force their lifelong beliefs on Youth. Then Youth will -become Old Age, and if we have progressed at all, the coming generation -will refuse to accept what _their_ fathers and mothers believed in and -made the ruling factor in their lives. So the conflict between Age and -Youth, between conservatism and change, between receptive minds and -locked minds, goes on to the end of time.” - -“My stars!” cried Charmian. “You’re more pessimistic about it--more -hopeless--than I am, even!” - -“I hadn’t finished,” said Shonto dreamily. “That will be the result -unless men learn to think. They have brains, why don’t they think? -Because they have been relieved of the necessity for thinking by the -ancient spellbinders whom we still worship to-day. That’s why they -don’t think. Man is naturally lazy--more so mentally than any other -way. If others have done his thinking for him, he should worry! It -gives him time to pursue the things that he likes--money, pleasure, -love, self-aggrandizement.” - -“Well, I understand all that. But it doesn’t help.” - -“We’re going to make him think in spite of himself,” said Shonto. -“We’re going to give him a quicker brain, so that he will be compelled -to think willy-nilly. His brain is good, but it needs exercise. And he -has not been obliged to exercise it. Hence it has become slothful. -Considering the progress that our few thinkers have made, the brain of -the average man is far below normal. We must bring it up to normal so -that it will exercise itself and grow whether he wants it to or not. -Then he’ll shed his stupidity and open his eyes, and maybe something -will go bust in the wheels of the system that rules us. We’re going -to feed him the extract of the thyroid glands of sheep, sharpen his -intellect, put the zip of life into him. Then he’ll think, and he’ll -probably get mad. But we are only at the beginning of this great study -of the glands and their secretions, and what they may do for man. - -“The thyroid is the gland of energy. It controls the growth of -certain organs and tissues of brain and sex. The internal secretions -of our thyroid glands, mind you, are not necessary to life. If these -secretions are inadequate, we may go on living, but we shall be below -normal mentally, and our level of energy will remain low. But when more -thyroid is introduced into the system our vital chemical reactions will -speed up. It has been proved and accepted without qualification by -men of science that the more thyroid a person has the more energetic -will he be. Our dull people are, in many cases, only victims of an -insufficiency of thyroid. One’s memory is affected by his thyroid -glands. And without memory, who can learn? Judgment depends on memory, -doesn’t it? It requires memory, the association of experiences. Quick -thinking calls for thyroid glands that are normal. Do you know, -Charmian, that many criminals are only the victims of their glands--and -that science can probably correct this in time by supplying the -unfortunates with the gland secretions which they lack? Do you realize -that it is, even now, an established scientific fact that idiocy can -be cured by feeding the subject the extract of the thyroid glands of -sheep? And--and-- Well, I simply have great hopes for the race if -science eventually finds it possible to quicken the thinking apparatus -by the introduction of gland extracts.” - -“Has anything been accomplished along that line?” she asked. “Have you -accomplished anything?” - -“I have,” he told her. “I am convinced that we are on the right track.” - -“Tell me of some case,” she begged. - -He seemed to be searching his mind. “The greater part of the cases that -I have handled,” he said at last, “were concerned with subjects whose -maladies I cannot discuss with you because of their delicate nature. In -brief, subjects who were troubled with the problems of sex. And such -cases as I have had that called for the introduction of thyroxin are -still in the experimental stage. Only time will tell whether we are -right or not.” - -“But can’t you notice results?” - -“Oh, yes--in many cases. But whether or not the results will be -permanent no one can say at present.” - -“For a little,” she said thoughtfully, “I imagined you were about to -tell me something, but you’re still reticent and I shan’t press you. -Well, here we are, all alone together, on the outskirts of nowhere, and -between us we have solved many riddles of the race. And I have been -immoral and smoked a cigarette, if I wasn’t immoral in the first place -in coming here with you. But it seemed that in no other way could I -find the Valley of Arcana--and here I am. I wonder if we’re to begin -crawling to victory to-morrow?” - -“I don’t like those clouds that we saw at sunset,” he remarked. “But -they’re all gone now. The sky’s as clear as ever.” - -Charmian gaped, placed a slim hand over her distorted mouth, and patted -the aperture, ending with a burst of air that was wrenched out of her -until her jaw muscles seemed to creak. - -“Pardon me,” she laughed. “I couldn’t help it--I’m about all in. That -means the blankets for mine. Good night, Doctor. - -“How you have interested me,” she sighed, as she rose to her feet and -stretched her arms and torso as unreservedly as a young panther would. -“You have worked so much--have accomplished so much. You make me feel -like a baseball fan in the grandstand, yelling his head off over the -good work of some famous player in the field. I hate fans. They’re so -willing to get entertainment from the achievements of others. They dote -on baseball, know all the players by name and their records from A to -Z. They never miss a game, never fail to bloat their blood vessels by -shouting their approval. Yet not one of them can toss a rubber ball -twenty feet in air and be sure of catching it! - -“I’m not picking on baseball fans in particular. I just used them as -a handy example. All of us in this world but the thinkers are fans. -We’re wild about the conveniences that electricity has brought to us, -but not one out of a hundred of us could splice a broken electric -wire. We rave over a famous lecturer or writer, but how many of us try -to become lecturers or writers? Can you imagine a man--I know him--who -never misses a professional billiard game, knows all the professional -players, all the niceties of their work, but never takes a billiard cue -in hand? - -“Most of us are fans--we admire and worship and gloat over the success -of the few, particularly if it is designed for our entertainment, but -never make an effort at being anything ourselves. Oh, I’m sick of -shouting from the grandstand, Doctor! I want to do something. I want to -be one of the few who make the world go round for the others!” - -“Leave the grandstand, then,” said the doctor softly, “and come down on -the diamond with me.” - -Charmian caught her breath at the suddenness of it. She had not -suspected that she was leading herself into a trap. And she had given -herself to Andy! She had let him fondle her, had told him that she -loved him, with her lips pressed to his. - -“I--I haven’t finished thinking about it,” she said hurriedly, and -hastened off to her blankets. - -For an hour she lay looking up at the black sky and the tracery of -pine branches against it, thinking, thinking, groping patiently but -fruitlessly. - -Next morning at an early hour they climbed the hill again, crossed -the wooded plateau, came upon the thinning trees and the encroaching -brush. That afternoon they left all traces of the forest behind them, -and faced a desolate sweep of chaparral, stretching away as far as the -eye could see, hemmed in on the south by snowy peaks barely outlined -against the paleness of the sky. And somewhere in the midst of that -seemingly unbroken sea of hoary grey and antique gold the undiscovered -Valley of Arcana lay in hiding. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -BEAR PASS - - -YEARS beyond conjecture had passed since a great forest fire had swept -across the waste of chaparral which Charmian and Doctor Shonto looked -upon. Probably never before or since in the history of the California -forests had such a far-reaching fire ravaged the peaks and valleys. - -A mighty forest had stood there then, to be laid low by the consuming -flames. In its place had come the comparatively rapid growing -chaparral, claiming the land to the exclusion of all other vegetation. -Here and there a lone pine stood erect and disdainful above the -twelve-foot brush, and here and there on the ground under the bushes -lay down trees, ancient corpses that had disintegrated to corklike -particles and powder, mere shadows of logs that were ready to crumble -when a boot toe touched them. - -The chaparral was compromised of buckthorn bushes, interspersed -with manzanita. The buckthorn bushes formed what is known as locked -chaparral--which means that their prickly upper branches are twined -and intertwined until they form a solid mat, more impenetrable than a -hedge. So compact was this mat that little sun trickled through to the -earth, and as a consequence of this not a blade of grass could live -under the dense canopy. But even where a single chaparral bush grows -in the open no grass will be found within a radius of ten feet on all -sides of it. It claims the land, selfishly sucks all the nutriment from -the soil, and will share existence with no other plant. - -The ground under the canopy was covered with the tiny leaves that had -shattered off through countless years. This carpet was several inches -thick, with dry, newly shattered leaves on top, and, below these, -leaves in various stages of disintegration, down to the bottom layer -of powdered leaf-mould. To stand erect and try to push one’s way into -this thicket would be as useless as attempting to forge through a -barbed-wire entanglement. But underneath the branches the ground was -clean, and no limbs grew from the sturdy trunks of the bushes lower -than a foot from the earth. And as the limbs had a decided upward -trend, like the limbs of a cypress tree, there was ample opportunity -for one to crawl on hands and knees for any distance that he might -choose. Of course now and then close-growing bushes would balk him, -but there always would be a way around. To travel through the thicket -depended entirely on one’s powers of endurance in reverting to the mode -of going calling employed by his simian precursors. To hack a trail -through was a task for an army of axemen. - -The pilgrims seated themselves on the ground and looked expectantly at -each other. - -“What do you think of it, Doctor?” asked Charmian. - -“I think,” replied Shonto, “that we’d better go back.” - -“Honestly?” - -“Honestly.” - -For a long time Charmian was thoughtful, a little pucker between her -eyebrows. Then she resolutely shook her head, and her upper lip turned -up a trifle in her characteristic smile. - -“No, we’ve set our hands to the plough,” she said. “‘Go back’ is not in -my lexicon.” - -“I think,” Shonto returned, “that a half-hour or so of crawling on all -fours under that tangle of branches will convince the two of us that -we’ve never known fatigue before.” - -“Which doesn’t mean that you’re not game, of course.” - -“I am thinking more of you than of myself,” he told her. - -“Don’t do that,” she requested. “I think I’ve shown that I’m pretty -tough. And I’m of the opinion, Doctor, that I shall crawl better than -you will. I have less weight to push along, and I’m somewhat of a -tumbler, though I guess I’ve never told you. I can turn handsprings, -do the cartwheel, and throw flip-flops forward and backward. My life -has not been entirely wasted, you see. Besides all that, women are -more primitive than men, both mentally and physically. I imagine that, -’way back in the misty ages when we were learning to pick up a club to -defend ourselves instead of biting altogether, man was walking erect a -long time before the female of the species stood up and tried the new -fad. Don’t you know that a woman can sit down on the floor with more -comfort than a man? You birds are over-civilized, and that’s what’s -the matter with the world. Are you ready? Let’s go!” - -In an hour Dr. Inman Shonto was ready to admit that her logic was -sound. “You go back farther than primitive man,” he puffed, as he -lumbered along after her. “You go back to when we were saurians -wallowing in the slime and the seaweed. You’re a lizard.” - -In the beginning he had taken the lead, but his slow, clumsy progress -had nettled her. - -“Give me the compass,” she had demanded. “I’ll go ahead and show you -how. It’s a pity you’re so big. ‘The race is not to the swift, nor the -battle to the strong’--Ecclesiastes something or other. They’re to the -springy-boned and wiggly. Watch auntie, Inman!” - -Watching auntie was difficult, for auntie glided along so bonelessly -and snakily that half the time she was out of sight and had to wait for -him to catch up. When an occasional low-growing limb fought her demand -for the right of way, she went flat and swam under it, while the man -was obliged to surrender and find a way around it. - -Often the packs on their shoulders caught like Absalom’s hair, and then -there was difficulty for both. One usually had to extricate the other. -“You’re like a pig caught under a fence,” the widow told her companion. -“Why don’t you squeal when I pull your leg? And, my stars, you’re -heavy, man!” - -Despite the carpet of leaves under them, their knees became chafed. -They cut pieces of leather from the uppers of their high-laced boots, -made two holes on either side of them, and tied them over their knees -with heavy twine. Every muscle in their bodies ached. They were obliged -to rest frequently, especially the doctor, to lie flat on the earth and -straighten their limbs. At rare intervals they came upon breaks in the -thicket, where for maybe several hundred feet they could walk erect. In -one of these breaks, where two Digger pines grew, they made camp for -their first night in the chaparral. - -They were in the thicket another day and night and until noon of the -next day. They had come upon deep cañons, where the chaparral broke -and scrub oak grew. Here they found moisture, enough to replenish the -water-bags, the contents of which they had been nursing carefully. But -always the chaparral reached out to meet them when they had crossed one -of these earth scars, and before long they were crawling again. - -Toward noon of the third day they found themselves crawling over level -land, where the ragged growth was sparse. Both were nearly spent, when -of a sudden the land began descending rapidly. And almost before they -were aware of it they were gazing down spellbound into an abyss which -could be nothing else than the long-sought Valley of Arcana. - -It was freakish. Neither had ever seen its like before. Thinking -themselves in the midst of a waste of chaparral and far from their -goal, the land suddenly had dropped to a shelf a thousand feet below -them. Charmian said that, if she had had her eyes shut, she probably -would have crawled right over the precipice and pitched to her death on -the rocks below. - -It was a miniature Grand Cañon of the Colorado, with surrounding walls -as steep and perilous. The break was as abrupt and stupefying as the -far-famed Pali of the Island of Oahu. - -Far below them flashed a river, jade-green, a winding snake. Trees -followed its course, and beyond were delectable meadows, half green, -half brown in tinge. The spreading trees--probably live oaks--looked -miniature, like buckthorn bushes; the lofty pines like toothpicks. Over -crags below them eagles soared. Not a sound came; a vast, solemn hush -hung over the smiling valley. In the far distance, perhaps seven or -eight miles away, the saw-tooth tops of the craggy peaks that guarded -the southern limit of the Valley of Arcana were dimly traced against -the skim-milk blue of the sky. Below the peaks lay an enchanted lake, -blue and sparkling, swimming miragelike in the sunlight. - -For minutes neither of the trespassers spoke. Shonto stepped close -to Charmian and took her hand, and side by side they gazed upon -the wonders spread before them. They were awed by the grandeur and -solemnity of this masterpiece of Nature, a little lonely, a little -timid. - -They had accomplished much. Probably never before in the annals of -exploration had any one been forced to blaze a trail into an unknown -country crawling on all fours. They were painfully weary and sore from -the unaccustomed strain; their provisions were low, and but several -mouthfuls of water remained in the canvas bags. But they had found -the Valley of Arcana, and its myriad delights rewarded them for the -torture they had undergone. - -It was Charmian Reemy who broke the silence. “I think,” she said, “that -Ranger Reed was nearer to the Valley of Arcana than he knew when he -turned back, discouraged. In an hour, Doctor, _we_ might have turned -back, too, with our grub and water so low.” - -They seated themselves on stones to discuss the situation. - -It would be absolutely necessary for them to find a route down into -the valley to replenish the water-bags. Also, they must have more -food. They had lived principally on jerked venison for that day and -the day before, conserving the other supplies, and had nibbled the -strong nutritious chocolate from the army emergency rations which -they carried. They had not dared to make coffee because they could -not spare the water. The only firearm that they had brought along was -the doctor’s .22 rifle, because of its lightness. Shonto was a crack -shot with the little weapon, and Charmian was obliged to shelve her -repugnance for the slaughter of the innocents and give him permission -to kill jackrabbits or any other small game that they might see. - -These things decided, they nibbled a cake of chocolate each and -divided the remaining “jerky” between them. They drank the last of -the water. Then they set off along the lip of the precipice in search -of a possible way to get down into the valley. After a mile or more -of winding in and out among the outcroppings, boulders, and tentacles -of chaparral that extended from the main thicket to the edge of the -declivity they were seriously wondering whether it was possible to -reach the floor of the valley at all. For the wall below them was, -figuratively speaking, as perpendicular as the side of a skyscraper. -They discovered several false breaks that promised to open upon routes -leading downward, but each time they were halted by a yawning precipice -as steep as any yet encountered. - -A few oak trees grew close to the lip of the gorge, some of them on -the very edge and slanting over the abyss as if straining to gaze down -upon the mysteries below. Under one of these, as they walked around a -point of chaparral, they came face to face with a big brown bear. He -was an industrious bear and had not seen them nor smelled them, as the -slight breeze that was astir was blowing in their faces. His majesty -was sitting on his haunches, profile toward the surprised adventurers, -with both paws to his mouth and with huge jaws working. As they came -to a stop he lowered his body to all fours as lightly as a squirrel, -for all his several hundred pounds of weight, picked up an acorn with -one paw, and broke the shell of it with the butt of the other paw. He -carried the kernel to his mouth and chonked with satisfaction. He sat -erect again, saw the intruders, lowered both paws droopingly in abject -surprise, and, with a startled _Wuff_, wheeled and went lumbering off -at astonishing speed. - -At the end of about fifteen shuffling leaps he swung abruptly toward -the precipice and disappeared between an overhanging oak and an -upstanding rock. - -But for him, then, Charmian and Dr. Shonto would have walked directly -past what seemed to be an animal-made trail that zigzagged down into -the Valley of Arcana, the gateway of which was the monumentlike stone -and the twisted black oak. They halted in the pass and heard the -rattling of stones below and the scraping footsteps of the fleeing -bear. A trail, narrow but plainly outlined, descended along the side -of a portion of the precipice less steep than heretofore. The brush -that grew over it here and there had been scraped of its bark in -many places, and the smooth wood showing through had been polished -by contact with the hair of various animals that had ascended and -descended the trail for unreckoned years. The stones protruding from -the earth were claw-scratched and eroded. - -“I christen thee Bear Pass,” saluted Charmian. “Can we go where that -bear can, Doctor?” - -“He may be bound for a den in the side of the precipice,” suggested -Shonto. “The trail may lead only to that. But it’s worth a trial, -provided--” - -“Well?” - -“It’s narrow,” finished the physician. “I wouldn’t care to meet that -bear down there, and find it necessary to argue the right of way with -him with this .22.” - -“We won’t argue,” said Charmian. “It isn’t polite. We’ll excuse -ourselves and go back. It’s his trail, anyway. Let’s try it. But I wish -I hadn’t crowed so loudly when I outcrawled you in the chaparral. I -feel sick and dizzy every time I look over the edge. And on a narrow -trail, with that chasm grinning up at me--_whew_! Don’t you remember -the iron rail at the edge of the great boulder overlooking the forest -at El Trono de Tolerancia? I had to have it there. I never dared to -stand and look without the feel of that iron pipe in my hands.” - -“Don’t let that worry you,” he cheered her. “Try to make it. Don’t -think of the chasm. Don’t look at it. Keep your eyes on the trail. But -if you get dizzy and nauseated let me know. I’ll fix you up. Don’t want -to do it, though, unless it becomes necessary. But, being a doctor, -I realize what a terrible sensation it is for one who suffers that -way. It’s dangerous, too. I never feel it myself. I would have made a -wonderful mechanic at erecting the framework of skyscrapers.” - -He smiled at her encouragingly. “I’ll go ahead,” he said. “Keep close -to me and think of something pleasant.” - -With a brave but wan little smile she fell in behind him, and he -started along the descending shelf that followed the wall of the cavern. - -It was dangerously narrow, a ticklish piece of business to follow it. -Above them rose a craggy wall, growing in height as they progressed -slowly downward. Occasionally the trail grew wider, but this usually -occurred above a slope that was less precipitous. They wound in and out -as the trail rounded gashes that extended from the lip above to the -valley’s floor. - -“I’ll tell you what,” said Shonto, stopping suddenly and facing her: -“This is not a natural trail, by any means. Though it’s ages old, there -are evidences left of the work of man. This shelf has been hacked -in the cañon wall by somebody. It’s preposterous to believe that -animals--even wild goats or bighorn sheep--could have climbed