CHAPTER XVI
THE MINER'S STORY
"Well, you got here at last, did you?" called Jim Nestor, as he cameforward to greet the boys and the professor as they alighted from theairship. "We've been sort of sightin' for ye the last few hours. Icalculated you'd be along about now, but Sledge Hammer Tod, here, heallowed as how you wouldn't show up for a week, and maybe not at all,for he don't believe in airships; do you, Tod?" and Jim looked at anold miner who shuffled up with him.
"Never havin' seen one, I put 'em in the same class with Santa Claus,"answered the miner. "But I believe in 'em now."
He glanced with wondering eyes at the big airship, which had settleddown on a level spot in front of the group of buildings that werearound the shaft of the boys' gold mine.
"Boys, let me introduce to you my friend, Mr. Embury Tod--Sledge HammerTod, I call him, for he hammers away at things, and there isn't abetter miner going. Tod, these are the boys I was telling you of."
"Pleased to meet you," spoke the old miner, with a friendly nod. "Andso that's the airship, eh?"
"Airship or motor ship, as we sometimes call it," replied Jerry. "Wecame all the way from the East in it."
"You don't say so!" exclaimed Sledge Hammer Tod. "That's going some."
"Have you seen anything of Noddy Nixon or his gang?" asked Ned.
"No, and I don't want to," replied Jim Nestor. "I received your lettersand telegrams, saying he might make trouble, but he hasn't showed uphere yet, but when he does, why, Tod and I are ready for him, aren'twe, Sledge Hammer?"
"That's what," and the old miner, who was several years the senior ofNestor, clenched a brawny fist.
"Tod's my new foreman," went on Jim. "The work got so heavy I had tohave help."
"Then the mine's doing well?" inquired Jerry.
"Couldn't be better."
Jerry's face showed the relief he felt. "Well, what kind of a trip didyou have?" went on Nestor. "Land sakes, I never see such boys! Firstyou come all the way out here in an auto, and locate a mine I thoughtwas as good as gone. Then you come in an airship. Next I s'pose you'llbe growing wings, and flying without any apparatus whatever."
"Hardly, yet awhile," commented Jerry, who then went into detail aboutthe trip, telling of Noddy's theft of the airship, and how they hadstopped on their way to carry the cable across the river.
"But the funny part of it was," went on Jerry, "that when Noddy stoleour airship, we have every reason to believe that there was with him anold man, who you will remember, Jim. He was Jackson----"
At that moment Professor Snodgrass fairly jumped toward Tod.
"Excuse me!" exclaimed the scientist. "Don't move an inch, I beg ofyou! It's very important. Don't stir!"
"If it's a rattlesnake, jest stomp on its head," said the miner,coolly. "I'm not afraid of 'em. Where is it?" and he prepared to turnaround.
"Quiet! Quiet!" begged the little bald-headed man. "I will have it ina second," and he made a dive for the miner's boot. "There!" exclaimedthe professor, "I have it!"
He arose, holding something tightly in his hand, and he quicklytransferred it to his green specimen box, at the same time remarking:
"That certainly was a beauty; worth at least fifty dollars at thelowest calculation!"
The old miner looked at the professor, and then at the boys. Then hepointed significantly to his head. The scientist did not see him.
"What did you capture that time?" asked Bob.
"A rare specimen of a jumping fly," was the answer. "It is the firstone I have ever seen," and the scientist began to jot down in his booksome notes concerning it.
"He isn't crazy, Sledge Hammer," declared Jim Nestor, in a whisper, forhe knew what his foreman thought. "He jest collects bugs, that's all,"and, while Professor Snodgrass moved off to one side, to look for morejumping flies, the boys explained the fad of their friend.
"But you started to say something about a Mr. Jackson," remarked JimNestor, to Jerry.
"Not Mr. Jackson, but Jackson Bell, the old hermit," was the answer,and Jerry proceeded to explain as much of the mystery as he knew; howhe believed that Mr. Bell had come East to get aid in rescuing someof his friends from a mysterious valley, how he had been deceivedby Noddy, taken in the airship, and how he disappeared, leaving thefragments of a letter behind him.
"I wish we could find him," went on Jerry, "and aid his friends. But,after thinkin' it all over, I am sometimes inclined to believe that Mr.Bell's mind may have become weakened, and that he imagined all thatabout his friends being in danger in some valley."
"Very likely," assented Nestor. "I guess there's not much stock to betaken in it."
"Yes, there is!" suddenly exclaimed the old miner.
"Is what?" asked Nestor.
"Stock to be taken in that story," answered Tod. "I don't know thisMr. Jackson Bell, but I do happen to know that somewhere in the RockyMountains is a mysterious valley, where there is supposed to be a partyof whites--men, women and children--who have been lost for years."
"You know something like that, and never told me?" asked Nestor,somewhat reproachfully.
"Well, you never asked me," went on Tod, "and, for that matter, thestory is an old one."
"Tell it to us," begged Jerry, eagerly, believing that they hadunexpectedly gotten on the track of the mystery.
"Well, there isn't much to tell, or, rather, I don't know an awful lotabout it," resumed Tod. "It happened a number of years ago. A partyof Easterners who got tired of the life in cities decided to come outWest. They heard of a place where some good gold claims could be had,nothing remarkable, you know, but sufficient to attract them. Theyplanned to come together, take up claims, build a little settlement andlive there the rest of their lives.
"Well, they started out, and they got to the mountains. Men I'veknown, who have been prospecting since forty-nine remember to have metthe party on their travels. As I said, they had nearly reached theirdiggings when they suddenly disappeared."
"Where to?" asked Bob, who, like his companions, was greatly interested.
"That's the mystery of it," answered Tod. "No one knew where they wentto. The last seen of them was that they were being led up into theUncompahgre mountains in Colorado, and an Indian was their guide. Someold prospectors seen 'em, and they thought it was rather risky for totrust an Indian, but they didn't say nothin', for folks out here getin the habit of mindin' their own business. Anyway, that was the lastseen of the party of white folks. As I said, there were men, women andchildren, though the children must be growed up now."
"How many of them were there?" asked Bob softly.
"About two score, I reckon, though if they're alive now I don't s'posethere's so many, for some must have died, as they were old men. Anyhowthat's the story of the missing party. They were called the 'DeeringBand,' as they were led by a man named Deering. I don't s'pose theywill ever be located, but it's true, what your friend Jackson Bellintimated, that there is a mystery about them. Though how Bell cameto know of them, and why he started to rescue them is more than I canfigure. But Deering and his crowd seem to have disappeared from theface of the earth. Maybe the Indians killed them all."
"That's what we always thought," spoke a voice at the side of SledgeHammer Tod. It came so suddenly that everyone gave a start, until itwas seen that it was Professor Snodgrass who had made the remark.
"Do you know the story of the missing Deering Band?" asked Jerry. "Wedid not speak to you about this mystery, Professor, as we did not wantto take your mind off your work."
"Know about it? Of course, I know about it," was the unexpected reply."Amos Deering, the leader, was my cousin!"