CHAPTER XII.
JUST IN TIME.
Once more the odd booming sound was borne to Ralph’s ears. It came fromoff to his left. The mud fell again in showers all about him.
“It’s some sort of a boiling spring!” exclaimed Ralph suddenly. “I’llbet a doughnut that’s what it is. What a chump I was to think that theman on the rock had anything to do with it. Yet it did give me a scarefor a minute, too.”
He dashed off in the direction of the booming sound, eager to see whathe was certain now had caused the shower of mud. He soon came upon it.In a little clear space amidst the pines he found himself in marshyground. Rank green grass and flowers of bright colors grew here, andbrilliantly colored dragon-flies shot hither and thither through themoist, warm air. The atmosphere held a steamy, unwholesome sort ofdampness.
Suddenly there came a rumbling sound which quickly changed to a roarlike that of a locomotive blowing off steam, and from the center of theclearing there shot up a clear stream of steaming water. But in a flashits purity was sullied and it turned a dark muddy color. The rumblingincreased in violence and a miniature geyser of mud and steaming hotwater was shot upward to a considerable height.
Ralph made a swift dash for the shelter of a Douglas fir and lookedon curiously while the convulsion of nature lasted. Then he venturedout to examine the geyser more closely. To his disappointment he foundthat he could not approach the depression from which the mud and waterhad been spouted upward. The ground was far too swampy to permit sucha proceeding and the boy was compelled to look on at the strange sightfrom a distance.
The convulsions occurred with almost clock-like regularity, atintervals of about ten minutes. As he watched, Ralph thought of theprofessor, and how delighted the man of science would have been tobehold such a sight. He made careful mental notes of the operations ofthe mud geyser, however, so that he could be sure to give an accurateaccount of it to the professor when he returned.
Suddenly, behind him, he heard an odd, rustling sort of noise andnoticed a movement in the tall grass. He parted the vegetation to seewhat could be causing the disturbance. The next instant he leapedbackward with a spring that would have done credit to a gymnast.
He had almost stepped on a huge rattlesnake that was coiled in thegrass. All at once he became aware that in his backward spring he hadnearly landed on another of the reptiles, a snake fully five feet inlength. This caused the boy to beat a precipitate retreat, choosingopen ground for the purpose. It was not till then that he began tonotice that the entire vicinity of the hot springs was fairly alivewith the scaly reptiles. Undoubtedly they had been attracted there bythe warmth of the ground and had a den in the neighborhood.
“Ugh!” exclaimed the boy with a shudder, “I never did like snakes.I guess I’ll get out of this as quickly as possible. Some of thosefellows beat anything I saw in Arizona. I don’t fancy their company.”
He retraced his steps to the point where he had left the trail of themissing ponies and took it up once more. It led down into the valleyand Ralph, thinking of the scores of serpents that must haunt thevicinity of the geyser, followed it with a thankful feeling that he hadseen the rattlers in time to avoid them.
The traveling down the side of the ridge on which he was now was almostas hard as his clamber up the opposite acclivity. To make mattersworse he encountered several muskegs smelling strongly of sulphur, andundoubtedly fed by the sulphurous springs higher up the hill. But theboy was grateful for one thing that the softer ground did for him. Itmade the traveling harder, but, at the same time, it held the prints ofthe runaways’ hoofs as clear as day; and as well as Ralph could judgefrom the look of their prints they were fairly fresh, and told him thathe could not be far from the strays.
This encouraged him greatly, and he made good time down the hillside,strewn though the way was with obstacles. He was traveling forwardthus, when from a patch of flowering shrubs ahead there came a rustleand a crackling.
Ralph’s heart jumped into his mouth. Mountain Jim had declared that theponies had been scared by a cougar or a bear. Could the creature bejust beyond him in that clump of shrubs?
He examined his rifle carefully.
“I don’t want to be treed again,” he said to himself.
So far as he could see, the rifle was in perfect working order. Hestood stock still and waited for a recurrence of the disturbance in thebushes.
But following the rustling that had first attracted his attention nosound came. Ralph’s excited imagination showed him a tawny side a dozentimes or more, only to be followed by the discovery that it was somedead or faded leaves and not the flank of a bear or cougar that he hadspied.
“If something doesn’t happen pretty quick, I’m going to blow up!”exclaimed the boy to himself as he waited, hardly daring to breathe.
All at once there came from the patch of bushes a renewed rustling.It was coming toward him. Ralph clutched his rifle tightly and bithis under lip to keep his nerves under control. The sound was growingnearer now. Was it a bear, or a stealthy, cat-like cougar that wasdestined to emerge in an instant from its place of concealment?
“It’s coming,” thought Ralph, with a bound of his heart, “I hope I canshoot straight and finish it with one shot.”
He threw up his gun in anticipation and the next instant burst into aloud laugh.
From the bush had emerged, not a bear nor a mountain lion, nor even adeer.
Facing Ralph, and quite as much astonished as he, to judge by itsattitude, was a large Canada hare. For an instant boy and hare stoodlooking at each other, while Ralph shook with laughter over hisfeelings of trepidation as to what the brush would bring forth.
“Talk about the mountain and the mouse,” he chuckled to himself. “Thissure is a modern version of the old fable.”
“Skip along, bunny,” he added the next instant, as the hare, with aspring and a whisk of its stumpy tail, vanished down the mountain sideseeking cover, “I wouldn’t take as easy a shot as that, especially whenI was looking for big game.”
But the next minute he was destined to get another surprise. Somethingwas coming toward him from another direction, from his right. He couldhear its footsteps as it advanced somewhat heavily, cracking branchesand twigs.
Then among the tree trunks and underbrush he saw something move. Abrown object it appeared to be.
“A deer!” flashed through Ralph’s mind. “I’m in luck to-day.”
With eager eyes riveted on the spot where he had last seen the brownobject, Ralph raised his rifle. His hands trembled but he steadiedthem with an effort, fighting off the attack of “buck fever,” as ahunter’s excitement at the prospect of big game is termed.
Suddenly the brown object appeared again, bobbing about behind a clumpof brambles.
“It’s a deer’s head, sure!” breathed Ralph.
He drew a careful bead on the object, devoutly hoping that his sightswere adjusted right for the range, which was about a hundred yards.
“Now for it,” he said to himself, as he prepared to press the trigger.
But the shot was never fired, for just as Ralph was about to send abullet crashing from his weapon there stepped into view from behind thebrush, _the figure of a man_!
Ralph shook as if from a fever. Another instant and he might have beena murderer! The man had revealed himself in the nick of time. Buthardly had Ralph discovered his mistake when the man saw him. Without aword he dashed off like a wild animal, crouching and diving as he went,and in a flash was out of sight.
In the brief interval that Ralph had had to scrutinize the man he hadso nearly shot, he had not received more than a general impression asto what he looked like. But this impression was startling enough. Itwas of a creature bearded with a hairy growth that reached almost tohis waist, half naked and with long, unkempt hair and wild eyes.
But even so, he had a queer intuition that this half wild creature andthe silent watcher on the rock were one and the same individual.