up and -down along this wall and eventually worn a level trail. They can go -almost where a fly can, but they never could have struggled along this -wall in its natural state.” - -“But who could have built it?” asked Charmian. - -“I’m only too eager to find out,” returned the doctor. “We may discover -something mighty valuable down there on the floor. And I’m convinced -that the trail extends entirely down. I’ve seen deer tracks. I don’t -believe deer would travel this trail, where there is not a blade for -them to nibble, unless they were bound for the grass and the water down -below. I’ve noticed ’coon tracks and skunk tracks and coyote tracks, -too--but no sign of a man track. Yet men built this trail--hacked it in -the side of this stone wall. I’ll show you the next time I see a place -where this is evident.” - -They went on, Charmian’s face white, her upper teeth grasping her lower -lip. She felt faint and vertiginous. Her knees shook. But she marched -on bravely, hugging the upstanding wall on her left. - -They came to a portion of the descent where the trail was little more -than eighteen inches in width. Above them an absolutely perpendicular -wall upreared itself. Below them yawned the abyss, at its very feet -the green river, which swung in to the wall in a great bend from the -meadows. To follow that eighteen-inch shelf would be like walking along -the eaves trough of a house. - -Charmian came to a halt. “Oh, I can’t! I can’t!” she moaned piteously. -“I can’t go on another step, Doctor! Don’t ask me to! I’m--oh, I’m ill! -I’m--I’m--” - -His long arms closed about her, and she dropped her head on his breast, -sobbing nervously, shaking like an aspen. - -“There-there-there!” he soothed. “Don’t worry. I’ll fix you up. Lie -down, now, and look up. That’ll give you courage and relieve you. I’ll -fix you up so you can walk a tight rope and laugh.” - -He eased her to the ground and made her lie on her back. Her pretty -face was dirty, and the tears had wriggled down her cheeks and washed -elongated hieroglyphics in the grime. She gulped and licked her lips -and looked up bravely into the heavens. - -“There! There!” Shonto had removed his pack and was fumbling within -for his medicine case. “Fix you up in a minute. Then you’ll feel like -climbing telegraph poles.” - -He was bending over her now. He took hold of one arm and pushed up -the sleeve. She felt him squeezing the flesh. Then came a little stab -of pain, and she rolled her eyes to see the glitter of a hypodermic -syringe in his strong fingers. - -“Wh-what did you do to me?” - -“Hush! Never mind. Lie still a little and you’ll feel dandy. Just a -shot of cocaine. Feel it yet?” - -“Ye-yes, I believe I do. I seem to be floating--floating; I’m getting -light as a feather. My stars! I was never so happy in my life! I want -to get up.” - -“Of course you do,” chuckled Shonto. “Not only that, but you want to -tell the world, when you get up, that you’re equal to about anything, -don’t you?” - -“Yes, I want to flap my wings and crow, even if I am a hen. I don’t -care for anything. I’m a whizgimp. Mary Temple says that a whizgimp is -a person who is happy, even though he knows one more hot day will send -him to the bug house.” - -She sat up suddenly and unexpectedly, turned to her knees, and in -springing lightly to her feet with a glad little laugh, her foot struck -the medicine case. - -With a muttered oath the doctor sprawled in the trail and grasped at -it. His frantic fingers touched it, but the contact served only to push -it over the edge, and it went rattling and bounding down the cliff into -the green waters of the river. - -“Come on!” Charmian giggled. “Let it go! What’s the difference! Lead -out--I’m crazy to get down into the Valley of Arcana! And I can run -along that narrow shelf and laugh while I’m about it!” - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -IN THE PALM OF THE MOUNTAINS - - -SHONTO and his artificially elated companion continued their journey -down the side of the steep cliffs without further mishap. The girl had -taken the lead, stepping with a firm, springy stride, all horror of the -abyss gone by reason of the potent drug. She was fearless but never -reckless. The doctor had known that this would be the result of the -hypodermic injection, so he did not worry about her safety and made no -objection to her going first. - -Nevertheless he was worried--worried as never before. A great calamity -had come upon all that were concerned in the expedition, but only Dr. -Shonto knew that this was true. The lost medicine case was responsible -for it. It was so prodigiously serious that his homely face had turned -a shade paler, and his mind was struggling desperately with the problem -that it presented for him alone to solve. - -Eventually the pair rounded the last switchback, and followed a gently -sloping trail, quite wide, to the level floor of the valley. They came -out upon the floor through a rocky pass, an eighth of a mile above the -point where the green river swung in so abruptly to the foot of the -cliffs. The land was wooded here. Sycamores, cottonwoods, water oaks, -live oaks, willows and alders bespoke a more temperate clime than -they had passed through since hours before they reached the cabin of -Shirttail Henry Richkirk. The valley was lower than Ranger Reed had -estimated, and the explorers had entered the Upper Sonoran Life Zone, -where existence would be less problematical during rigorous seasons in -the wilderness. - -There was little underbrush. The grass, though frost-nipped, was still -green. Digger pines were sprawling, their immense cones beneath the -branches on the ground, many of them munched down to stems and scaly -fragments by foraging squirrels. Linnets were singing in the willows. -Wild canaries, mere dabs of pale yellow, flitted about importantly, -bright-eyed, businesslike. - -Charmian’s brief sojourn in the land of Don’t-give-a-whoop was over. -The effects of the cocaine were waning. Her mouth was dry, and she was -nervous and depressed. The reaction had set in, but the melancholy -period would last little longer than the space of blissful unconcern -for which it was the price. - -The doctor took her hand. “You won’t feel tough long,” he consoled her, -as, together, they invaded the solitary valley. “I would have given you -a little touch of morphine to counteract the effects of the cocaine, -but-- Well, you know why I couldn’t.” - -He heaved a sigh, and she looked up into his face questioningly. - -“Does the loss of your medicine case mean so very much to you?” she -asked. - -“More than you know now,” he said soberly. “Not only to me, but to -you and Mary and Andy. But don’t question me just now, please. My -mind was never so busy before. I must decide what is best to do--and -decide right. And every expedient that presents itself strikes me as -impossible.” - -“Why, how serious you are! You worry me, Doctor. Won’t you--” - -“Not now,” he interrupted hastily. “I shall be obliged to explain soon -enough--after I have made my decision. To-morrow I’ll tell you--well, -tell you all that I dare tell.” - -He came to a halt as he finished speaking. They were following a -well-defined trail that led them among natural obelisks of stone, tall -and freakish. There was no other route to the floor proper of the -valley. And at their very feet yawned a hole of large dimensions. - -Shonto sank to his knees and looked in. “I thought as much,” he -muttered. “Look, Charmian! See those skeletons down in there?” - -She knelt beside him, and when her eyes became accustomed to the gloom -of the hole she saw the skeletons and skulls of many animals. - -The walls of the hole were of solid rock, though masonry was not in -evidence. The floor was level and many times wider than the mouth. This -made the whole assume the shape of a funnel upside-down or an Indian -wigwam. - -“Why, they couldn’t get out!” cried Charmian. “It is impossible to -climb those walls.” - -“And you’ll notice that the hole is directly in the middle of the -narrow pass from the cliffs above,” said he. “This, Charmian, is an -Indian man-trap. In years gone by it was made here by residents of the -valley to trap any enemies that might come down the trail to attack -them. The hole was covered with light boughs, perhaps, with earth -spread on top to hide them. I know this to be a trick of the Klamath -Indians and the Pitt River tribes. But we are hundreds of miles from -their stamping ground. We are in the rocks, you’ll notice. There is not -a grain of dirt near us. This accounts for the hole’s not filling up -with debris and disappearing through all these years. It’s been gouged -with infinite pains in comparatively solid stone. It’s conclusive now -that at one time the Valley of Arcana was inhabited and was the scene -of tribal warfare. That was doubtless years before the fire swept down -the forest and the chaparral locked the valley against intrusion.” - -“Oh, isn’t it all interesting?” she cried, dark eyes aglow. - -But the enthusiasm died out of them as she took note of the continued -gravity of her companion’s mien. - -“Oh, you worry me so!” she complained again. “Please don’t look so -solemn. Tell me, and let me help.” - -“You can’t,” he told her, forcing one of those rare smiles that almost -beautified his face. “I alone can work out an answer to the problem. -And I will know the answer by to-morrow morning. Meantime I’ll try my -best to forget it.” - -A little farther on they found another man-trap, similar to the first. -Then they left the cemeterial region of obelisks and passed out upon -the broad floor of the cañon. - -Here yellow California poppies were blooming late among the grasses, -their orange-gold beauty staying the destructive hand of old Jack Frost -as a soft answer turneth away wrath. The air was warm, delectable. The -willows and cottonwoods were losing their leaves, but as yet their -branches were far from nude. Over a carpet of grass the explorers -wandered toward the river and the untarnished land about it--toward -grotesque cliffs that in the distance upreared themselves from the -level land, toward enchanted forests that intrigued them from afar. - -Charmian’s depression had gone. She was bright-eyed, vivacious, eager -as a child. Shonto subdued his gloomy thoughts and made himself enter -into the spirit of the quest; for he knew that, for him, there might -not be another day in the valley that they had come so far to see. - -They reached the river. It was wide and deep, and the jade-green hue -of its waters that had lured them from above no longer was revealed. -Height and distance had given the river colour, for now it was like any -other clear, cold mountain stream. Its course was boulder-strewn, its -bottom often pebbly. Large trout flashed in the sunlit riffles, where -the water was like shaved ice, or lay like amber pencils in shaded -pools. - -They came upon ancient bridge abutments, fashioned of large stones, -the crumbling red adobe mortar still to be seen in the crevices. Once -a bridge had spanned the river at this point, probably merely a long -pine log, axed to flatness on the upper side, and suspended between -the pillars, Shonto said. They followed the river’s course, almost -despairing of finding a crossing. The doctor shot a jackrabbit sleeping -under a bush, long ears laid back along his spine. They continued up -the river for an hour, through a forest of oaks and alders and an -occasional spruce; then they came to a narrow place through which a -torrent roared. Here grew handily a clump of straight, tall alders, and -with his hunting axe Shonto set about felling one so that it would fall -across the cataract and bridge the gap for them. - -Alders are not tough-fibred, and soon the tree was swaying. It leaned -nearly in the right direction, and Charmian pushed at it as he -completed the last few strokes. It groaned and started down. Shonto -sprang up and aided the girl at pushing, then jerked her back to safety -as the tree crashed down. It fell directly athwart the stream, with -each end resting on solid stone. - -Shonto crossed with both packs, walking sidewise, cautiously springing -the trunk to test its strength. Then he returned to Charmian, face to -the front, stepping easily and confidently. - -“A romance is never complete,” he smiled, “until the he character has -carried the she character from one side of a stream of water to the -other in his arms. Or maybe you’d prefer to go hippety-hop to the -barber shop on my manly back.” - -She studied a moment. Then, with a trace of colour sweeping her face, -she faltered: - -“Which--whichever way you think better, Doctor.” - -He stooped and placed his long left arm behind her knees. His right arm -he passed behind her back. He straightened, lifting her to his breast. - -“Don’t move,” he cautioned, “and don’t listen to the rush of the water. -Relax. We’re off!” - -She closed both eyes as he stepped upon the trunk. Then she opened -them again and looked up into his face. His strong jaw was set, she -noted, but not a tremor did his body convey to hers. The roaring of the -cataract was in her ears. Again she felt faint and dizzy. But without -hesitation he placed one foot firmly and elastically before the other -on the swaying bridge, until he stepped from it to the solid rocks on -the other side. - -“Nothing to it, was there?” he laughed, without a sign of nervousness, -as he gently stood her on her feet. - -“You have wonderful control over yourself, haven’t you?” she said. “You -never even trembled.” - -“Didn’t I?” He was looking straight into her eyes. “I thought I was -shaking like a leaf--especially when I reached this side and just -before I set you down.” - -“Why, how funny! You certainly weren’t frightened.” - -“No, tempted,” said Shonto, while Charmian’s face flushed crimson. - -They wandered through an open forest of immense live and black oaks, -with gnarled trunks and bulbous boles, and roots moss-upholstered -where they were exposed. Gray moss hung from the upper limbs, draped -and festooned with the delicacy of nature’s artistry. Wild grape vines -clambered in all directions, drooped in loops down the trunks of lofty -trees, or extended in masses from the ground to the topmost branches -like the standing rigging of a sailing ship. The clusters of grapes -were ripe and ready to fall with their seed to the earth from whence -they sprang. - -They came upon large flat-topped stones, in which holes the size of a -man’s head had been gouged. In these the Indian squaws had powdered the -acorns to make flour for their native bread, using heavy stone pestles -as pulverizers. - -A half-mile from the river they suddenly entered a clearing, studded -with tall, monumental stones of granite, and with wide-branched oaks -scattered about here and there. In the middle were the ruins of a -house--the remnants of what had been a large house built of stones and -sod and poles. - -“That,” said Shonto, “speaks plainly of some Northern tribe. The -Northern Indians were further advanced than the tribes of Southern and -Central California. The stone abutments back there made me believe that -a tribe of comparatively high intelligence once occupied this valley. -This ruin confirms it. Few of the California tribes built large public -houses, as this undoubtedly was, for their ceremonial dances and big -dinners and other social activities. I have never told you--for I -hadn’t the slightest idea that we’d find evidences of Indian life in -the valley--but I’ve made quite a hobby of studying the aborigines of -the Pacific Slope. So has Andy. We took it up together while nosing -around in the mountains and on the desert, and we became intensely -interested. I wish I could--” He came to a stop and gave her a look -that was as near an admission of discomfiture as she had ever seen him -reveal. “It’s getting late. No doubt there’s a spring close by, for -this evidently is the site of the old village. Let’s camp for the night -and cook our rabbit.” - -Close by the ruins of the community house they located the spring. It -was in a ferny dell with mossy banks. Charmian stooped for water and -saw a white object a little distance off, half hidden by the drooping -fronds. Instinctively she knew what it was. She rose and walked around -to it. It was the tibia bone of a human being, and, scattered here -and there throughout the ferns, she discovered the remainder of the -skeleton, including the skull. - -It gave her somewhat of a shock, but in the days to follow she was -to grow accustomed to finding the bones and skulls of men in every -conceivable place. This scatteration, the doctor held, bespoke the -extinction of the tribe from the ravages of some epidemic--possibly -smallpox--rather than a war of annihilation. Particularly so because no -weapons were discovered near skeletons they found on open land. - -The broiled jackrabbit was appetizing, for their stomachs were turned -against salt meat and jerky. Though the air was frosty, the evening in -the protected valley was pleasant, the smoke of the incense cedar of -their campfire sweet. Dr. Inman Shonto had been taciturn during the -preparations for supper and the coming night. His face was grave, his -eyes thoughtful. Finally Charmian asked: - -“Your case would sink, of course, wouldn’t it?” - -“I saw it sink out of sight,” he replied. “There were some surgical -instruments in it that made it heavy. And the river must be deep where -it fell, with that sheer wall above it. Besides, all of my medical -supplies that were not in corked bottles would be ruined, provided we -could drag it up. It’s a goner.” - -They made no further mention of the subject until the meal was over and -Shonto, having heaped more wood on the coals, leaned back against the -hole of a tree with pipe aglow. - -He puffed thoughtfully for several minutes, while the girl gazed into -the leaping flames, silent, sensing that her companion was nerving -himself to lay his troubles before her. Finally he knocked the dottle -from his pipe, pocketed it, and looked at her with a brotherly smile. - -“I have decided sooner than I thought I should,” he began. “So you may -as well know the worst to-night. I don’t think I’ll have reached a -better solution by morning.” - -He smiled again, patiently, as does a strong man in the face of -threatening disaster. - -“Charmian,” he said, “to-morrow I must start back to Mary and Andy -and leave you here alone. I’ll get Andy and send him on to you, while -I make an effort to take Mary back to Shirttail Henry’s--or at least -as far as Mosquito. Then I go on to civilization, while you and Andy -wait for me to return to the Valley of Arcana. I’ll probably come back -to you in an aeroplane. Only by following that plan can Andy Jerome be -saved.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -RIDDLES - - -CHARMIAN was gazing across the fire at Shonto, half bewildered at his -blunt statement. She had known that Andy was concerned in the disaster -that had befallen the party, for long since she had connected the -little tablets which he took daily with the loss of the medicine case. - -“Has Andy told you anything of his physical troubles?” Shonto -questioned. - -“A little,” she replied. “When we were at Jorny Springs with Leach -and Morley. He told me about the period in his boyhood that he can’t -remember. He told me that it was necessary for him to take his tablets -daily. Some kind of heart trouble, isn’t it?” - -The doctor nodded gravely. “Andy doesn’t hesitate to tell about it,” he -said. “I imagined that you knew. Well--” - -“Pardon me just a moment,” she interrupted. “You haven’t said outright -that it is heart trouble, Doctor.” “Have you any reason to think -otherwise? - -“Yes--now. It seems to me that you are still reticent--virtually -evasive. You aren’t a practised dissimulator, Doctor. Why do you try -it?” - -“I’ll be frank with you,” he said, “if you’ll be as frank with me. Will -you?” - -“Of course.” - -“I shall have to ask for your display of frankness first,” he went on. -“You must answer this question before I shall feel at liberty to tell -you why I have been close-mouthed: In the big cañon that night before -you and I left, did Andy ask you to marry him?” - -Her face went red, but she shook her head. - -“I believe you,” he said. “But Andy would be too excited to think of -asking you to marry him, perhaps. He--both of you--would take marriage -for granted. So I must ask another question: Didn’t he tell you that he -loves you, and didn’t you surrender yourself to him?” - -Her long lashes covered her dark eyes, and for a space she declined to -answer. Then she lifted her head and looked him straight in the face. - -“I suppose,” she said slowly, “that, according to the standardized -procedure, I ought to say, ‘What right have you to ask me that?’ But -you have the right--I suppose. Anyway, I consider it a fair question, -and I’ll answer it as fairly. He did, and I did. But--but how did you -know, Doctor?” - -The doctor’s laugh was brief and bitter. “When you two returned to -camp,” he informed her, “the announcement couldn’t have been plainer if -you had pinned placards on your breasts. I knew what had happened. So -did Mary Temple.” - -“Well?”