CHAPTER V--THE BEARS' DEN
The lame Indian youth did not even look behind to see if he wasfollowed. Digby Fordham was finally as much impressed as his chum. Hejerked Hero's reins out of Chet's hand and led both mustangs into theshelter of the wood, where he tied them.
Chet coiled the lariat up slowly; nor had he followed John Peep far whenDig rejoined him.
"Lucky I had this rope hung on the saddle-bow, wasn't it?" Chetobserved.
"Going to take it with you?" queried his friend.
"Yes. It might come in handy again."
"Huh!" returned Dig. "I'd rather have a gun along."
"What under the sun do you want a gun for?" asked Chet.
"Well! you never know when you're going to want a gun--up here in themountain, anyway."
"Nonsense! You see that fellow isn't armed," pointing to the Indian.
"That's his business," said Dig doubtfully. "You never know when you'regoing to run into a mountain lion--"
"Pshaw!" exclaimed Chet Havens. "We're not looking for game."
"And that's just when we run into something, sure-pop!"
Chet did not answer this. They were following hard on John Peep's heels,who did not once look back to see if they were coming. He was leadingthem up the path which went to the abandoned mine where the shaft hadbeen caved in by some miscreant.
At the level of the plateau on which the shaft was dug, the Indian ladstruck off to the right, away from the Crayton shaft and toward the sideof the mountain from which the white boys had ridden. There was goodreason for John Peep's having advised the tethering of the horses. Thispart of the forest was a dense jungle, never having been cleared.
The trees were huge fellows, some of them scarred and riven bylightning-bolts. Man's hand, since the beginning, had marked this forestbut slightly.
The ground was rocky, ledges and big boulders cropping out between thetrees. It was really a mystery how the trees took root and held theirfooting between the rocks.
The Indian kept on up the hill, slanting ever to the right, away fromthe plateau. Suddenly Chet discovered that they were in a well-definedpath; but it was not a man-made track--it was not even an Indian runway.
It twisted and turned between the rocks and big trees, first going up,and then down, the hill. Chet turned to smile grimly at his friend.
"Maybe you'll wish you did have your gun, Dig," he said.
"Huh?"
"A bear made this path originally, I bet! And many of his relatives havefollowed in the same track. This path leads right to an old den, or I'mmuch mistaken."
"By the last hoptoad that was chased out of Ireland" ejaculated DigbyFordham. "I'm not going to stick my head into a bear's lair. Friendshipis all right, and fly-paper is no stickier than I am when it comes tobeing chums with a fellow; but don't you think this is asking a deal toomuch?" and Dig looked up at his chum with a very queer look on his face.
"Hush up and come on!" exclaimed Chet. "If John Peep isn't scared, wecan't afford to be."
"Why not?" demanded Dig.
"Because, in all likelihood, he thinks we are a couple of cowards--"
"Whew! After what you did for him?"
"Pshaw!" said Chet. "I helped him out of trouble, yes. But I didn't getinto a particle of danger myself--you know that."
"I don't see why that Indian should have a poor opinion of us," growledDigby.
"Well, he has that air. He's different from us," said Chet, puzzledhimself to explain just what he meant. "But, you see, he acts like agrown man, while we're only a couple of kids."
"Whew!" ejaculated Dig again, and with an air of doubting his chum'sstatement.
All this had been said in too low a tone to reach the ears of John Peep,who was some distance ahead of the white boys. Now Chet quickened hissteps, and Dig came on, a little reluctantly.
The trio was approaching a mass of piled rock which was a landmark fromthe valley ten or twelve miles below. It was some distance above thelevel of the plateau on which was the Crayton shaft opening.
The beaten path was unmistakably an animal trail; but John Peep wentright ahead, entirely unafraid. Secretly, Chet thought the path couldnot have been lately used by any of the species.
And young Havens had something of much greater importance in his mind,too. He was vastly puzzled by John Peep's behaviour. It seemed as thoughthe young Indian must believe he could help them get at the minersentombed in the Silent Sue mine. Yet they were several miles from theclaim of Chet's father.
The Indian boy's seriousness had impressed Chet, however; the latterbelieved John to be quite incapable of playing them any trick, when hehad himself been so recently saved from the landslide.
Gratitude, if not humanity, would surely inspire John Peep. He knew thetwo white boys were much exercised over the situation of the men buriedin the Silent Sue mine. He could not be cruel enough to play any trickupon them!
They rounded a big boulder at the foot of the piled rocks, and therebeheld the dark mouth of the bears' den, low down on the ground. One hadto get upon hands and knees to get into it.
