The Go Ahead Boys and Simons Mine | Page 9

died. He must have been all alone and nobody can tell how long he may have been sick. As I rec'lect, he used to come in about ev'ry Spring and Fall for fresh supplies. He wouldn't 'low any one to go with him and he didn't have much to say to any one when he came in to the town."
"Did you find any papers in the coat?" inquired the second stranger, who up to this time had seldom spoken.
"Not very much. We couldn't find anything with his name on it," explained Zeke, "so we couldn't be sure whose bones they were."
"You didn't find any papers at all?" again inquired the man.
"We didn't find anything that showed who he was," said Zeke slowly, "same as I told you."
"The coat then is the only thing you have got to identify him with?"
"We found a pick-axe and spade and hammer," explained Zeke.
"Have you got them here?"
"Yes, they're somewhere about the camp. I don't know just where we did put them."
"Better let us have a look at them."
"It's too dark to see them now. Wait 'till mornin'."
"We aren't going to wait until morning," laughed the man with the scar. "We've got a long hike and we thought we would make part of it before sun-up. It's a good deal cooler travelin' at night, and especially when there's a good moon, than it is to crawl across those tablelands when the thermometer is about a hundred and ten in the shade; and there isn't any shade."
"Better wait until mornin'," said Zeke abruptly.
"No, we're goin' now. Come on, Jim," the man added, as he turned to his companion. "It's time for us to be movin'."
Without further words the two strange visitors departed from the camp and soon disappeared along the winding way that lead to the summit.
"That's a nice thing you did, Jack!" exclaimed Fred angrily as soon as the two men were gone.
"What's the harm?" retorted John. "I didn't tell them anything about any lost mine."
"You didn't have to," retorted Fred, "after what they said. They had heard about a man dying, though how they ever knew beats me. And they believed that he was the man who was reported to have found a great lead."
"What of it?"
"A good deal of it," joined in Grant. "You have given them an idea and they won't forget it."
"What good is an idea?" demanded John. "They haven't any paper and they can't find the place without it."
"All the same," said Fred, "I'm sorry you said anything about Simon Moultrie."
"But I didn't say anything about him," protested John. "They were the ones that did most of the talking. I thought if I told them about the bones we found this afternoon that perhaps they would talk some more and say something that would help us."
"Great! Great!" laughed George scornfully. "You 'done noble,' Jack. If those men don't find the place, you may rest easy that they will keep track of us for a while."
"Why will they?"
"Because they'll want to see if we found anything in the pocket of Simon Moultrie's coat that would give us any clue to the place where he had made his great discovery. They'll watch us for a while anyway and if we don't do anything, they may make up their minds that we haven't found anything; but if we begin to do anything like making a search among the mountains, you mark my words those two fellows will show up again just as sure as you're born."
"We'll know about that later," said John.
For an hour the boys remained seated about their camp-fire, talking over the unexpected visit of the two strangers and the marked interest they had manifested in John's story. Conversation gradually ceased and for a time the Go Ahead Boys were chiefly interested in the fantastic figures cast by the flames and in the marvelous tints of the clouds as the moonlight was shining through them. Nearby was the bottomless gulf. They were unable to see the mighty chasm, but the knowledge that they were near its brink produced a feeling all its own.
At last however, Fred declared it was time for the Go Ahead Boys to turn in. His own example was speedily followed and in a brief time silence rested over the camp.
The motionless figures on the blankets, with every boy sleeping with his feet turned toward the fire, which now had died down, presented a sight which would have appealed strongly to their distant friends in the east had they been able to see it. Seldom did any figure stir and the weird silence was unbroken save by an occasional sigh of the wind as it swept past the dwarfed trees on the mountain side.
How much time had elapsed Fred did not know when he was suddenly aroused and