--almost defiantly. - -“Well, I suppose there’s nothing to be said. Theoretically I should -back gracefully away, murmuring my congratulations. But I’ll not do -that. I don’t give up so easily, Charmian. I am convinced that you -and I are mated, and that you and Andy are not. I think that it -would be a great misfortune for both of us if we don’t become man and -wife. But I’ll play the game fair and square--with both you and Andy. -And this desire to play square is what has kept my mouth closed on -so many occasions. I won’t tell you why I think it unwise for you to -marry Andy Jerome. On the contrary, I’ll go out and leave you two here -together and make every effort to get back with more medicine before -you can learn for yourself that I am the man you should have for a -husband instead of him. It’s hard, Charmian--hard to play square, when -I hold my rival’s future in the hollow of my hand. But the ethics of -my profession demand that I do all in my power to save him, and my -conscience demands the same. - -“So to-morrow I must leave you, hoping that I can get back in time. -There is no other way. I’ll make it back to Mary and Andy, and send -Andy on here. With the aid of a compass and the directions that I can -give him he will never miss the pass into the valley. You must hoist a -garment or a blanket on a pole, which he will be able to see from the -top of the wall and all the way down. Or a smudge of damp leaves will -send up a stream of smoke to direct him to you. - -“Andy is a master mountaineer and woodsman. It is born in him; he -inherited it from his Alps-climbing ancestors. He will be able to -supply you with food while you are waiting for me to return. But listen -carefully: As soon as he comes, have him show you how to make rabbit -snares and pitfalls and deadfalls, so that you will be able to get -game if he becomes unable to do it for you. You two get to work at -once gathering all the nuts and acorns you can--and you’d better be -working at it before he comes. Stow them away. Have Andy show you how -to pulverize the acorns and make Indian bread of the flour. Gather -huckleberries--all you can--I saw a patch of them up the river from -where we crossed to-day. The berries will be ripe now. Then you’ll -find nuts in the cones of the piñon pines. Andy has a little fishing -tackle. There should be mountain trout in the river. If Indians could -subsist in this valley without drawing upon civilization for supplies, -trust Andy to do it. But the important point is that you must make him -teach you all that he knows about foraging in the wilderness before -he--before he becomes unable to help you. For that may happen.” - -“You are not making yourself clear, Doctor,” Charmian told him. “Why -is all this necessary? Why can’t we all go out together? In other -words, if Andy can get here to me why can’t he make it out to Shirttail -Henry’s or Mosquito? And why can’t Mary Temple come here with Andy, if -she is able to go with you over the mountains?” - -“Mary deceived you, with my knowledge,” confessed Shonto. “Her ankle -isn’t sprained. She has a broken rib. She could never crawl through -that chaparral. It would break her in two, almost. But she can walk -in an erect position, after a fashion, with me to help her. Anyway, -there’s nothing else to be done; we’ll have to try it. And Andy--” - -“Why did Mary Temple tell me she had a sprained ankle when she had -broken her rib?” demanded Charmian. - -“She wanted to force you and me into the wilderness together,” -explained Shonto, without a sign of contrition. “That’s what I believe -now. I know she doesn’t approve of Andy Jerome as a husband for you. -And she has hinted that she wants you to marry me. That’s frank enough, -isn’t it? But she told me that she was afraid of putting a stop to your -expedition if she confessed to a broken rib. She knew that she could -walk with her rib broken--see?--and thought that you would insist on -taking her back and spoiling the fun. But if she pleaded a sprained -ankle, you would imagine that she couldn’t walk one way or the other, -and it would be just as well to leave her there until she could walk -again, while you went on with your hunt for the valley. It worked out -to her satisfaction, as you see.” - -“And now you think she deliberately planned to get you and me to -continue the trip together?” - -“I’m afraid so,” smiled Shonto, “though I give my word it didn’t occur -to me at the time. I never gave a thought to the old trick of making -one person think he has had a square deal in drawing straws by the -use of two whole matches. You see, there was no short match for Andy -to draw. Both matches were whole. The one who drew the long straw was -elected to stay in the cañon. When Andy saw that he had drawn an entire -match, he didn’t think to ask to see the other one, but considered -himself defeated then and there.” - -“I think it was abominable of Mary Temple!” the girl said sharply. - -“Perhaps it was so,” admitted Shonto. “Nevertheless, the fact remains -that she was, and always is, working for what she thinks your best -interests. And it struck me as almost noble of her to feign a sprained -ankle in order to keep you on the quest. Sending me out with you -occurred to her later, I think. At the time she played only to keep -your expedition moving--and it called for a certain amount of sacrifice -for a crippled, middle-aged woman to remain in that deep cañon all -alone.” - -Charmian made no further comment on Mary’s well-meant perfidy. She -thought deeply for a long time, and when she spoke she reverted to a -question that still remained unanswered: - -“Why can’t Andy go out with the rest of us if he is able to get to the -Valley of Arcana?” - -“It will require a great deal more time for us to get out with -the crippled Mary than it will for Andy to find you here,” Shonto -explained. “And he might-- It might happen that he would succumb on -the way. Andy Jerome, Charmian, is an experiment. I know that he can -hold out for three or four days, but how much longer I don’t know, -because I’ve never experimented with him to the extent of shutting off -his medicine to find out. Andy is my friend--his family have been my -friends for many years. So I really don’t know what would happen if we -were many days on the back trail or if a blizzard came on and left us -storm-bound in the mountains. But here in the Valley of Arcana, where -everything is smiling and there will be an abundance of food for some -time to come, he will be safe with you to care for him. I simply can’t -risk taking him out.” - -“It’s the loss of his supply of tablets, of course,” murmured the -widow. “Why didn’t you leave him a sufficient supply?” - -“He has as much as he ever carries when I am with him,” said the -doctor. “I usually carry the main stock when we are out in the -wilderness together. I have always thought it safer to keep the greater -part of it myself. I don’t go into so many difficult places as Andy -does. I don’t take the risks that he does. Then if something happened -to his supply, I’d still have enough for him. Perhaps it was foolish -for me to bring along any at all on the trip from the cañon, but I -have become so accustomed to keeping it in my medicine case that I -followed the usual procedure. I knew that Andy would not be content to -stay with Mary all the time. He’ll be scouring the hills and cañons -in search of things to interest him. And he always takes his tablets. -If he had all of them, he might lose them, as I did. You see, that’s -the way I reasoned. I’m Andy’s guardian--a poor one, I confess now. -And the difficulty is that I’m never free to talk over his malady with -him or others. To be a little more frank still, it is a secret, even -to Andy himself. This time I reasoned wrong--if I reasoned at all--and -simply didn’t do as I did from force of habit. And Andy must have more -medicine just as soon as I can get it to him, for I don’t know how long -he’ll last without it when his present supply is gone. - -“So there’s the nut-shell truth of the situation. Mary can’t come here; -Andy doesn’t dare to try to make it out. You must stay here in the -valley and take care of Andy. I must get Mary out and hurry to a point -where I can send a wire for more tablets. There’s no other alternative. -I’ve thought it all out; looked at the matter from every angle.” - -“But--but what shall I do?” she puzzled. “What can I do to help Andy? -What am I to expect?” - -“You can do nothing,” replied the doctor. “I mean, I can’t give you -any instructions. Neither can Andy. When--if anything happens, you -will soon know what to do. I really can’t tell you any more, Charmian. -It wouldn’t be fair to him. For it may transpire that nothing at all -will happen--and that’s what I’m hoping for. I must trust to Fate, for -I myself am ignorant of what will be the result if Andy’s supply of -tablets runs out before I can get back with more. Neither do I know -how soon the result will begin to show. And, as I said, in fairness to -him I must not prepare you for anything simply because nothing at all -may happen. For more reasons than one I don’t want you to marry Andy -Jerome; but I’ll not be the one to tell you anything that might keep -you from doing so.” - -“Why, Doctor!” she cried. “You’ve done nothing but bewilder me. I can’t -imagine what you’re talking about at all. It’s all riddles.” - -“I realize that,” he confessed, “but I consider myself helpless to make -the thing clearer.” - -“I don’t believe Andy has heart trouble at all!” she said half angrily. -“It’s something about the glands, I know. That accounts for your -repeated refusals to tell me much about your work. Isn’t that right?” - -He nodded in agreement. - -Another period of staring into the flames on her part; then she cried -passionately: - -“Oh, I don’t want to stay here alone and wait for Andy! And I’m -afraid--afraid of what may happen to him! But if I must stay, it’s -cruel of you to leave me in ignorance of what to expect. And I can’t -even talk it over with Andy, it seems.” - -“No, he knows less about it than you do,” Shonto told her. “His parents -and I have deceived him into thinking he has had heart trouble for -years. And no one but his parents and I know the truth.” - -“Oh, that sounds terrible! You think I shouldn’t marry Andy, and yet--” - -“If Andy remains all right,” he cut in quickly, “there is no positive -reason why you shouldn’t marry him. I think, however, that he is not -the man for you--and it’s fair enough for me to make that statement for -the simple reason that I’m convinced _I’m_ the man for you. I refuse -to call to your mind any of Andy’s faults. I have enough of my own. -If he has any, you must find them out for yourself. But I’ll make you -marry me instead of him because you will see that I’m the man to make -your life complete, and that you’re the woman to make mine complete. -You don’t love Andy. I know you don’t. You merely think you do. His -magnificent young manhood has carried you off your feet, and you’ve -not gone deeper into the matter. Blind, physical love you have given -him--but it will pass, Charmian. And that’s enough--positively all. -We’ll turn in and try to forget it all for to-night. And to-morrow -early I’m off to send Andy to you. I know you’ll care for him if--if he -needs it. But if you believe in God, pray to him that he won’t! Good -night. My bed is over there by the big oak. Call me if you need me for -anything.” - - - - -CHAPTER XX - -THE INTERIM OF DOUBTS - - -CHARMIAN did not begin sobbing until, standing at the edge of the grove -that surrounded the ruins of the ancient village, she saw a tiny speck -moving slowly up the narrow trail which zigzagged along the sides of -the cliffs from the Valley of Arcana. The moving speck was Dr. Shonto, -and he was leaving her alone in a vast wilderness, filled with doubts -and dread and loneliness and grave forebodings. She sank to the ground, -laid her arms on a fallen tree, and drenched them with her tears. - -He had held her hand a long time in parting, smiling at her in his -patient, benign way. His smile had been encouraging, though he had -not told her to be brave. It was a compliment to her courage, she -thought, that he had taken it for granted that she would be intrepid -and had considered mere words of emboldenment as idle. He realized, she -reasoned, that a girl who would set out to accomplish such an enormous -task as hunting for an unexplored valley in an unmapped wilderness -would have the bravery to meet with cheerfulness any unforeseen -emergency that might arise. - -When her cry was over she returned to camp and began to work as the -surest way of overcoming her loneliness. Not many provisions were -left, as Shonto had been obliged to take something along with him to -sustain life between the valley and the waiting pair in the cañon. -Charmian searched for and found a huckleberry patch, black with fruit -which so far had resisted frost. She spent the remainder of the morning -gathering berries, but realized as she worked that, since she had -no way of preserving them, they represented food only for temporary -use. She was not fond of fruit, either, but she forced herself to eat -quantities of the juicy huckleberries at noon in order to save the -staples in her pack. - -That afternoon, wandering through the grove, she came upon a hut which -was fairly well preserved. The construction was typically Indian. -Ordinarily such huts are made by first sinking in the ground a hole -about five feet in depth. Around this pit stout poles are planted deep. -These are bent in at the tops until they nearly touch, and are bound -about with bark or strips of hide. The hole at the top allows the smoke -to go through, and it also serves as an entrance. A short ladder or -notched pole on the inside leads to the hole, and leaning against the -structure on the outside is a corresponding pole or ladder. The entire -framework of poles is covered with earth to a depth of several inches. - -In this instance, however, the pit was a natural one, formed in solid -rock. It probably had been a pothole in an ancient creek-bed. With -this substantial beginning, the builder of the hut had constructed the -above-ground portion along sturdier lines. Instead of poles he had used -the trunks of small redwood trees ten inches in diameter, and no other -soft wood resists the ravages of time so well. Unable to sink the -butts in the solid stone, he had dragged great slabs of rock and piled -them about the base of his dwelling as anchors and had covered the -whole with earth in far greater quantities than are commonly employed. - -The result was that he had left a monument to his diligence and sound -constructive principles, and it gave promise of a sheltered home for -Charmian. - -She noted most of the details when she had found an ancient notched -pole and used it as a ladder to climb to the entrance in the roof. -Shonto had explained the construction of these huts to her, so she -knew how to go about getting into the seemingly doorless hovel. There -was not much earth left on the sloping sides, but the straight, peeled -redwood logs were close together, and the cracks between were narrow -ones. - -The light filtering in between these cracks revealed the interior as -she clung to the top of the crude ladder and looked down through the -hole. - -As she had shudderingly expected, the first things that she saw were -human skeletons, yellow rather than bleached, on the stone floor below -her. The notched pole of the interior had broken off at the middle, -and the two parts, old and decayed, lay prone. She dreaded to enter, -but she thought that she must find a better refuge than the broad, -unprotected outdoors. There probably were mountain lions in the valley, -and maybe grizzlies were not altogether extinct in this remote region. -She sat astride the upper ends of the logs and contrived to drag her -notched pole up the side and lower it through the hole. To live in -there she must remove the skeletons, and she dreaded to touch them as -she had never before dreaded anything in her life. - -She clambered down to the rock bench surrounding the hole. She crawled -over the edge and lowered herself backward into the five-foot pit. -There were three skeletons, the bones of which were unscattered. Dry, -brown skin clung to them, wrinkled and harder than a drum-head. Mats of -black hair had slipped from the skulls and made cushions under them. -With a feeling of deep repugnance she set about her inevitable task and -began lifting the dry bones to the bench above. Many of them she later -was able to pitch through the hole in the roof, to hear them clattering -down the redwood logs to the ground outside. Larger portions that -persisted in hanging together she laboriously carried to the top and -dropped. - -When this disagreeable task had been finished she gave more attention -to the interior. - -Dirt had sifted in, of course, and the stone floor was partially -covered with it. Rain also would enter at every crack and settle in -a pool in the rocky pit. She wondered if, when the hut was in shape, -the earth thrown over it had kept it dry. If it were to snow before -it rained, she thought, the snow covering might be effective in that -respect. She knew that Eskimos lived in huts of snow, but she did not -know what held them up. - -She found red pottery, crude and interesting--water _ollas_ and great -bowls and smaller dishes. She found a skin garment, well tanned and -well preserved. It had been inlaid with brilliant duck scalps, the -greater part of which had succumbed to the erosive hand of time. She -found nose rings and goose-quill ornaments and arrowheads of flint and -obsidian and a bowl-shaped basketwork cap which once had been adorned -with the bright feathers of woodpeckers and jays, for the remnants of -them lay all about it. There were elk-horn knives and hatchets and awls -of the sharpened bones of mule deer. And on a slab of bone, taken from -the skeleton of some large animal and cut square, she found a crude -carving unmistakably depicting the rather revolting episode of a woman -vomiting up a frog. - -She forgot her troubles, digging in the dirt for more relics with the -primitive tools of the dead. She found a fish spear with a yew-wood -shaft and a head of volcanic glass--a veritable treasure. She did -not notice the darkening of the hut as the ephemeral winter sun sank -swiftly nearer to the saw-tooth cliffs that towered about the Valley -of Arcana. Then of a sudden almost no light at all streamed in through -the cracks, and the hut was dark and cold. She shuddered, scrambled -to the bench, climbed the notched pole as hurriedly as possible, and, -not stopping to drag it out after her, slid down the sloping side and -landed in a heap on the ground. - -Twilight had come. Night would follow soon, with the tall cliffs to -shut off the last remnants of the sunlight from the valley. She hurried -to her camp, spread her blankets, and pondered over what she would eat -for supper. - -There was not much choice. She had a little bacon, a little flour, -a little coffee, a quantity of salt, and a can of baking powder. Her -huckleberries were heaped upon the ground, and she looked at them -askance. She had dined on huckleberries at noon--had forced herself to -do so. She decided to fry some bacon for the resulting grease, to be -used in making biscuits. The bacon she would not eat then, but would -have it cold for supper to-morrow evening. One meal a day of staples -was all that she could afford, she told herself, until Andy came with -more supplies. If he came! - -She strove to keep Andy from her thoughts. To think of him was to -worry--and she must not worry. Time for that when he came to her--when -they could worry together and he could comfort her. She was going -to fight her way bravely through the ordeal until he came--and then -she would relax and let him take the initiative and relieve her of -the strain. But how long could he hold out? And what dread thing was -threatening him? But there! She must not think of that. Dr. Shonto -had consoled her with the repeated remark that perhaps nothing would -happen at all, provided he--Shonto--was able to get back soon enough. -Provided! But she shook her head resolutely and went to work at getting -supper while the shadows of night enshrouded the valley and coyotes -began their evening concert in the hills. - -The days and nights that passed until the coming of the expected one -were fraught with torture. Charmian was not afraid in the general -meaning of the word, but the mysterious sink, so serene and quiet and -remote, awed her and filled her with strange forebodings that she -could not shuffle off. She spent the days at gathering acorns, scolded -at frequently by Douglas squirrels who claimed the entire crop between -the valley walls. The piñon nuts, too, they considered theirs, and told -her so with angry chatterings, made more emphatic by the gestures of -their jerking tails. A slight midnight rain brought to life near the -river a bed of mushrooms of a variety which she had often gathered on -the Marin hills across the bay from San Francisco. These she garnered -eagerly, and they grew in quantities. She feasted on fresh ones for -several meals, dipping them in thin batter and frying them in bacon -grease, or stewing them. Many she dried. And then she bethought herself -to dry wild grapes and huckleberries, whereupon a new and engrossing -task took form. All day long she managed to keep busy. This helped to -keep away the blues, and at night she found herself so weary that sleep -came easily. - -She had lighted her signal fire, heaping on green boughs to make dense -smoke. There was little wind in the valley, and the smoke streamed -aloft in a graceful spiral above the treetops. Every morning she -rebuilt the fire and heaped on boughs when it was burning brightly. -And now came a day when she stood often at the edge of the grove -and scanned the zigzag trail into the sink with her binoculars. Or, -gathering nuts and acorns and mushrooms in the open, stopped her work -and trained her glasses about every fifteen minutes. - -And at noon one day she was rewarded by the sight of a tiny speck -descending along the trail. She shouted in her eagerness and -loneliness, unmindful that her lover was miles away. She glanced once -to make sure that the smoke was still streaming aloft from her signal -fire, then began running toward the river. If she could bring herself -to cross the log bridge she could run into the open on the other side -and travel a long way in the direction of the northern cliffs before -Andy had reached the bottom of the sink. She hesitated only a little -when she reached the fallen tree, then climbed astride it and worked -her way over the boiling water, gripping with hands and calves. - -They sighted each other in one of the level meadows of the river -bottom. Andy shouted to her; she shrilled a glad reply. Then both -started running, came together panting for breath, and hung in each -other’s arms. - -Then once more Charmian Reemy sobbed, this time with her tousled head -on the broad shoulder of the man who loved her. She had promised -herself this weeping spell as a reward for holding back her tears -throughout the days and nights just past; and now she rewarded herself -abundantly and without reserve. But hers were tears of gladness and -relief. Nothing was to happen to Andy! The doctor had needlessly -distressed her. Here he was in her arms, big and strong and virile and -handsome as a god--what ever could happen to such a man! There was -food in the valley--nuts and game and fish. And if the huckleberries -would only last she would be content to live on them alone, while Andy -was with her in the valley. The doctor might never return if he chose -to leave them there together. What mattered it, when she had Andy? -The Valley of Arcana had lost its grimness. It was a valley of happy -smiles, blessed by nature, sun kissed, gloriously resplendent from wall -to wall. It was warm noontide and the sun was overhead--and she was -crying happily on Andy’s shoulder. - -“And had Mary Temple and the doctor started out when you left?” she -asked finally, wiping her tears on a sleeve of her flannel shirt. - -“Yes, dear--we all started at the same time. Doctor Shonto told me -about Mary’s faking a sprained ankle. She’ll have a time of it with -that broken rib, I’m thinking. But I guess there was no other way. What -did the doctor tell you about me, Charmian?” - -“He wouldn’t explain anything,” she answered. “Wouldn’t warn me at all -beyond telling me that I couldn’t be of any help to you if--if anything -happened.” - -“Don’t worry,” he told her lightly. “Nothing at all is going to happen. -I have almost twice as much dope as Doctor Shonto thought I had; but -still the quantity is small compared with the store he carried. Anyway, -he wouldn’t trust me to try and make the trip out on it, for some one -would have had to return here for you, and days would have been wasted. -But he cheered me up--and told me to pass it on to you--by saying that -there probably was no danger at all, and that everything depended on -his getting back to us in a couple of weeks or more. That ought to be -easy for him.” - -“But if it snows heavily, Andy?” - -“Not a sign of a cloud now. A little rain a couple of nights ago, but -just a shower. Doesn’t mean anything at all as regards the setting -in of winter. In the altitudes it may snow, even, in June, July, and -August--any time. He’ll make it all right, and we’ll all get out before -snow flies. - -“It all seems ridiculous to me, Charmian. Here I am as strong as an ox, -healthy and whole, and enjoying life immensely. But I have been told -ever since I can remember that if I don’t take those infernal tablets -regularly I’ll die. Yet Doctor Shonto never has warned me against -putting great strains on my heart. Always has struck me as a funny sort -of heart trouble that I’m afflicted with. But I don’t know anything -about diseases of the heart. This can’t be a common one, though, can -it?” - -“It’s not your heart at all, Andy,” she said. “The doctor told me so. -It’s something else--a secret between him and your parents. And I don’t -know what to expect if the doctor fails to get in before your tablets -give out.” - -This continually worried her. The doctor had said that Andy’s life -depended on regular doses of the medicine, but he had not exactly -warned her of death. There was something dreadful back of his solemn -words which convinced her that Andy’s state would be worse than -death--a living death of some sort, her reason kept on torturing her. - -“Well, no use to worry, sweetheart,” he said lightly. “Chances are -all of your fears are useless. Have you had plenty to eat? I brought -every pound I could lug. There was plenty left for the doctor and Mary -to get back to the cache on. They can load up fresh there. That is, -Doctor Shonto can--Mary can’t pack a pound. What have you been doing? -Discovered anything? Doctor Shonto told me about his advising you to -gather all the nuts and acorns you could before I came. Got any?” - -“Yes--piles. I gathered them in order to forget myself.” - -“Good idea. Let’s get to your camp now. I’m a wizard in the woods, and -the doctor told me that the valley is well supplied with things to eat. -I’ll show you how to roast the pine nuts and make _bellota_--Indian -acorn bread--and make traps and things. This will be a regular picnic -for us, Charmian. Prettiest spot I ever saw. I’m keen to get to nosing -around. We’ll have the time of our young lives.” - -“Yes, everything will be interesting--now,” said Charmian, with a happy -sigh of relief. “If--if only--” - -“There! There!” laughed Andy. “No ‘if onlys’ about it. Forget it and -let’s begin our castaway life with nothing but anticipation.