"Whew!" exploded Digby again. "Mebbe there aren't any bears around,Chet; but I declare this is just the place for a lion. Remember that oldscalawag we helped Rafe Peters to kill that time in Macomber's wood-lot?Just such a place as this he had to hide in."
"There's no smell of a lion about," declared Chet, yet with someanxiety.
"By the last hoptoad that was chased out of Ireland!" cried Dig. "Idon't trust to my nose when I'm around where mountain lions may be--no,sir!"
John Peep, who had said nothing, looked at Digby, however, with openscorn.
"White boy maybe scared, huh?" he grunted. "This old den."
"That's all right, that's all right," Dig returned airily. "But somestray creature might have gone in there since you were here last. Andwhat are we going in for, anyway?"
"You stay here. Havens come," said John Peep, with deep disgust, and atonce dropped to his knees.
But Digby wouldn't hear of being separated from his chum. "You bet I'mgoing in there if Chet does, John! You can put that in yourpipe-of-peace and smoke it! If there's anything going to chew Chet up,his second mouthful will be little old me--and I bet I don't set well onhis stomach, either! Lead on!"
"Umph!" was John Peep's only comment.
"I don't know what you fellows are aiming at," growled Dig, getting downon all fours to follow Chet, "but I'm in on it, whatever it is."
Chet looked over his shoulder to admonish his chum.
"Don't anger him. I believe he can help us. I wish we'd brought thatpick and shovel we carted up here on our horses."
"What for?" cried Digby.
"I believe we may have use for them."
"Well, I suppose we could make some kind of a showing in fighting amountain lion if we had a pick and shovel. But they'd come in better tobury him with after we'd killed him," commented his chum.
The Indian lad went ahead and the chums scrambled after him into thebears' den. The passage--the sides of which they could easily touch withtheir outstretched hands--was as black as the inside of a coal-chute;and it inclined sharply like a chute, too.
The passage seemed to be straight, and the chums heard nothing but anoccasional grunt from John Peep, who had difficulty in crawling with hiscrippled leg.
Chet scrambled along after the Indian, and Digby Fordham, to be sure ofhis chum's position, grabbed him by the ankle.
"Stop pulling my leg, Dig!" cried Chet, his voice sounding muffled andstrange in the subterranean passage.
"I've got to grab you once in a while to make sure you're here," saidDig. "It's as dark in here as the pants' pocket of a negro, stealingchickens in the dark of the moon!"
"Stop your joking, and come on," commanded Chet.
"Oh! you can't lose me, boy," returned his chum. "At least, you won'tlose me in this hole. I'm keeping right after you. There! Tag! you're itagain."
John Peep grunted--whether in disgust
at Dig's nonsense or not--andstopped. The white boys were right behind him. They waited, asking noquestion, and soon heard the Indian boy scratch a match.
At the second scrape of the match the light flashed up. They saw himlight a candle in a rude tin lantern. It was plain it had been made bypunching holes in the sides of a half gallon bean can. But crude as thelantern was, its glow dissipated the darkness.
"Whew!" came from Digby. "What do you know about this hole, Chet? Lookout! If you ever slip over the edge of it you'll be a long time gettingback to the top."
But Chet gave him slight attention. He was peering into the shaft thathere opened in the floor of the cavern. The lantern light showed thatthe walls of the shaft were rough; indeed, there were natural steps init.
But a new rope had been fastened to a heavy beam laid across the mouthof the pit; and there were knots every two feet or so in the rope, toaid one in descending and ascending the shaft.
Chet turned eagerly to ask the Indian lad:
"Does it lead into the tunnel from the Crayton shaft?"
"Yes," John Peep replied, simply.
"Say! no miner ever dug this!" cried Digby Fordham.
"Of course not! It's an old watercourse. That's plain enough. Longbefore it was a bears' den the water bored this passage in the rock,found this shaft, and through it reached some subterranean stream."
"Whew!" whistled Dig. "And who put the rope here? Not this Indian, I beta cookie."
"White boys ask no questions, I tell no lies," said John Peepsuccinctly.
"Well! we've got no business to ask questions," declared Chet quickly,before his chum could say anything to anger John Peep. "We're sureobliged to you for showing us this place."
"Come on, Dig. I bet this leads down to the very tunnel from the Craytonshaft that father spoke about. Oh, my! if it enables us to get into theSilent Sue and get father and the boys out--"
"All right. Lead ahead," interrupted Dig. "I'm game if you are."