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXI - -THE CAVE OF HYPOCRITICAL FROGS - - -THEY lived in an enchanted land, bright and tranquil under an -Indian-summer sun while mid-day hours endured, crisp with frost of -mornings, calmly cold throughout the nights. - -Charmian had not transferred her dwelling-place to the redwood -hut after all her labours at removing the ghastly reminders of a -vanished clan. Andy, when he saw it, opined that it would be far from -water-tight despite his efforts with a wooden shovel that he had made -with hunter’s axe and jackknife. What they wanted to do, he said, was -to find a cave in the cliffs somewhere up the river. Who ever heard -of castaways living in anything but a cave! And there must be caves -in those craggy cliffs. Where was the romance of the Valley of Arcana -if it could boast no caves? Anyway, he was not content to remain in -the grove that harboured the ruined village. There were over a hundred -square miles in the enchanted valley, and few of them had been explored. - -They set off early the following morning, Charmian loaded with the -packs, Andy carrying her store of nuts, acorns and half-dried fruit -and mushrooms in a blanket. They struck out for the river, deciding to -explore its mysteries first. If it was in reality the lost river of the -upper benches, Andy wanted to see how it found its erratic way into the -valley. - -They crossed smiling meadows, lush with bronze-green grass. Once, from -a little rise, they caught a glimpse of the distant blue lake. They -came upon herds of deer which were too curious to continue their flight -after the first startled dash, but turned and surveyed them in blank -amaze. A skunk was hunting bugs in the grass, rooting in the turf, his -plume asway above his striped back. The banks of the river were endowed -with graceful willows, alders, yews, incense cedars, cottonwoods, oaks, -California buckeyes, red madrones, spicy bays, and occasional pines and -spruces, with grape vines crawling and climbing everywhere. The river -bottoms were rank with huckleberry bushes, and Andy said: - -“Find a bee tree and we’ll get some honey and preserve those berries -and grapes in Indian jars--if we find any more. Stretch a piece of hide -over the mouth and seal it with spruce gum. Stay here all our lives, by -golly! No? Yes?” - -It was like a park, this Valley of Arcana. Meadows merged into woodland -stretches or necks of timber, to continue on the other side as grassy -and level as before. The river plunged over outcroppings of bedrock, -often in foaming cataracts from ten to fifty feet in height. In a neck -of woods, in a drift that had collected about the roots of trees, they -found a large canoe. Flat bottomed it was, blunt at either end, and -burned and gouged from solid sycamore. Near it on the river bank they -found an ancient _temescal_, or Indian sweat house. - -These were the men’s clubs of the Rogue River Indians or the Klamaths, -Andy said. The canoe, also, pointed either to these tribes or Pitt -River tribes, all belonging to the north. The _temescals_ were never -entered by the women, he explained. The males lolled in them after -bathing in the icy water, which usually followed a terrific sweat over -heated stones, or beside a blazing fire. The canoe, he thought, might -prove serviceable if they could discover some means of calking the -checks and cracks that time had wrought in its sides and bottom. - -They camped at noon by the river, and Andy cast a line for trout. They -rose to the bait readily, some big ones so eager as to leap entirely -from the water at the cast. They roasted them wrapped in leaves, and -buried in the heated ground, Indian fashion. The trees were alive -with grey squirrels, impish little Douglas squirrels, and impertinent -chipmunks. Birds sang ceaselessly. Their tramp of the afternoon showed -them herd after herd of deer, and once a herd of antelope. Quail, -grouse, jackrabbits and the little “blue peter” rabbit in the plateau -chaparral, ducks, mudhens and dabchicks on the river, a condor, rarest -of California vultures, riding overhead in the beryl heavens. Closely -flying flocks of wild pigeons threw hovering shadows across the valley, -into which they swooped to feed on the bitter black berries of the -cascara bush. As they neared a pyramidal mountain in the centre of the -valley they saw bighorn sheep browsing off the brush. - -Abreast the mountain they came upon rugged country, where the river -plunged down incessantly in a hundred falls and cataracts. And here, -as they crossed the ridge, Andy found his cave and made lengthy apology -to the Valley of Arcana for doubting its claims to romance. - -It was in the ridge of rocks that extended at right angles to the -river on both sides. If they made a habitation of the cave there would -be constantly in their ears the roar of the waterfall that found its -way through the ridge and plunged down about thirty feet to the lower -level. Centuries of the rushing water had worn down the ridge, and the -stream leaped through a narrows, with the piled-up boulders towering -above it on either side. On the side where the cave was located grew a -clump of sucker redwoods, which had sprung up from a mother stump about -six feet in diameter. Examination of the perdurable stump showed that -the original tree had been felled with axes. Many years had elapsed -since its fall, for the redwood is of tremendously slow growth, and the -tall, slim suckers that surrounded the stump were a foot in diameter. -Andy decided that he could cut down two of them and cause them to fall -side by side directly across the chasm. This would give them a bridge -from one rocky eminence to the other, and it would hang twenty feet or -more above the waterfall. - -Though all evidences of a beaten trail to the cave had disappeared, -it was an easy matter to trace the upward progress of the one that -had existed in the days of the lost tribe. Boulders of large size -evidently had been rolled away from the most logical route. They wound -their way in and out among the towering rocks to the mouth of the -cave, probably seventy feet above the narrows. From below they had -seen its gaping mouth, but were fearful that it would prove a shallow -disappointment--a mere niche in the rocky hillside. But it turned out -to be a substantial, denlike tunnel, forty feet or more in length. - -Men had not fashioned it, but within they had moved huge boulders to -one side or the other to make more room in the middle. Irregular stones -had covered the floor, too, and smaller ones had been thrown into the -crevices, with dirt piled on top, to level it off. The width and height -were probably fifteen feet. - -They found more skeletons, more pottery, more implements of war and -the chase, and crude tools of stone and bone. The boulders inside were -decorated, designs and hieroglyphics having been hacked below the -surface. Some sort of red paint of a decidedly perdurable quality had -been worked into the gouged lines. Once again Charmian saw an unhappy -lady ridding herself of the frog that she had swallowed. But in this -instance she did not suffer alone. If misery loves company, she must -have been in an amiable mood, despite her throes. For no less than a -dozen of her unfortunate sisters were engaged in a like performance on -boulders and stony walls. - -“I’ve got it, Charmian,” Andy cried with the enthusiasm of an amateur -ethnographer. “I know now what it means. The northern tribes had woman -doctors, and they treated their patients by sucking the flesh. They -were supposed to suck out the evil spirit that was tormenting them, and -this evil spirit often took the form of a snake or a lizard or a frog. -In order to make good, a doctress is said to have sometimes swallowed -a live frog before beginning treatment; and when she threw it up the -patient and his relatives were convinced that the faker had done her -best. This was probably the cave of the doctresses. Say--doesn’t it -stand to reason?” - -“How pleasant!” laughed Charmian. “I see now how the nursery term -‘quack frog’ had its birth. Let’s remove the wizards’ remains and take -possession of the cave. Can we ever make it cheerful after what you’ve -told me? I christen it the Cave of Hypocritical Frogs. That’s rather -long and confusing, but so the Indians might have called it had there -been unbelievers. We could live in this cave indefinitely, Andy. It -will be dry and warm, don’t you think? I hope no bear has decided to -hibernate here throughout the winter.” - -Somehow or other both of them were always unconsciously planning for -a long stay in the Valley of Arcana. Andy had proposed hunting up a -bee tree, the honey from which might be used in preserving grapes -and huckleberries. He had planned a bridge over the waterfall, when -a mile below they had passed a riffle which offered an easy fording. -Now Charmian was looking at the cave in the light of a more or less -permanent habitation. She thought of this directly after she had spoken -and bit her lip in vexation. Wasn’t Dr. Shonto to hurry right back to -them? Two weeks, at the most, and he should be worming his way into the -valley, searching the distances for the smoke of their signal fire. She -threw off her sudden depression. It was best to be prepared. The fact -that they were planning for months to come meant nothing. That was only -the part of wisdom. And they had nothing else to do. What if they did -leave behind them two weeks hence the results of their trifling labours -in the valley? It was only play. Weren’t they like children playing at -the game of keeping house? - -Andy removed the skeletons, cleaned house, carried their belongings up -to the cave, and arranged things for their temporary comfort. Then he -went to catch some trout in the swirling pool below the waterfall for -the evening meal. - -Charmian slept in the cave that night, Andy in the open. They were -about and had breakfast early in the morning, and they spent the -greater part of the day in carrying flat stones into the cave to be -used in building a partition. The inner room was to be the girl’s, -while Andy would occupy the space within the mouth of the cave and -guard her. They doubted whether there was anything to guard her from, -but it seemed the proper thing to do. - -When the stone partition was up Andy hacked at two of the redwood -suckers with his hunter’s axe until they fell almost side by side -across the water. The top of the last to fall, however, was pitched off -when it struck the top of the first down. This left a rather wide gap -between the trunks, so they busied themselves at cutting and carrying -poles, which they laid close together and parallel with the stream, -from trunk to trunk. - -“That’ll make a better bridge than ever,” Andy approved. “You won’t be -afraid to cross now. What next? Let’s see--there’s no particular hurry -about sweating the bitterness out of the acorns, or furnishing our -home, or anything like that. We can do all such things after the winter -sets in.” (There it was again!) “What d’ye say we go back and drag that -canoe out of the drift pile and see what we can do toward filling the -cracks?” - -They spent a day at this task. Spruce gum, they found, filled the gaps -admirably and stuck there, hardening when the clumsy craft was in the -water. Andy got in it and guided it about with a makeshift paddle. But -the current was swift and threatened to carry him down to one of the -many cataracts, so he quickly beached the canoe and dragged it up on -the pebbles until he had time to make a paddle that would serve. - -They busied themselves during following days at turning the acorns from -cold water into hot water, and reversing the process time and again to -“sweat” out the bitterness. There were large stone mortars in the cave, -and in these, with the pestles they found, they powdered nuts for their -daily use and made rather tasteless bread and pasty _bellota_ of the -powder. Their grapes and huckleberries and mushrooms were thoroughly -cured by now, and they stowed them away. They gathered acorns, loose -piñon nuts, and buckeyes by the thousand, catching them like squirrels. -The cones of the piñon pines they heaped in piles and built fires over -them, which loosened the nuts and roasted them at one operation. Andy -taught Charmian to make and set figure-four traps for rabbits. Of -willow boughs they made traps for quail, and gathered the larger grass -seeds for bait. They were constantly employed, and ten days slipped by -before they were aware. Now and then clouds glided across the blue dome -above, but the weather remained dry and tranquil, though noticeably -colder. Daily Andy trapped game for food, for it was an easy matter -to lure the quail and rabbits and grouse. They jerked rabbits over -cedar-wood fires and hung them in the cave. Charmian had set her foot -down on shooting deer, though Andy had a heavy-calibre rifle. They -were so tame and inquisitive and confident, with their big glistening -eyes fixed upon the usurpers in friendly wonder, that to kill one of -them seemed to her wantonly cruel. She turned her back when Andy took -live quail and grouse from the traps and dispatched them. The rabbits, -caught in deadfalls, died instantly under falling stones or logs. - -And so the short days passed until the sky was overcast with mackerel -clouds and the wind rustled the dead leaves of the deciduous trees -and sent them scurrying through the air. Andy’s hair was growing -long. They had missed a day or two, they thought, but they knew that -Dr. Shonto should be nearing the valley on his return. All day long -they kept their signal fire smouldering near the mouth of the Cave of -Hypocritical Frogs, and from it a thin stream of smoke rose constantly. - -Then one morning Andy confessed to Charmian that his stock of tablets -was growing alarmingly low, and that for the past four days he had been -splitting them and taking only half doses. - -That night the air over the valley was filled with a peculiar moan. -All seemed quiet about them on the valley’s floor, but up above the -moan continued, a weird, dismal battle anthem of the mountain winds. -Next morning soft snowflakes were falling into the sink, while up -above a great storm raged, and snow-dust blew from the tops of distant -peaks in awe-inspiring banners half a mile in length. The war banners -of the mountain winds, mobilizing for the grand charge and chanting -triumphantly! - - - - -CHAPTER XXII - -DR. SHONTO RIDES ALONE - - -DOWN on the desert, a day’s journey in the saddle from Diamond H Ranch, -where the pilgrims to the Valley of Arcana had left their cars, lived -an old man named Gustav Tanburt. His rancho had its existence because -of an oasis similar to the one at Diamond H, and he had prospered -throughout the years that he had lived there as a desert rat. - -Through his broad acres passed a road extending at right angles to -the road that entered the property of his distant neighbour. This -last-mentioned road--the one by which Charmian’s party had reached -Diamond H Ranch--went no farther, and the trackless sweeps of the -desert separated the two properties. But Tanburt’s road was moderately -well travelled. Freighters driving eight- and ten- and twelve-horse -teams pursued it on their way to a distant mining community in the -mountains. Gus Tanburt’s ranch was a station for them and all other -travellers passing that way, and Gus took a heavy toll for meals and -feed for stock and even water. In the mountains he had cheap pasturage -in the National Forest, for he was an old-timer in the Shinbone Country -and had used the grass long before the passage of the act which -placed the forest lands under government control. Hence he had the -preference, as is the government ruling, and he used it to force out -all competing cattlemen in the district. - -The war, with the resultant high price of beef and hides, had made -him. Ignorant, old, crabbed, alone, unliked by all who knew him, he -was now worth nearly half a million dollars, which did him very little -good. For he limped about with a cane and had not mounted a horse for -several years. Wretched and old and worn to a wreck--and he longed for -youth and something to spend his money for, and a bud of a girl named -Rosaline Dimmette, who lived with her parents on a forest homestead in -the centre of his summer grazing lands. - -Until Gus knew the girl he had put forth every effort to oust -the homesteaders. But Dimmette was firmly ensconced and had the -Agricultural Department back of him; he was obstinate and a fighter. -Then one day Gus Tanburt rode up to make further snarling protest -against Dimmette’s use of the water in a certain stream, and for -the first time he saw Rosaline--and wanted her. He decided then and -there that the eighteen-year-old girl, fresh and feminine and ruddy -as mountain mahogany, should be the price of the Dimmettes’ remaining -peacefully on their claim. But he knew that he was old and crippled and -unacceptable as a husband, and dally growing more so. So the Dimmettes -had remained, unhampered by warfare, while Gus Tanburt brooded over his -lost youth and vigour and longed for Rosaline. - -Then for weeks the papers were full of articles about rejuvenation -by the substitution of animal glands in the aged and unambitious. Gus -scoffed at it at first, then believed and suffered with longing, then -scoffed again. And one day to his rancho came two old acquaintances, -Smith Morley and Omar Leach. - -Leach, Morley and his wife, after deserting Charmian’s expedition on -the desert, had ridden back to Diamond H and tried to get possession of -at least one of the automobiles. One or both they meant to sell before -the party could overtake them, and with the money flee to Australia, -where they might have enough funds remaining to outfit themselves for -an opal-prospecting trip into the sandy wastes. But Roger Furlong, -owner of Diamond H, knew Leach and Morley of old, and knew nothing good -about them. He positively refused to turn over to them the cars of Andy -and Dr. Shonto, well knowing that the prospectors could not afford -such cars. Furlong had recovered his horses and given the two men the -boot, but promised to board Mrs. Morley until such time as he found -it convenient to take her to the main line of travel to the nearest -city. Obliged to be content with this arrangement, Leach and Morley had -set out afoot for Tanburt’s ranch. They would be more welcome there, -for in the past they had turned several shady deals--mostly connected -with salted mines and unbranded calves--which had helped to lay the -groundwork for the fortune that old Gus possessed to-day. Yes, they -might be given a grudging welcome at Tanburt Ranch while they were -looking about for a way to get out of their present difficulties. And -they reached old Gus at a time when the newspapers, which he read with -one thick, dirt-calloused finger pointing out the lines, were carrying -columns about the rejuvenation of human glands. - -And Gus learned that one of the most famous gland specialists in the -world was then on the desert, not many miles away. So with bleary eyes -watering in eagerness and trembling hands, he offered to reward Leach -and Morley handsomely to find Dr. Inman Shonto and bring him to Tanburt -Ranch. - -“But how can we go about it?” Leach asked Morley when they were alone. -“We can’t approach Doctor Shonto after ducking our nuts the way we did. -Confound that Shirttail Henry!” - -“There’s enough in it,” said Morley, “to make a trial worth while. We -need the money, and it’s no time to let our pride stand in the way. -Just sneak back and confess we’re crooked, and put it up to Shonto what -Gus wants. Tell him there’ll be a big fee, and-- Oh, we’ll get by some -way! Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof. I can talk better on -the spur of the moment than I can after a careful rehearsal.” - -“Will Shonto come?” - -“That’s a question. He’s got piles of money. He’s stuck on Mrs. Reemy. -Chances are he won’t.” - -Leach grew thoughtful. “D’ye suppose they’re still out there on the -desert? What would they be doing, Smith? By now Shirttail Henry has -spilled the beans about the opal claims. Chances are they’re on their -way back to Diamond H right now to get their cars.” - -“Doubt it. That girl was crazy to find the undiscovered valley, and if -they pump Henry he’ll tell ’em which way to go to find it. She’s game, -that kid--be just like her to strike out this late in the season to -find it. And the two men would go with her--one to watch the other. -They’re both in love.” - -“If that’s the case, it’ll be harder than ever to find ’em. And harder -than ever to get Shonto to come. But if we can find ’em, and can get -Shonto off alone, there’s a way to get him.” - -“Of course,” Morley agreed pleasantly. “But it’ll cost Gus several -times what he’s offered. And it might be possible to bring Doctor -Shonto here by night, or blindfolded, and take him away the same, so -he won’t know afterward where he was. That’ll clear Gus and us, too. -And we can arrange to make a getaway by leaving Shonto somewhere on the -desert without a horse, so we can ride off and be on our way to Frisco -before he gets in touch with anybody.” - -“Of course,” said Leach. - -“Let’s put it up to Gus how difficult the job will be for us,” -suggested Morley. “Confound him, he ought to pay us a thousand apiece -and never miss it! And say--if we can get Shonto the way we said, -we’ll get out of crawling back to those folks and making monkeys out -of ourselves. That’s the best way to pull it off, anyway--and there’ll -be more in it. If we can only locate the party and get Shonto off by -himself. How soon d’ye think they’ll be trailing back, Omar, provided -they make a try at locating the undiscovered valley?” - -“They won’t be giving up yet,” thought Leach. “But they will before -long, I guess. Let’s see what Gus’ll do for us, then get a couple of -horses and a couple of canaries and get back into that country. We -can fool ’round and pretend to be prospecting close to the trail to -Shirttail Bend. They’ll likely come out that way. We can plan the rest -of it when we strike ’em. - -“Fine business! Let’s get to work on Gus and see how much we can -separate him from.” - -The morning following this dialogue Leach and Morley set off over the -desert toward the trail that led to Shirttail Bend, mounted and with -two packed burros. - -They camped near the spring in the calico buttes, and every day they -were out merely loafing about, but keeping in sight of the mouth -of Henry’s trail. But many days had passed before they saw another -human being; and they waylaid the first they saw coming down the -trail--Shirttail Henry with Lot’s wife, on their way with sorrowful -news for the Weather Bureau concerning the masticated rain gauge. - -From a distance Henry looked at them doubtfully and with long strides -tried to evade them. But they closed in on him because of the -reluctance of Mrs. Lot to make greater speed than that prescribed for -general pack travel. Henry swung flutteringly about and grinned at the -prospectors through his mat of ragged whiskers. - -“Now, looky-here, you fellas,” he threatened. “Come any o’ yer -monkey-business on me and I’ll get a club, and I’ll take it and I’ll -knock yer gysh-danged heads off! Heh-heh-heh!” - -This in the face of the fact that there was not a club within fifteen -miles. - -“Close your trap!” growled Smith Morley. “Where’s the bunch?” - -“None o’ yer gysh-danged business!” was the retort. - -“Don’t rub his fur the wrong way,” came Leach’s whispered warning to -his partner. “Get more out of him by kidding him along.” - -Morley tacked. “What’s the big idea of being so sore, Henry?” he asked -cheerfully. - -“Why ain’t you boys gone from here?” - -“Well, we’re just still here--that’s all. Prospecting a little. Where -you headed for, Henry?” - -“Say something about the weather,” whispered Leach. - -“How’s the weather up in the mountains, Henry?” Morley complied. “Looks -a little like rain, don’t it?” - -Henry’s blue eyes brightened. “It sure does,” he agreed, casting an -anxious look at the sky above the wooded ridges. “And here’s me without -a rain gauge. Plumb ruint, boys. Roger’s bell burro she clean et her -up. And here’s winter comin’ on, and me without a gauge! I’m hikin’ to -Diamond H to send a letter for another one. If I don’t get her before -it storms I’m plumb ruint--heh-heh-heh!” - -His face was so forlorn and his deep-throated chuckle so indicative of -secret mirth that the result was ludicrous. - -“When’d that happen, Henry?” Leach questioned, affecting interest and -sympathy. - -“Little time back.” - -“Where? At Shirttail Bend?” - -“No, up above the lake. Furder ner that--up on th’ toes o’ Dewlap.” - -“What were you doing up there, Henry?” - -“I was showin’ ’em how to get to the Valley of Arcana, which is her new -name,” Henry divulged. “And Roger Furlong’s bell burro she--” - -“That was sure tough luck, Henry. And did they get to the valley?” - -“I don’t know. I reckon not. I hadta leave ’em and send in for another -rain gauge.” - -“You ditched them up in that God-forsaken country--a bunch of -greenhorns?” - -“What could I do?” pleaded Henry. “I’m a gov’ment official, and--” - -“Are they up in there yet?” - -“I guess so. Ain’t seen hide ner hair of ’em since. Left th’ hosses at -th’ lake, and we hoofed it with th’ asses. Then, side o’ Dewlap, we -leaves th’ asses browsin’ off th’ bresh--” - -“Yes, yes!”--irritably from Morley. “And you’re sure they’ve not come -out?” - -“How could they yet? I been hikin’ straight sence I left ’em, ’ceptin’ -to ketch up Mrs. Lot.” - -“Well, well, well, Henry! Tough luck about your gauge. Don’t let us -keep you.” - -“Tough luck, you bet!” Henry agreed. “Heh-heh-heh!” - -He slithered to Lot’s Wife, who had wandered from the straight and -narrow in search of dry bunchgrass, and shooed her into the trail again. - -“What’ll we do now?” asked Leach. “Go up after ’em or wait here?” - -“They’ll be coming out soon, with Henry gone,” said Morley. “Bet the -old coot ditched ’em in the night. If that’s so, they’ll give up in a -day or two. Le’s wait for ’em here.” - -They continued to wait for days and days, anxious, afraid that the -party had perished in the wilderness, afraid that Henry had lied to -them. Henry had not returned; they supposed he was waiting at Diamond -H for the arrival of his new rain gauge, and they knew that mail came -to the desert ranch infrequently and at irregular intervals. Morley -left Leach on guard and rode back to Tanburt for fresh supplies. He -returned, and they continued their patient vigil. - -Then one afternoon at three o’clock Dr. Inman Shonto came riding down -the trail, alone. They flattened themselves on the ground behind -sagebrush and elbowed each other in the ribs in silent satisfaction. -Shonto must needs camp at the desert spring that night. - -When horse and rider were a mere speck in the hazy distance the -prospectors hurried to a draw in which their saddle animals were -picketed and raced in a great circle toward the buttes. They rounded -the buttes and entered them from the opposite side. They galloped to -the spring, collected their belongings, and erased all evidences of a -recent camp. They watered their sweating horses and rode out on the -desert again, found their pack animals and picketed them, then made a -dry camp to await the coming of night. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII - -OLD ACQUAINTANCES - - -IT was one of those Augean tasks that at least once in a lifetime -confront all earth-dwellers. But Mary Temple of the lustreless eye and -the wispy hair was game to the very core. Dr. Shonto never knew how she -suffered from that broken rib throughout the weary days of climbing -and sliding back to the haunts of men. Most women suffer silently, and -in some ways Mary Temple was a super-woman. She knew, and Dr. Shonto -knew, that the broken rib could not mend under the strain that was put -upon it. It was an ordeal of pain and torment which must be undergone, -and Mary underwent it, acidulously cheerful, barkingly good-natured, a -crusty good fellow from the bitter beginning to the bitter end. “Let -the old thing hurt,” she said. “What’s the difference? You get used to -pain in time. Our lives are all pain, but we don’t know it. We’re used -to it. When we get to heaven we’ll wonder how we ever stood it here on -earth, we were so miserable and didn’t know it.” - -This odd philosophy carried her through triumphantly to the lake, where -they found the burros and horses still content with their mountain -pasture. - -To ride, she discovered, was more painful than to walk. So she dragged -herself on down to Mosquito and scolded the doctor every step of the -way because he insisted on walking with her and leading the saddle -horse on which he was to ride for help. At Mosquito, after the terrific -strain of days of struggling over the rugged ridges, she collapsed and -was put to bed, greatly to her disgust. “I’m a regular zingwham,” she -sighingly announced. And questioned: “A zingwham is a fat girl thirteen -years old that bawls when the boys call her ‘Pianolegs.’” And Shonto, -days behind because of the slow progress made, hurried his horse on to -Shirttail Bend, to find the chaotic ranch deserted by its owner. - - * * * * * - -Inman Shonto himself was about all in. As medical adviser to as -obstinate a patient as any he had dealt with, he had not permitted Mary -to carry a pound. (The ensuing argument over this, from the dismal -cañon to Mosquito, had helped in his unstringing.) Rations had been -short beyond the cache, and at that he had packed a torturing load. His -back and shoulders ached; every muscle in his big body ached. His brain -was leaden. The figure that camped for the night at the spring in the -desert buttes did not closely resemble the fastidious Dr. Inman Shonto, -unresponsive but idolized lady’s man, renowned gland specialist, -popular clubman of the City of Los Angeles. - -It was with little zest that he collected petrified yucca for his -campfire, fed rolled barley to his horse, and picketed him. Squatting -over the coals, he fried bacon and made “cowboy’s bread” in the grease. -A cup of strong black coffee finished his meal. Not ten minutes -afterward he was rolled in his blankets. - -For a little his dull senses were aware of the close-by maudlin -laughter of a pair of coyotes up in the buttes; then the sounds blended -with his dreams and he was fast asleep. - -He awoke with a start, shook his head, sat up straight. He was vaguely -aware that he was not alone. The fire had died down and only the light -of the stars served to reveal several indistinct bulks blacker than the -general blackness of the night. He made an attempt to spring to his -feet, but found his legs unresponsive and toppled over on one elbow. - -A chuckle offered him derisive applause. “They’re tied together, -Doctor,” said a faintly familiar voice. “I just rolled the blankets off -your feet and tied your ankles, and you didn’t move a muscle.” - -“Morley, eh?” said the doctor calmly. “Well, Morley, what’s it all -about? Sore about something--you and your partner?” - -“Not at all,” Morley replied. Then to Leach: “Stir up the fire and -let’s have a cup of coffee before we start.” - -Another dark bulk moved from the collection of shadows, and now Shonto -realized that horses and burros comprised the greater part of the -group. The fire blazed up after a little, and objects became more -distinct. - -Smith Morley squatted on his heels. - -“I’ll tell you, Doc,” he said. “Leach and I are up against it. We’re -flat broke and miles from our headquarters. In you we’ve found an -opportunity to get out of our difficulties. So you’re the goat.” - -“Well, let’s have it. Am I to be shot at sunrise or as soon as we’ve -had the coffee?” - -Morley chuckled. “I admire your nerve, Doc. You’re pretty much of a -man, all in all. But if you’re worrying any at all, which I doubt, -I’ll relieve your mind at once. Nothing serious is going to happen to -you. We just want you to go with us and perform one of your famous -operations on an old desert rat that wants pepping up a little so he -can take unto himself a girl-wife. There’s a big fee in it for you and -a nice little sum for Leach and me to get out of the country on.” - -“Oh, a friend of yours?” - -“Well, ‘friend’ is a pretty comprehensive word, Doc. Anyway, we’ve -known him a good many years.” - -“Well,” said Shonto, after a brooding pause, “I’m sorry, but I haven’t -time to perform any operation just now. I’m about the busiest man in -the Shinbone Country, I imagine, so you’ll have to excuse me. Later, -perhaps.” - -“Just as sorry as you are, Doc, but that’s not the way it’s scheduled -to come out. Leach and I might have put the matter up to you in an -ordinary way if we hadn’t seen you riding down the trail alone to-day. -We realize that the rest of your party must be in trouble somewhere up -there in the mountains, and that you’re probably going for help. So we -decided you wouldn’t listen to reason--and tied your ankles. Sorry to -disappoint your friends, but you’re going with us.” - -“I’m afraid you’re mistaken,” was Shonto’s brief reply. - -“No, not in the least, Doctor Shonto. You’re up against a stacked deck. -We’ve got your gun, of course, and, though I suspect that you’re a -pretty tough _hombre_ in a hand-to-hand mix-up, you can’t do much with -your ankles tied together. So just be reasonable and make the best of -it, and you’ll be free the sooner.” - -“Humph!” - -Dr. Shonto sat upright, thinking. Morley smiled as he noted the feet -constantly twitching and straining under the drab blankets. - -“I’ll tell you,” said Shonto presently. “Things _are_ in a pretty -serious state up in the mountains. A man’s future, if not his life, -depends on my getting back to him in time. I’ll compromise with you: -I’ll give you my word of honour that, if you’ll let me go and attend to -what I have in mind, I’ll come back and perform whatever operation your -man wants, charge him nothing, and forget the entire matter.” - -“Sounds good,” Morley replied. “And I don’t want you to think for a -minute that we doubt your word, Doctor. But we’re in a desperate hurry. -My wife is in hock, you might say, at Diamond H Ranch. Leach and I are -stripped. The season’s late for prospectors, and we’ve got to get on -our feet at once. We’re going to Australia on the money we get out of -this, and it’s a long trip. Delays are dangerous. No, you’ll have to -go with us to-night and get it over with. It won’t take long, I guess. -You’ll be on your way again in no time.” - -“I’ll add as much as you’re to get from your client for this -kidnapping,” offered Shonto, “if you’ll postpone it.” - -“That’s tempting,” admitted Morley, “but this is one of those times -when a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. No, it’ll be weeks, -maybe, before you’re ready. Leach and I can’t hold out that long. As -it is, we’ll be on the briny days before you’d be ready. No, Doc, -to-night’s the night.” - -“I haven’t an instrument with which to perform any sort of operation,” -Shonto protested. “You don’t seem to realize that an operation of any -sort whatever is a delicate piece of business. I need a nurse, a table, -anæsthetics, the equipment that a first-class hospital provides--you -don’t know anything at all about it.” - -Leach spoke up from the fireside: “This old bird is tough, Doc. All -you’ll have to do is scrape off the dirt and cut into ’im. Several -steers have operated on him already, and bad horses have broken half a -dozen bones for him. He can do without the fixings, I guess.” - -“Well, some things are absolutely necessary,” said Shonto. “You’ll -admit that. And I can’t see--” - -“Just leave all that to us, Doc,” Morley put in. “We’ll take you to -him, then you can give us a message to wire to Los Angeles, or wherever -your headquarters are located, and I’ll send it in. Have all you’ll -need in a couple of days, at most.” - -Leach approached with two cups of half-cooked coffee. - -“Better swallow a cup, Doc,” he suggested. “Brace you up for a long -night’s ride.” - -Five minutes later, quite unexpectedly, Leach, who had passed behind -Dr. Shonto, dropped the noose of a lariat over his head, binding his -arms to his sides. The prospector took several turns about his body and -made a knot. Then the two unbound the doctor’s ankles and helped him to -his feet. - -Whereupon the struggle began. - -Shonto was a powerful man and a determined man. He had small hopes of -winning, but there was always a chance and he made the most of his -strength. Unable to use his hands, nevertheless he whipped about, -butted with his head, tripped with his feet, turned and squirmed, and -hurled himself into the kidnappers until the three were about the -busiest men in several counties. - -But the outcome was inevitable. The lariat did not loosen, and Shonto’s -huge hands did not come into play. Time and again they bore him to the -ground, and, eventually, by reason of one of them having rested while -the other engaged the rebellious prisoner, they wore the doctor down. -Utterly exhausted, he remained passive while they lifted him to the -back of his own horse and confined his ankles again by passing a rope -from one to the other under the animal’s belly. Then they mounted, -urged the burros forward, and, with Morley leading the doctor’s horse -and Leach riding behind to see that nothing happened, they struck off -down the line of buttes. Out on the open desert, they headed into the -southwest in the direction of Tanburt’s Ranch. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV - -MARY CHOOSES A SEAT - - -DR. INMAN SHONTO was a prisoner in a little adobe hut back of the -corrals at Tanburt’s Ranch. The dun walls were a foot in thickness, the -door of solid slabs of oak securely bolted, and the lone window was -less than ten inches square. This hut had once been used as a place to -keep milk and butter cool, and in that day was adjacent to the first -house that Gus Tanburt had built on his property. The old house had -been wrecked in time and a new one built, but the old adobe buttery had -withstood the years. - -There was no escape; the thick walls and tiny window made imprisonment -therein effectual. Shonto paced the floor, smoked his pipe and -cigarettes, and tried to hold his temper. He had written the message, -and either Leach or Morley had gone with it to the nearest telegraph -station. A day and a night had passed, and Shonto had seen nobody but a -halfbreed cowpuncher, who brought his meals regularly and thrust them -in through the ten-inch opening. He had blankets and a couch, and was -fairly comfortable. But, with the exception of the halfbreed, no one -paid any attention to him. - -He smiled bitterly as he paced about, strong hands clasped behind his -back. Up in the mountains a young man soon would be facing a grinning -spectre that threatened to ruin his life, and the girl who loved him -would be looking on in horror, unable to save him, forced to witness -the ghastly thing that was taking place before her eyes. Close at -hand an ignorant old man waited for the doctor to perform a trifling -operation that promised renewed vigor and the semblance of youth, which -would place at the mercy of his selfish desire a ripe girl-woman, -pulsing with the warm springtime of maturity. - -He had not yet set eyes on this old gargoyle of a man, but he pictured -him uncouth, cunning, repulsive, terrifying, as he gloated over his -defenceless and shrinking prey. What right had this old monster to -demand of life the replenished fires of youth which he had quenched -in the soul-warping fight for wealth? Was it consistent with progress -that this old man, because he had the means, should be allowed to -regain his physical vigour, and perhaps perpetuate his kind in a world -already hampered with such as he? Sheep glands substituted for his own -worthless organs would not serve to purge his corroded soul nor wipe -from his fading mind the cobwebs of superstition and ignorance and -prejudice that put him out of step in the march of progress. Such as -he should be left to die and be forgotten; it seemed a crime to help -him to perpetuate himself, and bring into the world stupid offspring -handicapped by heredity from the very start! No, the hope of progress -lay in new blood. Let the old generation, with its ignorance and its -out-of-tune ideas, become extinct. Let science better the youth of the -age, if possible, but refrain from prolonging the life of that arch -enemy of Youth and Advancement--Old Age! - -The scientist was not only a strong advocate of birth control, but at -times he went even further and longed to see the race die out entirely. -This, of course, in his bitterest moments, when he realized what a -fiasco man had made of life. War and slavery; disease and pestilence; -poverty and greed; the stupidity of Labour and the tyranny of Capital; -the arrogance of the Church and the cowardice of thinkers; Science -devoted to the problem of disassociating atoms one from another so that -the world need not search for new oil and coal fields, but neglecting -to discover cures for pyorrhea and catarrh; people suffering for -the want of food and clothes in a world filled to overflowing with -the necessities of life; the timber on a million hills laid low and -wasted in a few short years, and families without shelter for their -heads!--why prolong this hideous nightmare of confusion? Let the race -die out; let the old world groan once more in the travail of a new -upheaval; and when it cooled, let protoplastic man be born again in the -slime and begin all over from the bottom! - -Then thought of his lifelong work with the glands would soothe him, and -his kindly eyes would smile. He never could untwist the brains of the -generation with his efforts, he knew, but he could lay a foundation for -his successors to build upon. - -So Dr. Inman Shonto was a great mind. A pessimist to the core, as are -most thinkers who search for the eternal truths, he nevertheless worked -for the betterment of what he considered hopeless conditions, and -wooed optimism while he worked. - -Well, he would perform the operation. The deck was stacked against him. -In order to save Youth this time he needs must bow to the whims of -cantankerous Old Age. But he would make an effort to save that girl, -whoever she might be, from the consequences of this iniquitous passion. -He would take her away from her poverty to the city and give her a -chance in life--he would take her to Charmian and place her under that -influence. He would rob this twitching old David of the ewe lamb that -he lusted for! - -He had reached the ranch blindfolded. Morley had told him of the -rancher’s cravings, but he had not divulged his name. When the -operation was over and his services no longer needed, he would be -taken out on the desert, blindfolded again, and left to find his own -way to the nearest habitation. Leach and Morley would direct him, they -promised, but would ride away and leave him for their own protection. -Well, never mind! (Still pacing back and forth, back and forth.) He -would get to the bottom of this thing. He would save that girl! - - * * * * * - -Two days more had passed. Through the little window Dr. Inman Shonto -saw that the desert was overhung with clouds. Up over the mountains -they were voluminous and black. He believed that it was snowing up -there. Every day, perhaps, the mantle of white was being spread deeper -and deeper over the land. The stretch of chaparral between Dewlap -Mountain and the Valley of Arcana would become impassable. One could -not crawl under the branches with the ground covered with snow; and -until the snow had reached a depth of twelve feet one could not -snowshoe over the tops. Still no sign of the man who had gone to send -the telegram. - - * * * * * - -Midnight, with Shirttail Henry wrapped in his blankets beside the -spring in the calico buttes, and Lot’s Wife dozing in the background. -Lot’s Wife snorted and scrambled to her feet. Shirttail Henry stirred, -blinked his mild blue eyes, and sat erect. He felt beside him, assured -himself that the new rain gauge was safe, and spoke thus to Mrs. Lot: - -“Quit snorin’, ass, and go to sleep!” - -But as he finished the words he heard the thumping of a horse’s feet. - -Instantly he flung himself from his blankets and stood in a listening -attitude. The burro’s twelve-inch ears were nearly touching at the tips -and her mouseskin muzzle quivered. Her ears pointed the direction from -which the horse was approaching. - -“Comin’ from th’ mountains,” mumbled Henry. “Funny time o’ night to be -hittin’ th’ trail. One critter.” - -He stepped lightly to the rocks about the spring and flattened himself -in the shadows. The thudding continued, and presently, though he could -see nothing because of the blackness cast by a cloudy sky, he knew that -the animal was close. A single eye of light peered out from the nest -of ashes of his waning fire, enough to convince the newcomer, if the -horse bore a rider, that some one was camping at the spring. The horse -did bear a rider, for no horse, even though he was an exceptional horse -and gifted with speech, would have been so peremptory in his demand: - -“I want to know who’s camping here. Speak out! Who’s here?” - -“It’s me,” came Henry’s voice from the shadows. - -“Oh, old Marblehead, eh? Are you dressed?” - -“Yes’m.” - -“Then step out here, please, and tell me what’s become of Doctor -Shonto!” - -“You’re Miss Mary Temple, ain’t you?” - -“No, I’m Miss William Jennings Bryan. Come on out! What’re you hiding -there for? Where’s Doctor Shonto? I want to know at once. Talk, you -damned quitter!” - -Henry came forth and stared at the black bulk that she made in the -night. Never before had the mild Henry heard a woman use profanity. He -was completely flabbergasted. - -“I--I didn’t know ye cussed, ma’am,” he found himself saying. - -“What you don’t know about me,” snapped Mary, “would give you a college -education if you could find it out. I curse when I’m mad, like anybody -else does who’s got any gumption. I’m a bad woman, Henry Richkirk--and -don’t you forget it!” - -“I’m plumb s’prised, ma’am,” he puzzled. “You don’t cuss when Mis’ -Reemy’s about, do ye?” - -“I don’t,” barked Mary. “But that’s no sign I can’t. And when I swear -I’m mad. Now poke up that fire and tell me what’s become of Doctor -Shonto!” - -“I ain’t seen ’im at all, ma’am,” said Henry, stirring the embers and -heaping on kindling and stony yucca. - -“Don’t lie to me!” - -“Honest!” - -“What are you doing here?” - -“I been to town to git me a new rain gauge, ma’am. It didn’t come right -soon, and I--I waited.” - -“What town?” - -“To Emerald, ma’am--that’s sixty miles from Diamond H. And I had to -camp here to-night ’cause I was all wore out. I got drunk at Emerald, -ma’am, and I’m plumb tuckered. But I oughta be in the mountains. Is it -rainin’ or snowin’ up there?” - -“It is. Above Mosquito.” Mary was dismounting stiffly. “And Doctor -Shonto was due to pass Mosquito two days ago. I ought to be in bed, but -I rode out to see what had happened to him. I couldn’t find anybody at -your place when I got there at dusk, so I rode on down. Now I want to -know what’s become of Doctor Shonto.” - -“I can’t tell ye, ma’am--honest! But I see Omar Leach and Smith Morley -clost to th’ foot o’ th’ trail when I was ridin’ outa these here -mountains here on my way to Diamond H.” - -“Leach and Morley? What were they doing? What did they want?” - -“They were askin’ about you folks,” Henry told her. “I don’t know what -they want.” - -“I know what they want! They want money! Why aren’t they out of this -country?” - -“I can’t tell ye, ma’am. They ain’t been to Diamond H sence they went -back there after they ditched you folks. They left Smith’s woman there, -but before I got in she’d went out with Roger Furlong in his buckboard -to the railroad. Smith and Omar they’d gone to Gus Tanburt’s, Roger -said. They’re friends o’ Gus’s.” - -“Who’s Gus Tanburt?” - -Henry told her, adding: “That’s th’ only place they could go to, ma’am. -Maybe they thought Gus would get ’em outa th’ Shinbone Country. But, -then, I see ’em at th’ foot o’ th’ trail to Shirttail Bend, like I told -ye. And, ma’am, they was somethin’ here in camp here that I noticed -when me and Mrs. Lot rambled in this evenin’. Ground all tromped, like -they’d been a mix-up.” - -“And you’re positive that Doctor Shonto never got to Diamond H Ranch?” - -“Just so--sure, ma’am.” - -“All right. Get me something to eat, please. My grub’s back of my -saddle. Make me a little tea. I’m sick, Henry. I’ve got a broken rib, -and riding is killing me. But we’ll eat and get on to this Tanburt -Ranch. How far is it?” - -“Why, ma’am, it’s miles and miles! And ye don’t know th’ way.” - -“You do, though. I want to know what’s happened to Doctor Shonto, and -you’ve got to go along and help me find out.” - -“But, ma’am, I jest can’t. It’ll be rainin’ in th’ mountains in less’n -twelve hours. You know I’m a gov’ment official, and--” - -“Oh, well--forget it!” exploded Mary. “Make me some tea and I’ll ride -on alone if you can show me the way.” - -“But, ma’am--” - -“Make me some tea, I said--damn it all!” - -While he bustled about, hopeful of ridding himself of her after -attending to her temporary wants, she watered and fed her horse rolled -barley, then threw off the saddle, examined the animal’s back with an -expert eye, and put it on the picket rope. Presently she came and sat -down on the ground by the fire, cupped her bony chin in one lean hand, -and gazed eaglelike into the flames. - -“Henry,” she said, “guess what I’m sitting on.” - -Henry wheeled and stared at her in blank amazement. He looked all -around her, then advanced the theory that she was sitting on the ground. - -“Wrong, Henry,” said Mary gloomily. “I’m sitting on your new rain -gauge. But don’t be alarmed. I’m keeping my weight off it. I won’t sit -down hard, Henry, unless you persist in refusing to accompany me to -Tanburt’s Ranch to get on the trail of Doctor Shonto. What do you say, -Henry?” - -Henry had nothing to say, so he looked worried and cackled his silly -“Heh-heh-heh!” At half-past one he was stalking into the night in a -southwesterly direction, with Mary Temple riding behind him, tortured -by the rolling motion of her walking horse, but enduring silently. The -rain gauge was strapped at the front jockey of her saddle, its thin -brass ready to be squeezed to uselessness if Shirttail Henry became -obstinate. - - - - -CHAPTER XXV - -THE DEADLY BULL AND THE SILVER FOX - - -IT was nearly noon the following day when a lone horsewoman rode into -the grove of cottonwoods that stood before the ranch house of Gustav -Tanburt. No one came out to meet her. A few chickens moseyed about, -commanded by a black rooster with a red muffler about his neck and a -redder comb, deeply notched. He gave Mary Temple a wall-eyed stare. A -young calf, tied to a tree on thirty feet of rope, took the occasion -to celebrate Mary’s advent by racing round in a circle, carrying its -tail as if it were broken in the middle, and ending the performance -by encircling several trees with the rope and coming to an enforced, -bawling standstill. - -Mary dismounted in a spasm of suffering, watered her horse at a -dripping trough adjacent to a flow of artesian water from a rusty pipe, -lowered the reins over the horse’s head, and walked to the painfully -small and circumspect veranda. She knocked smartly on a weather-stained -door, in which a brown-china knob hung like a loose tooth. Gus Tanburt, -for all the riches that had been forced upon him, clave to the familiar -relics of his days of haphazard struggling. - -Mary knocked twice. A large black-green blow fly buzzed about before -her peaked nose, seeming to anticipate the opening of the door. Mary -struck at it viciously, not with the flat of her hand but with her -bony fist. Mary was in no humour to administer punishment with the flat -of her hand. She was in the mood to deliver a haymaker and put her -scant weight behind it. - -Shuffling footsteps preceded the opening of the door, and Gus Tanburt -bleared at her from between wind-stung eyelids. - -The eyelids had no lashes, and the skin of the rancher’s face was -slick and shiny as an ancient scar. His teeth were few and far -between--yellow fangs in his yielding gums. The breath of his brown -clay pipe nearly asphyxiated his gentle caller. - -He glowered at Mary as if she were the tax assessor. - -“Where’d you come from?” was his inhospitable greeting. - -“I’m riding to Britton,” answered Mary. (Shirttail Henry had coached -her.) “I wanted to know if I couldn’t buy something to eat and a feed -for my horse.” - -“Who are ye?” - -“My name is Winifred Allison.” (Mary always wished she had been born -Winifred Allison. Most of us have pet names that we wish our parents -had had the sense to bestow on us. Winifred Allison was Mary’s.) - -“Where ye from?” - -“Fresno.” - -“I mean jest now.” - -“Oh! I’ve been riding through the mountains from Glenning.” - -“Glennin’! That’s a hundred an’ fifty miles t’other side o’ th’ range, -woman!” - -“I’m not disputing that, man!” Mary snapped back. “I’m telling you that -I rode from Glenning here, on my way to Britton. What’s the odds? Can -you sell me some dinner and a feed of hay for the horse?” - -Gus Tanburt looked over her ridgy shoulder and squinted at her horse. -For a few moments Mary scarcely breathed. But the watery eyes coasted -back to her again, and she knew that the rancher had not recognized the -animal as belonging to Diamond H. - -“I got nothin’ fitten to eat,” he told her. “I’m a sick man, an’ I’m -alone and don’t wanta be pestered. Ye c’n put th’ brute in th’ corral -and pitch ’im a couple forkfuls o’ hay, if ye want to. That’ll be fifty -cents. Then if ye c’n find anything to eat in th’ kitchen ye’re welcome -to he’p yerself. That’ll be a dollar. Waterin’ th’ brute is fifty -cents, a’g’in. Two dollars in all. Strike ye right?” - -“Oh, yes,” muttered Mary. “Quite reasonable--especially the water, -which is going to waste a barrelful every five minutes.” - -“Well, this here’s a desert country, ma’am, an’ us folks that put up -with stayin’ ’way out here gotta make a livin’. Ye c’n take it or leave -it. Funny, though, a woman like you all alone forkin’ a hoss from -Glennin’ to Britton. If it’s any o’ my business--” - -“It isn’t,” Mary broke in. “Where shall I put my horse?” - -He shuffled out and to the corner of the house, where he pointed a -crooked finger toward one of the large stables, about which was a -tumble-down board corral. - -“Put ’im in that corral,” he said. “That’s th’ hoss corral. Keep away -from t’other’n, though. It runs ’way back in th’ cottonwoods, to where -ye can’t see, an’ I got a bad bull in there. He killed a _cholo_ last -summer.” - -“All right,” said Mary. “I’ll not go near him.” - -She went to her horse, and, afraid to mount because she would display -her awkwardness and probably be forced to explain about the broken rib, -led the animal past the rancher toward the corral he had indicated. -He stood at the corner of the house and watched her until she had -taken down the bars and turned in the horse; but Mary had detected no -suspicion in his eyes as they roved appraisingly over the animal, as a -horseman’s eyes invariably will do. She had walked abreast the horse’s -shoulder to hide the Diamond H brand. He watched her while she took off -the saddle and bridle. But he had disappeared before she came from the -stable with the second allotted forkful of fragrant alfalfa hay. - -Mary carried this forkful to the corner of the stable farthest from -the ranch house, as she had the first. Casting a quick glance over -her shoulder, she stepped past the head of her eagerly eating horse -and was hidden from the house by the stable. She whipped off her hat -and waved furiously to Shirttail Henry, hidden somewhere in that part -of the cottonwood grove inhabited by the man-killer bull. This bull, -Mary believed, was a myth; for she and Henry had approached the ranch -buildings so that this neck of the grove would screen them from the -inhabitants. Henry had slunk through the grove on reaching it, and she -had ridden by to come out on the road that passed through the ranch. -She had seen Henry’s broad, bewhiskered face peering out at her from a -portion of the grove not far from the stables where she had later found -hay for her horse. This meant that Henry had walked the length of the -grove parallel with her course along the road, and he had not looked as -if he had seen anything of the alleged destroyer. - -When she began waving Shirttail Henry at once stepped from behind -the hole of a large cottonwood and returned the signal. Hastily she -scribbled a message on a piece of paper and, holding it up for her aide -to see, slipped it under a batten on the side of the stable. Henry -waved his understanding of the pantomime, and Mary hurried back in -sight of the ranch house and started walking toward it. - -She had written: - - This old rooster is a crook. He says there is a fierce bull in the - grove where you are. He lies. He wanted to keep me away from the - other corral and the buildings near it. I’ll keep him busy in the - house, while you look into all the buildings and see what you can - find out. That bull story convinces me that there’s something wrong. - Don’t be a blundering idiot, now, and make a splatchet of everything. - -Five minutes after reading the note Shirttail Henry was clinging with -his knees to a rail which he had leaned against the adobe wall under -the ten-inch window of Dr. Shonto’s prison. - -Mary Temple contrived to spend an hour and a half in the ranch house. -She fried fresh eggs for herself and made baking-powder biscuits and a -cup of tea. Gus Tanburt sat in a decrepit kitchen chair and talked with -her while she worked, questioning her about anything and everything -of which she knew nothing at all. But Mary’s was an inventive mind, -and she told him about the new schoolhouse at Glenning and spoke -feelingly of the last rites solemnized over the mortal remains of one -Dan Stebbins, shoemaker, as mythical as Tanburt’s bull. Didn’t he know -Dan? That was strange. But, then, of course he didn’t know a great deal -about Glenning. Maybe he knew the Morgan girls? No? Mabel had married -the young Baptist minister who had recently come from Ohio; and Ethel -Morgan was--well, perhaps the least said about Ethel the better. She -had bobbed her hair, though, and he could draw his own conclusions. - -When the ordeal was over Mary laid a couple of dollars on a place in -the oilcloth-covered table where the oilcloth had not worn off, and -thanked the old profiteer in her sweetest manner. Tanburt did not know -that Mary’s sweetness was inevitably a danger signal, so, refreshed -with much fictitious news, he accompanied her to the door in a more -agreeable frame of mind and invited her to drop in again if she ever -rode through in the future. But he was too miserable to saddle her -horse for her, and bade her good-by on the porch. - -Tucked under the same batten on the east side of the stable Mary read, -on the reverse side of her note: - - Doctor is in that little dobe the othir side off the coral. Met me a - mile down the rode to the west of tanberts. I left this note before I - left. - -“There,” murmured Mary, “is what you call American efficiency, which I -always suspected was pretty much hot air. He left the note before he -left. Henry! Henry! if all of our government officials were like you!” - - * * * * * - -The short winter day was drawing to its close. The sun was sinking -slowly behind the Coast Range, having dropped suddenly from under a -rack of clouds for its first smile of the day before seeking its bed in -the mystic west. - -Then two horsemen galloped easily from a short pass through a chain of -half-hearted buttes that barely broke the monotony of the level desert -on the road from Tanburt Ranch to Britton. The first horse shied and -snorted, almost unseating its rider. The second, frightened by the -action of the first, reared on its hind legs and wheeled. - -An apparition suddenly had confronted the little party. Mary Temple, -gaunt and severe of mien, had appeared uncannily in the middle of the -road, with a leveled Winchester at her shoulder. - -“Up!” she commanded acidly, as the horses came to a dancing halt. -“Quick! Climb the ladder, both of you! Don’t make a mistake. I’ve -killed my man.” - -Then the hammer clicked icily as she cocked it in the desert stillness. - -That was the master stroke of the whole performance--that ominous -click that followed her unimpassioned command. It was psychological. -Leach and Morley thrust their hands above their heads and grinned -uncomfortably. - -“Henry! Morley has a six-gun on his hip. Get it. Morley, let him get -it. I’m telling you the God’s truth when I say I’ll pull the trigger if -you move a hand. Damn you, anyway--I’d as soon take a crack at you as -break an egg!” - -“Wh-why, Miss Temple!” gasped Smith Morley. - -“Shocked, eh? Well, if you’d seen me when I ran the Silver Fox Dance -Hall in Alaska, ten or eleven years ago, you’d know who you’re dealing -with. But if you want to take a chance--Henry!” - -“Yes’m--here I am.” - -Henry quivered from behind the large greasewood bush that had concealed -him, and, grinning apologetically, stepped to the side of Morley’s -horse and removed a wooden-handled .45 from its holster. - -He heaved a sigh of relief as he backed away. - -“Now,” he said, “try to come any o’ yer capers on me, Smith and Omar, -an’ I’ll get me a club--” - -“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” Mary cut in crisply. “Why not blow -their heads off with their own gat?” - -“Heh-heh-heh!” chuckled Henry. - -“Hit the ground,” Mary commanded. “Keep your hands up and turn your -backs to me.” - -Leach obeyed instantly, but a look of disdain had come upon Morley’s -features as, the first shock over, his courage began welling up again. - -“You wouldn’t shoot--” - -The remainder of his sentence was drowned by the roar of the -Winchester, and the prospector felt the wind of the bullet as it -crashed past his cheek. There followed the instant clacking of the -mechanism as Mary pumped another cartridge into the chamber. The horses -lunged and danced. - -“You were saying, Mr. Morley?” Mary prompted sweetly. - -But Morley was sliding from his plunging horse to the ground, where he -carried out to the letter the commands of the erstwhile mistress of the -Silver Fox. - -“There’s some of the doctor’s stuff tied behind Leach’s saddle,” Mary -said to Henry. “Get it.” - -Henry obeyed. - -“Tie it behind my saddle,” was the next command. - -Henry complied. - -“Now get on Morley’s horse,” said Mary; and Henry mounted. - -“Take the reins of the other horse and be ready to lead him.” - -Henry swung Morley’s horse to the head of Leach’s and took the reins. -At the same time Mary was mounting her own animal, and she did it -quickly, despite the pain that the jerky movement gave her. - -“All right,” she said to Henry. “Lead out at a gallop.” - -Morley risked a glance over his shoulder. “You’re not going to leave -us ’way out here on the desert, Miss Temple!” - -“That’s what _you_ say,” said Mary, and with her hat spanked the rump -of the horse that Henry was to lead to stir him into a gallop from the -jump. - -A clatter of hoofs up the darkening desert road, and Leach and Morley -were alone with their thoughts. - -Perhaps fifteen minutes later Mary slowed down to a walk, and, racked -with pain, sat gasping in her saddle. - -“Ma’am,” said Shirttail Henry, whose horse had slowed with his mate, -“ye’re a outlandish uncommon woman. I never guessed ye was th’ kind to -ever run a dance hall like that Silver Fox place ye told about back -there.” - -“No?” gulped Mary. “Well, I never did--but don’t you suppose I ever -read a story in my life? You talk too much. My rib hurts like fury. -Shut up!” - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI - -THE LAST TABLET - - -OVER the Valley of Arcana the snow banners streamed from the mastheads -of the surrounding peaks. Snow fell in the valley--soft snow that -somehow seemed warm instead of cold. It disappeared on the bosom of -the river, but thickened in eddies and made slush against piles of -driftwood. The Valley of Arcana had not yet felt the grip of winter, -but up above the banners of triumph waved and the artillery of the -blizzards boomed. - -The Cave of Hypocritical Frogs was comfortable. The cold did not -penetrate to its inner recesses. At the mouth Andy kept a fire going, -and enough deadwood had been gathered to last all winter. - -The snowbound prisoners sat together below the cave, on boulders close -to the redwood saplings which made a bridge over the waterfall that -told them weird tales of the waste places night and day. Often the -speech of the talkative water changed to music, gathered unto itself -rhythm and tunefulness. Sometimes choir boys were singing; sometimes -male quartets; more often they fancied that ghost women, wild and -distraught from woes undreamed of by mortal beings, were wiping their -wet, clinging hair from their faces and lifting their voices in a -piercing heathen chant of denunciation. - -They sat together above the fall and watched the boiling water in the -pool below--marvelled over the frenzied happiness of a lone water ouzel -that frolicked there. - -He stood on a half-submerged stone and danced, this odd diving bird of -the riffles and waterfalls, who seems to sing best when the water is -cold as ice and dashing over him and about him. He courtesies and nods -to right and left and sings happily whether or not the sun is shining; -and then he dives. His are the pounding torrents, his the screaming -rapids, his the showers of coldest spray that never chill his song. -Alone, bobbing--smiling, one almost imagines--he seeks the cold dark -cañons where water roars, for dashing sprays are his sunshine. “The -mountain stream’s own darling, the hummingbird of blooming waters,” -wrote “Wonderful John” of him--John Muir, lover of God’s own! - -Hand in hand they sat and watched the ouzel, bobbing and bowing as -if pretending to shrink from the plunge he loved, and listened to -his misty notes and the changing oratory of the waterfall. They were -silent. Both were thinking deeply. For the day before Andy Jerome -had swallowed the last half-tablet, and up above the snow was hourly -closing the way for Dr. Shonto to come to them with more. Over them -hung this thought like the thread-held sword of old. - -“Dear,” said Charmian, with that little upward twist of her mouth -that always made him want to kiss it, “do you know that your beard is -growing fearfully long? You see, I’m taking a proprietary interest in -you already. What’ll I do to you after we’re married?” - -Andy laughed. “To tell the truth,” he replied, “I made a great blunder -on this trip. Usually, out in the woods, I carry an old-fashioned -razor. But this time I brought along my safety. And every blade is dull -as a hoe. Can’t sharpen razor blades on sandstone, as I do my axe and -knife. - -“But wouldn’t I be out of character if I failed to grow a beard? Ought -to hang down on my manly breast and be full of burrs or something. And -you ought to be wearing a knee-length skin dress, with the hair on. I’m -afraid we aren’t playing up to our rôles properly.” - -“I’m glad to see you so light-hearted,” she observed pensively. -“I’m--I’m afraid I’m worrying a little too much, Andy.” - -His brow clouded instantly, and she knew that his lightness of heart -was feigned. - -“It _is_ storming like the dickens up there,” he admitted. “Doctor -Shonto will never be able to get through that stretch of chaparral if -it continues. And--” - -“Yes?” she prompted. - -“And I guess it’ll continue, all right,” he finished gloomily. - -The hand that he held trembled a little. - -“It wouldn’t be so bad,” she mused, “if--if-- Well, we could live here -all winter, I believe. We can get plenty to eat--such as it is--and we -can always keep warm. But--” - -“Yes, I know.” He squeezed her fingers. “It’s the devil. If we only -knew what to expect! What the dickens is the matter with me, anyway? -And why didn’t the doctor tell _you_, at least?” - -“He explained that--almost. He wants to be fair. He hoped that he could -get back in time to save you from--from whatever is to happen to you. -Then there would be no need to tell what he knows. He took that chance, -do you understand? But now he won’t get back in time, and--and we’ll -soon know what your great trouble is.” - -She sighed wearily. - -“Whatever it is, Charmian, you’ll never give me up, will you, dearest?” - -“Never!” - -They kissed long and tremulously, then the girl rose to her feet and -pulled at his hand till he stood beside her. - -“Let’s go back to the Cave of Hypocritical Frogs,” she said. “It’s -getting cold out here. And see, Andy--the snow is beginning to thicken -on the ground. It’ll be white by morning.” - -That same day she was putting their simple belongings to rights in the -Cave of Hypocritical Frogs. Each had a table--a flat-topped stone--on -which articles of daily use were kept. Womanlike, she fussed over his -things, which he consistently left awry. He was outside cutting wood. -She cleaned his comb and military brushes and laid things straight, -then opened the leather-covered case that contained his safety-razor -to make sure that he had not overlooked an unused blade. And in the -little metal container she found three, still sealed in their paper -covers. - -She called to him: - -“No caveman stuff for you for a time, young fellow! Come in here! I’ve -found three new razor blades!” - -“Good work!” he praised her when he reached her side. “Wonder how I -came to overlook ’em. Guess I just took it for granted they were all -gone, and didn’t open the case at all.” - -But by next day his beard, which had reached the most unattractive -stage, still covered his face. - -“Andy, why don’t you shave?” she asked. - -“By George! Forgot all about it. Getting used to this fuzz, I guess. -Maybe I like it--I don’t know.” - -His laugh was insincere, and she regarded him in mild surprise. - -They were busy at separate tasks throughout that day, Andy having -gone down the river alone to make an effort to get the canoe closer -to the cave, and Charmian washing clothes down by the pool below the -waterfall. At supper she once more reminded him that he had not shaved. - -His boyish face grew red with confusion, and he stammered an apology. -The pine cones that they used as torches would not give enough light -for shaving after supper, and next morning he tramped away again with -the beard still covering his face. - -She took him to task again when he returned at noon, standing before -him and demanding, with a look of worriment in her eyes, the why of it. - -“I--I just don’t seem to want to,” he confessed. “I don’t know why. But -I hate to begin. Always dreaded the thing, and out here it seems so -unnecessary.” - -Then it was that she noticed his finger nails, for he had raised one -hand to his shaggy beard and was fondling it abstractedly while it was -under discussion. His finger nails were long and black with dirt. - -“Why, Andy!” she began; then stopped short, her face whitening. - -Always Andy had been clean and neat, so far as the conditions of camp -life and the trail would permit. In fact, saving Dr. Shonto, she -never had known a more fastidious man. Otherwise she never could have -considered him her equal. A terrible thought came to her: This sudden -shuffling off of the demands of civilization must be the first symptom -of his malady. Considerately she said nothing, but for two days watched -him closely, her heart like lead. He neither washed nor cleansed his -finger nails during those two days, and she imagined that a certain -amount of lustre had left his one-time bright-blue eyes. - -And then he yawned directly in her face one night, his mouth wide open, -with no hand raised to cover the gap and no apology. And two days later -she caught him eating broiled meat with his fingers, tearing it apart -as if he never had seen a knife and fork. - -She cried herself to sleep that night and rose next morning with terror -in her heart. - -And now the change came fast. Andy’s eyes became bleary. The colour -of his face grew leaden, and the cheeks were bloated. His skin took on -a dirty, flabby look. His tongue, which the horrified girl often saw -hanging out at one corner of his mouth, had thickened, and the lips -were perpetually moist. His breath became asthmatic. When he spoke he -mumbled his words. Gradually, but with cruel swiftness, the light of -reason left his leaden eyes; and within ten days after the last tablet -had been swallowed Charmian Reemy knew that the man she loved was -little better than an idiot. - -His head lopped forward as he sat at the mouth of the cave and stared, -saying not a word, gazing at nothing, occasionally drawing in his -swollen tongue, but never wiping from the ragged beard the saliva which -he had drooled upon it. Again the tongue would creep out and downward, -as if he lacked the muscular energy to keep it in its place. His long -hair hung over his imbecile eyes; his long finger nails, unsightly with -dirt, looked like the talons of a bird. - -He would rouse himself when she shook him and, with tears streaming -down her face, begged him to pull himself together. He would grin at -her then and lick his lips with his thick tongue, but in a moment -or two he would once more lose control of his faculties, and his -head would drop forward, while out would creep the repulsive tongue. -Sometimes he would laugh--a weird, insane chuckle that wrenched from -the tortured girl a sob half of pity, half of horror. He walked -occasionally, but did no work at all. When this occurred he dragged -his steps, swaying loosely from side to side as if his body knew no -joints. He would pause often and, swaying slightly, would gaze this -way and that as if trying to replace in his memory the significance of -familiar objects. - -A few days more and he had ceased to speak. He muttered now and then, -for no particular reason whatever, but his wet lips formed no words. -Sometimes he gazed at her as she moved about, but in his eyes was no -question as to what she might be doing; the motion of her body simply -had attracted him momentarily and aroused a flicker of interest. But it -would pass at once, and again he would let his head go forward, and sit -gazing at the ground, while his tongue hung out and dripped. - -Meanwhile it snowed. The ground was covered two feet deep about the -cave. Up in the higher altitudes the blizzards raged perpetually, and -the air was filled with dismal moanings. All hope of Dr. Shonto’s -returning to the Valley of Arcana, except in an aeroplane, had vanished. - -And the idiot sat at the door of the Cave of Hypocritical Frogs and -drooled, staring through his hanging hair! - -Never before had Charmian Reemy known fear, but now she suffered abject -terror. All about her was ice and snow, and she shivered when a new -note came in the monotonous roar of the waterfall. No longer sang the -silver-throated choir boys. The high-pitched chorus that her fancy had -once named theirs became the sinfully gleeful giggling of malicious -sprites as they triumphed over her great disaster. The rollicking songs -that the male quartet had sung changed to the bellowing of Satan, -as when the angel of the Lord came down from heaven with the key to -the bottomless pit and chained him for a thousand years. Wrapped in -her blankets, nightmares came to her so that she was afraid to sleep -without the flickering light of a pine knot near her. Often she awoke -screaming, gripped by an icy, throat-contracting fear. And once the -nightmare took upon itself reality--and Madame Destrehan’s prophecy was -fulfilled. - -There were fingers at her throat, long, curving talons that were black -with dirt. Maniacal eyes looked into hers through a screen of hanging -hair. Wet lips were close to her face, seen through a mat of unkempt -beard, and from them lolled a tongue, black and swollen. - -She thought that she fainted--she did not know. But for a space of -time--how great she never knew--the flickering pine-knot torch was gone -and an icy wave swept over her. Then she was up, shrieking, struggling -madly, hers the strength of half a dozen women. She hurled the ogre -away from her, striking, clawing, pushing, and it crashed against a -wall of the cave and sank to the floor in a disorderly heap. - -Panting, one hand clutching her breast, she gazed at it, huddled there, -inert, breathing asthmatically. Then it moved, half rose, reclined once -more in a posture more human and natural. - -For an hour she watched, while the cold pierced her bones. Then, -mustering her courage, she stole past IT to the outer chamber of the -cave, where she collected blankets, brought them back, and threw them -over the prostrate figure of what once had been Andrew Jerome. With -her own blankets wrapped about her she remained in a sitting position, -stark awake, until the cold, feeble light of another day in the Valley -of Arcana crept in. - -He was not injured. He merely had lost in a twinkling the brief flicker -of energy that had returned to him, perhaps in a dream. Perhaps he -had been asleep throughout, and his subconscious mind had revived and -energized him where his conscious mind had failed to function. Perhaps -her fierce defence had awakened him and had caused him to lapse back. -He dragged himself up when it was light, and she guided him to his -customary seat at the mouth of the cave. - -Her daily needs served eventually to turn her mind on necessary tasks, -which helped her to forget the horror of her days and nights. She must -conserve the jerked meat, which together they had smoked so carefully -over the smouldering fires, and attend to the traps. She trudged away -through the snow, forced to leave Andy to his fate, gaping there at the -mouth of the Cave of Hypocritical Frogs. But when she reached the first -dead-fall and found a dead jackrabbit beneath the fallen stone she let -it lie. One by one she visited other traps, springing them when she -found no little dead body, and releasing live quail caught in the quail -traps. She would eat the jerky, and when that was gone-- Well, then -she would find something else. She could not kill! - -Sometimes she was almost tempted to pray that something might happen to -Andy--that he might rouse himself and try to wander somewhere through -the rocks, and meet with a fall that would end in instant death. He -was almost helpless. She had brought herself to wash his hands and -face, shuddering with repulsion, and whacked off the offensive claws. -She wanted to shave him, but was afraid that she did not know how, -and shrank from the task. As yet he was able to feed himself, but -in a manner that was wolfish when it was not like the food-cramming -of a two-year-old; and she turned her back and never ate with him. -The firewood was plentiful, and she had only to cut it or break it -with the hunter’s axe. All day long she kept the smoke of the signal -fire streaming aloft, but she imagined that it was dispersed by the -blizzards sweeping overhead, and would serve no purpose even were the -doctor trying to reach her. - -She cut wood and washed clothes, pulverized nuts and acorns for bread, -cooked their meals, and watched the snow pile up about the Cave of -Hypocritical Frogs, and when there was nothing to do she left her -charge and sought the waterfall, unable to bear the pitiable sight -of him. Not that there was solace in the roaring and croaking and -murmuring of the water. Its icy sheets depressed her immeasurably. But -below it played and sang the water ouzel, happy, bobbing up and down -and nodding sidewise, singing as if there were no terrors upon the -earth, while over him and about him dashed the freezing spray. He who -could sing at the top of his voice and dance throughout days that were -dull and dreary, in the very teeth of the raging waters, gave solace. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII - -ADRIFT ON LOST RIVER - - -HERE sat Charmian abreast the pounding waters, sobbing at times as -if her heart would break, while up at the cave lolled the drivelling -thing that once had been a man, young and handsome and pulsing with the -thrill of life. The little water ouzel bowed and bobbed to her, perched -on a stone in the frothy pool below. He was like a boy stripped for -the first spring plunge into his favourite swimming hole, but jouncing -on the spring-board, shivering in anticipation of the chilling dive, -and thinking up excuses to postpone it. Yet always he dived, broke -the surface of the water again, and perched himself once more on his -aquatic throne. Here he bobbed his head to the girl and danced about, -then lifted a voice attuned to the song of the dashing waters, but -merging trills of gladness with their funeral dirge. He was always -there; he never failed her. He feared her not at all, neither did he -court her. The only jarring element in their companionship was his -complete indifference to her presence. But she forgave him this when -he sent forth his fluty notes in defiance of ice and snow and driving -spray. Here she sat and wept, ofttimes trembling from the cold, and -prayed for relief from this hideous thing that had come upon her. - -Her brief dream of love had faded. At first she had striven bravely to -keep the fires burning, devoting herself to sacrifices for him, trying -to remember him as he had been only a few short days before. At times -she hated herself for what she considered her inconstancy and lack -of character. But her dream of love had gone--and now she realized -that love never had existed. He had swept her off her feet, this once -handsome, careless boy, and her youth had responded to his. Now she had -time to think, and she knew that she had dreamed. - -She remembered now how she had tried to draw him into serious -discussion of various topics that interested her, and should have -interested him, and how persistently he had evaded them. He had been -a student of the law, but even upon that topic she had been unable to -draw a thoughtful word from him. Light-hearted, boyish, shallow-minded, -care-free he had always been, with never a thought for the morrow, his -distant future, or hers. How bitterly she recalled all this now! How -blind she had been! Never could they have been happy together. She had -not loved Andy Jerome--the female in her had succumbed to the male -attraction that his vigorous manhood offered; she had surrendered to -that alone. - -Dr. Shonto had been right. Dr. Shonto was always right. Andy Jerome -was not for her. Now she saw that, with this dreadful thing constantly -threatening him, his family had not urged him to mental performances -which would strengthen his mind and character. Out of love for him they -had let him go his way, well supplied with money, and with nothing -to bother him. His schooling, she imagined, had been a mere pretence, -designed to delude him and his friends into believing he was normal. -In the end he would have turned out a failure, perhaps, but he would -not have been the first failure in a rich man’s family. Nothing would -have come of it, and he would have lived his life in blissful ignorance -of the real cause of his failure. Dr. Inman Shonto, she believed, had -counselled them to do this. - -She was thinking of Inman Shonto hourly these days--of his grave, -kindly smile, his tolerance of human shortcomings, his knowledge, -success, liberal ideas, and lofty idealism. She never once thought of -his ugliness of face. In her picture of him she saw only the magnetic -smile and the power of that face. - -It had occurred to her once--just once--that Shonto might have -prolonged his return so that Andy would run out of his medicine, when -he would be revealed to her in all his monstrousness. But she had put -the ungenerous thought behind her instantly. Dr. Shonto never would -stoop to such a thing as that. - -No, something serious had detained him. He would come to her soon, if -it was possible for an aeroplane to cope successfully with the mountain -blizzards that raged over the Valley of Arcana. He would return to her. -She heard it in the unceasing song of the little water ouzel. - -She had lost track of the days. Andy now was helpless, insensible to -cold and pain. At night she helped him to his blankets, made him lie -down, and wrapped him up. She slept in the outer chamber of the cave -now--slept fitfully, for she must needs be up every other hour to -replenish the fire, lest her charge throw off his covering and freeze -to death. Also her own covering was insufficient, for it was growing -colder, and but for the cave and the leaping fire she surely would have -suffered from the steadily lowering temperature. - -She rose one morning about nine o’clock. The sky was leaden, as usual, -and the wind moaned over the Valley of Arcana. It was cold and dreary -in the cave, for she had slept for the past three hours and the fire -had died down to a bed of coals. She glanced once at the huddled form -under the blankets, then with the wooden shovel moved the drifted snow -from the entrance and rebuilt the signal fire outside. Then she made -acorn bread--how she hated it!--soaked and stewed jerked rabbit, and -laid out on the stone table an array of dried grapes and huckleberries. - -When the unappetizing meal was ready she tried to drag the inert man -from his blankets, but he muttered and refused to move. So she ate, and -afterward made an effort to feed him, but without avail. - -She wondered if he was dying. She wondered, too, at her indifference. -Surely he would be better dead. Her existence had become a primitive -one, and primitive people are wont to look at such things as life and -death in a most pragmatic light. But she hated herself again for not -worrying over his fate. If he refused to eat, however, what could she -do? Dr. Shonto had told her that she would know what to do if the -tablets should run out before his return. She knew now what he had -meant. She could feed Andy and keep him from freezing--and nothing more! - -She left him wrapped in his blankets, breathing huskily, a motionless -heap of animal matter. She waded through the snow that had drifted -into the trail, which the previous day she had cleared, and sought the -waterfall and her friend of the driving spray. - -He was there before her, perched upon his stone, bowing and scraping, -and bobbing about like a hard working auctioneer. This morning, -however, his song failed to cheer her. She wondered if she were going -mad. Strange thoughts had been in her mind since she had arisen. She -somehow seemed indifferent to what might lie before her. She was dull -and apathetic, and it seemed that she almost was as insensible to grief -and fear as that vegetated man lying like a dying fish in the Cave of -Hypocritical Frogs. She could not cry this morning. With dull eyes she -gazed at the antics of the water ouzel, and her thoughts were taken -up with a vague wonder of everything--life particularly. She wondered -who she was, why she was, what she was--wondered if her past were all -a dream--wondered if she had not lived in this deserted valley always, -and only dreamed of civilization and a girl called Charmian Reemy. - -She must fight this off. She was growing afraid--afraid of herself! She -twisted her fingers together in a sudden agony of realization of her -plight, as when an unannounced wave of understanding sweeps across the -befuddled mind of a drunken man and he knows that he is drunk, and for -a moment suffers deep remorse. She rose to her feet to walk about for -warmth-- - -And then the water ouzel bobbed to the surface and flew to his perch; -and near the place where he had risen she saw a shining object tossing -about in the writhing current. - -It was such an unfamiliar object that she stood and looked at it -uncomprehendingly. It was about a foot in length, seemed cylindrical, -and was unaccountably bright. This brightness had attracted her. It was -so out of place in that dull-coloured land. - -It was a length of tree limb, she told herself. Some piece of driftwood -twelve inches long by three inches in diameter, with the bark slipped -off. But what had made the under bark so bright? Was it river slime? - -Certainly--it could be nothing else. - -She turned away, stopped--turned back again. - -There it was eddying about in the swirling water. It was bright! -Bright! Bright like metal! And metal did not float-- - -Except! - -With a new strange thought she clambered rapidly down over the stones -and reached the level of the ouzel’s throne. She found a long stick, -but it was far too short to reach the queer object tossing upon the -boiling water. She watched it tremblingly. It _was_ metal. No inner -bark could assume that brightness, no slime of the water could cause a -piece of limb to deceive the eye so easily. - -All eagerness, fearful of disillusionment, she tested the water’s -depth, but had known before she did so that she dared not venture in. - -The riotous current, twisting this way and that without stability of -direction, had swept the bright object to the middle of the pool once -more. And now it struck the main channel and went racing downstream, -past the water ouzel’s perch, and into the straight stretch of river -below. - -And Charmian knew that it was of metal and meant for her. - -The lost river! Down Lost River, through the mysterious underground -passages, Dr. Inman Shonto had sent a message to her, incased in a -metal cylinder! - -Feverish with anxiety, she clambered over the stones and reached -the level land above the pool. Now, running with all her might, she -followed the river’s course through the heavy snow. The metal cylinder -was being swept downstream at a rapid rate. Her only hope lay in -reaching the canoe ahead of it, and paddling out to await its coming. - -Trees and boulders shut off her view of the river. Hence she had -no notion of the speed of the drifting cylinder, and in greatest -excitement and dread of loss she waded on through the drifts, streaming -perspiration. Almost the last rational act of Andy Jerome before he -succumbed to the hideous malady had been to paddle the canoe upstream -as near as possible to the cave. He had been obliged to beach it below -a second waterfall, past which the two of them had been unable to carry -it. - -At last, staggering on, she heard abreast of her the roar of the lower -waterfall. She left the open and ploughed into the trees. She reached -the river, staggering from the fierce strain. And now a dread thought -came to her: Had she the strength to shove the heavy, awkward craft -into the water? She remembered that it had required the combined -efforts of her and Andy to launch it before, to which they had found it -necessary to add no little ingenuity. - -But a feeble cry came from her lips as she neared the spot where they -had left it. The river had risen. The canoe had launched itself and was -riding easily at the end of the tough grass rope that they had braided -for a painter and tied to a sapling on the river bank. - -She had never paddled this canoe, nor any other canoe. She knew, -though, from what Andy had told her, that she must be cautious and not -unbalance the clumsy craft. In her excitement she had stepped into it, -taken up the paddle, and propelled it to the limit allowed by the grass -rope before she realized that it was still made fast to the sapling. - -She pulled inshore again and stepped out, when, as she fumblingly -untied the rope, she realized that it would be folly for her to paddle -to the middle of the stream until the cylinder came in sight. She would -wait inshore in the canoe, with paddle in readiness, until she saw the -bright object coming down on the swift current. - -She carefully entered once more, and knelt on the rough bottom with -her crude paddle. And now the terrible idea seized her that perhaps she -had been too slow and that the cylinder had long since drifted by. - -She waited, torn by doubt and indecision, and was on the point of -leaving the canoe and plunging on downstream when a bright something -came toward her bobbing on the waves in the middle of the river. - -With an inarticulate cry she shoved off and paddled awkwardly ahead of -it. Then the main current caught her, whirled her completely around, -and started her downstream at the same rate that the cylinder was -travelling. - -She paddled upstream, but seemed unable to gain a foot. She dipped more -vigorously, her eyes on the drifting object of her hopes. The canoe was -swept into a rapids, struck a snag--and next instant she was in the icy -water, with the canoe capsized and hurrying on. - -She could swim, and her bellows breeches did not impede the movements -of her legs as a skirt would have done. But she wore her heavy hiking -shoes; the current was swift and dangerous; the river was deep; in a -deplorably short time the ice-cold water would chill her blood and -benumb her muscles. - -She struck out bravely; but, already half exhausted from her race -through the snowdrifts, she made little headway toward the snag that -had capsized the canoe. The water boiled over her, swept her about -unmercifully, and blinded her. Terror seized her as she realized that -she was not equal to the struggle against it. She went completely under -three times, twisted down by the undertow or whirlpools. She was -losing! She could not make the snag. - -And then, coming up for the fourth time, gasping for air, her outflung -hand touched something hard and smooth, and her fingers closed over a -cylinder of brass. - -Five minutes later, stunned, almost unable to move a limb from the -deadly coldness of the water, she half swam, half floated to a -projecting rock far downstream from the point where she had grasped the -cylinder. She clutched it with a hand, rested a minute or more, then -dragged herself upon it and lay gasping for breath, with the cylinder -pressed to her heaving breast. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII - -THE MESSAGE - - -CHARMIAN was more dead than alive, as the saying goes, when she -reached the Cave of Hypocritical Frogs. Here, with shaking hands, she -stripped to the skin and rubbed her limbs and body as vigorously as -her benumbed condition would permit, her teeth chattering like a tiny -riveting machine. The signal fire was smouldering. She raked away the -green conifer branches which kept the smoke stream rising and heaped on -dry wood. It blazed up soon, and when she dared she stood close to it -invoking its warmth. - -An hour had passed before she felt able to examine the brass cylinder -that had come floating so mysteriously down the ice-fringed river. - -As has been stated, it was about a foot in length by three inches in -diameter. One end was solid brass. The other end had been sealed with -brown wax. - -Huddled close to the fire, nude but for the blanket that was wrapped -about her, she hacked tremblingly at the wax, first with a hunter’s axe -and then a jackknife. - -The wax surrendered to her prying, and she hacked out perhaps two -inches of it. It had been poured in to this depth, she reasoned, to -guard against its being loosened by stones and sticks against which it -might have bumped in its underground passage from the mountains above -the valley. - -At last it was all loose. She dumped the last of it on the cave floor. -Looking in the cylinder, she saw a pasteboard disc the exact size of -the container, which had been pressed down against the cargo of this -mysterious carrier to stand as a partition against the contents and the -melted wax. - -She pried it out with the point of her knife as one fishes for an -obstinate cork. Then, holding her breath, she poured the contents of -the cylinder on the floor. - -Small paper bundles fell out, and among them was a folded piece of -paper. This she grasped up first, unfolded, and found to be a note -signed Inman Shonto. She read, while the tears brimmed in her eyes: - - “MY DEAR CHARMIAN: - - “This is the fourth brass cylinder that I have thrown in Lost River - in the hope that it will float through the underground passages to - the Valley of Arcana, where you may find it. A note accompanied its - three predecessors, and each one instructed you to build two signal - fires if you found the cylinder so that I would know it had reached - you. For several days I have watched the stream of smoke from your - fire, longing always to see the second stream ascend. And I have - suffered because no second stream came. - - “I have about decided, therefore, that Lost River does not run - through the valley, or that my cylinders have caught on something and - failed to reach you. For in some strange way it seems to me that, - if they did float into the Valley of Arcana, you would find them. - Which is childish of me, I suppose. But it bolsters up my courage - nevertheless. I have only three more cylinders to send, and will send - them two days apart unless I see the second stream of smoke. - - “Now follows a repetition of what the other messages contained: - - “Build another signal fire as soon as you have read this, so that I - will know you have received my message and are again in command of - the situation. By this time, I think, Andy Jerome will have lapsed - into a terrible state, and you will be almost insane. But in the - cylinder you will find more tablets. Give him one a day regularly--no - more--and if he is not too far gone he will come back to normalcy - with surprising swiftness. It may seem incredible to you, but it is - the truth. - - “Andy Jerome, Charmian, is a cretin. A cretin, you perhaps must be - told, is an hereditary idiot. Cretinism is most prevalent in the - Swiss Alps, where Andy’s ancestors lived--on his mother’s side, I - mean. Up until recently cretinism has been considered incurable by - the medical profession; but the discovery that man is regulated by - his gland secretions had done away with that theory. Cretins are only - human beings suffering from a lack of thyroid in their systems. Their - other glands may be functioning properly, but when the secretions of - the thyroid are deficient they are hopeless idiots. However, science - has discovered that if they are fed daily a tablet composed of the - extract of the thyroid glands of sheep they will, to all intents and - purposes, become normal. But in a few days after the treatment is - stopped they will quickly slip back into cretinism again, with all - its degradation. Then let the treatment be renewed, and in a short - while the patient will have lost all of the symptoms of cretinism and - gradually will come back. It seems incomprehensible, I realize, but - it is nevertheless a thoroughly demonstrated scientific fact. - - “Cretinism runs in Andy’s family. Certain children of a generation - ago in his mother’s family were born cretins. Others escaped to a - certain extent. Andy’s mother, for instance, is perfectly normal in - every way. But the taint cropped up in her child when he was about - eight years of age, at which time I was working hardest on my theory - regarding the significance of the gland secretions as determinants of - human personality. I myself brought Andy out of cretinism and made - him appear like other men. - - “We have been careful with him and have encouraged an outdoor life. - While he seems to learn readily, he takes no particular interest - in his studies, is irresponsible, and unsettled in his habits. He - has never missed a day in taking his medicine, for I refused to - experiment with him. I am not sure now that he has lapsed back into - cretinism; but, considering the time that I have been away, it seems - almost certain that he should be pretty far gone. - - “My delay in returning to you was unavoidable. I think that I could - have made it back ahead of the snows if I had not encountered our old - friends Leach and Morley, who kidnapped me, blindfolded me, and led - me into a series of strange adventures.” - -Here followed a brief account of the doctor’s imprisonment in the adobe -hut at Tanburt Ranch and of his subsequent release by Shirttail Henry -and Mary Temple. - - “Marvellous Mary Temple!” continued the letter. “Suffering agonies - because of her broken rib, she nevertheless refused to give in until - she and Henry had ridden to the ranch, after her spectacular hold-up - of the prospectors, and set me free. Old Gus Tanburt was mooning - about the house, I guess, and we got away from the ranch after dark - with little difficulty. Then I relieved Shirttail Henry of his - horse--or, rather, Tanburt’s horse--and Mary and I rode all night to - Diamond H Ranch. Henry, I suppose, walked back to his camp in the - buttes, with fifty dollars that I gave him for another drunk. He said - he had spent all of the two hundred and fifty that you gave him for - his services as guide. Poor old Henry! Mary says one more hot day - will finish him! - - “At Diamond H we got my car and I drove Mary to the city, where I - rushed her to a hospital and commanded her to stay there. Then I got - what I needed from my laboratory, having in the meantime thought of - trying to float medicine and other things to you down Lost River in - brass cylinders, provided I should fail to reach you by airplane. It - all depended on whether Lost River actually ran underground to the - Valley of Arcana. I knew that it was snowing hard in the mountains, - but that it was too late for me to get in afoot. - - “I was fortunate in being able to hire a government monoplane, but - the pilot was doubtful about the mountain blizzards from the outset. - However, he was game and willing to do his best, and we set out - hopefully. - - “In a surprisingly short time the mountains were below us, and I - thought of all the hardships you and I had gone through in covering - the same distance. But the storms were raging; we could see almost - nothing of the land beneath us. It was impossible to make a landing - anywhere, but when a blizzard caught us we made one nevertheless. - - “I thought my last day had come when we swooped down at terrific - speed. But the pilot regained control of the thing, and, though - we could not rise again, we came down much more slowly. We landed - in a snowdrift high up in the mountains, and my pilot was knocked - senseless, having struck his head on something in the fall. I was - completely unhurt. - - “I was a long time locating ourselves. I had to work alone, because - Lieutenant Cantenwine, the pilot, was helpless. But finally, - wandering about, I came upon a streak through the forest where trees - had been felled and brush cut, indicating a trail under the snow. I - followed it, and it led me to an Indian village. - - “I had stumbled upon the reservation that Henry told us about at - Shirttail Bend. The Indians were kind and readily offered to help me. - The entire tribe, I believe, accompanied me back to Cantenwine and - the airplane. It was the biggest day in their lives. - - “They carried the lieutenant to the reservation on a stretcher, - where I put him to bed. His skull is not fractured, but he has had a - terrible shaking-up and was out of business. I had no way of knowing - whether the plane was damaged or not, for I know nothing about - airplanes. So I paid no attention to that, but next day questioned - the Indians about Lost River, and was told that the source of it was - not many miles away. They offered to take me to it on snowshoes, and - we set out early through a driving storm. - - “We reached it, and, with the awed natives standing about, I launched - two of the cylinders. Two days later I went again with a guide and - launched the third. Since then I have spent the greater part of - my time doctoring Cantenwine and, since the weather has cleared, - watching for the second stream of smoke, which never rose. - - “The lieutenant is about now and has examined the airplane. It is not - damaged beyond repair, and he is at work on it. He hopes to be able - to make another attempt to reach the Valley of Arcana in a few days, - if the weather continues to clear. We will circle over the valley, - when we locate it, and try to make a landing on the lake. It must be - frozen over, and we think that the high winds that have been blowing - ought to clear the ice of snow. If not, landing will be a serious - matter; but we hope for the best. - - “This is all, Charmian, and I hope fervently that God will direct - this message into your hands. Your single stream of smoke tells - me that you are alive, and I thank Him for that. If Andy is in the - condition that I think he is, you will realize now that you can - never marry him. Even though we are able to bring him back to his - old buoyant self, marriage is out of the question for him. He has - no right to bring children into the world, which may be cretins, as - he is. Knowing him as I do, I feel sure that, when he realizes his - condition, he will give you up to me if it kills him. Poor Andy! I - know that this must be a bitter blow to you, and I am sorry. But you - must be told the truth now, and Andy must know too. If he comes back - before we reach you, tell him everything. - - “God bless you and help you. - “Devotedly, - “INMAN SHONTO.” - -For a long time after reading the message Charmian sat staring at the -fire. Absent-mindedly she opened the packages--found tablets, coffee, -sugar--all dry. Then she suddenly realized that she was growing cold -again, and rose to put on such dry clothes as she could find. With -these on, and the blanket again wrapped about her, she went out in a -sort of stupor and built a second signal fire about a hundred feet from -the first. She returned to the cave and seated herself again, drying -her clothes before the blaze. She was stunned, stupid. She could not -think. It was the cold, she told herself. Everything was all right -now. Inman Shonto would come to her soon. She would hear a human voice -again--his voice! - -Her chin sank to her breast and she fell sound asleep sitting upright -before the fire. - - * * * * * - -Days had passed--how many Charmian Reemy did not know--before she heard -the hum of the airplane in the sky above the Valley of Arcana. Another -storm had raged since she had received the doctor’s message, and the -mystic snow banners had streamed above the sink from the surrounding -peaks. She had realized that it was impossible for him to reach her -under these conditions, and had bravely submitted to the inevitable. -Daily she cooked and ate her simple food. How delightful was the -coffee! Daily she gave the cretin his tablet--forced it between his -swollen lips and washed it down his throat with water, often nearly -choking him. - -Gradually the miracle took place. Slowly but surely the film left the -eyes of the sufferer, and day by day they brightened. The swelling -left the protruding tongue. The sallowness departed from the skin. The -flabbiness departed. The lips became dry and firm. The asthmatic wheeze -was gone from his breathing. The bloated, baglike abdomen receded. The -light of reason came back in his eyes, and he drew in his protruding -tongue repeatedly, glancing shame-facedly at Charmian to see if she had -observed. - -He smiled at her. He began to mumble. Then words came, and finally -simple, broken sentences expressing the sufferer’s wants. - -He was at this stage when the snow ceased falling. Two days of calm -were followed by a bitter wind, which cut the snow from the hillsides -and sent Charmian struggling to a lofty eminence from where she had a -view of the distant ice-locked lake. - -She could see the snow clouds blowing over there, and her heart leaped -with hope. Then the airplane came roaring over the valley, circled -down into it, glided to one end of the lake, turned, and came on in a -downward swoop with the stretch of ice before it. She saw it strike -the ice and held her breath. Great clouds of snow-dust arose and hit -it, and she screamed with dread. But next instant she saw it skimming -over the ice at terrific speed, the snow clouds trailing behind it. -Slower and slower became its rate of progress; and when it was still -Charmian sank down in the snow, and for the first time since reading -the doctor’s message she found relief in tears. - -She stood up after the storm of tears had passed and saw two tiny -figures coming toward her over the snow. She watched them, fascinated, -for over half an hour, insensible to the biting wind. Then when they -drew nearer she noted that they were headed toward her smoke streams, -and she jumped about and waved her arms to attract attention to herself. - -Presently she knew that they had seen her, for the foremost waved his -hat and the two changed direction. The speed at which they travelled -showed that they were on snowshoes. They come on rapidly straight -toward her. Then when they were very near and she heard a faint shout -and recognized the doctor’s voice, a sudden wild panic seized her. She -had been alone so long in that wild, desolate snow land, with only a -helpless, drivelling idiot for company, that a strange dread of meeting -these men took hold on her. Again the doctor shouted to her. Hysteria -overcame her. With a little moan she turned and started running like a -wild thing toward her cave. - -Three times she stumbled over rocks hidden in the snow and pitched -forward on her face. She had left the knoll and was on the level land. -She glanced back over her shoulder as she ran. It seemed that no one -was pursuing her. She slackened her pace, stopped, trembling and -sobbing, and tried to fight off her terror. - -And then it was that a figure suddenly stood before her with two arms -outstretched. She had not realized that they would not follow her over -the knoll, but would keep to the level land and travel much faster than -she had. They even had passed her, and had cut in ahead of her. - -She shrank back, biting her white lips. - -“There--there--there!” came in soothing tones. “It’s all right now--all -right now, Charmian.” - -Next instant the long arms closed about her. Her tears burst forth -again, but she lowered her head to Inman Shonto’s shoulder, and the -panic passed. - -“There--there--there!”--as soft as the voice of a mother bending over -the cradle of her child. - -She looked up, dark eyes swimming. There came a smile--a little -up-flirt at one corner of her mouth. - -Without reserve he lowered his lips to hers and kissed her tenderly, as -if all along he had known that this precious moment would one day come -to him. - -“It’s all right now--all right now, Charmian.” - -And Charmian knew that it was all right now. - -Two hours later the great man-made bird rose from the ice-sheet on the -lake and roared away over the Valley of Arcana--away from the ice and -snow and the horrors of the rocky cave--away to the sunny green lands -that border the blue Pacific. - -And the little ouzel, lifting his fluty notes amidst the icy spray of -his beloved waterfall, bobbed and bowed and dived happily, and knew not -of its going. - - -THE END - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - - Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. - - Archaic or variant spelling has been retained. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF ARCANA *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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