_ CHAPTER XXXV. THE WESTERN SHORE
The departure of Shasta gave rise to all manner of doubt and speculation. None of them believed he meditated bidding the party good-by until he went through the ceremony of shaking hands. This settled the matter, and they could have no cause for hope of seeing him again.
"That must have been a party of his people," said Howard, "or he would not have taken the pains to help us out of sight."
"At any rate, he has done us good service," replied Elwood. "I don't know what would have become of us but for him."
They had not yet begun using their paddle, but were drifting with the current, debating upon their course of action.
"I think I understand why he left us," added Howard, after a moment's pause.
Tim and Elwood looked up in his face.
"I think we have passed through most of the danger, and he thought we were just as safe without him as with him. Don't you see, Elwood, that we have come a good ways down the river, and we must be near some settlement. I think there is a place called Soledad somewhere along this river, but whether on the eastern or western bank I cannot tell."
"It is a good ways off, I should say fifty miles, and is on the western bank."
"How comes it that _you_ are so well informed?" asked Howard, repeating the question that had been asked him by his cousin when on the steamer.
"It is only accidentally that I know that. A few weeks ago I was comparing an old and new geography and noticed what different views they gave of the western part of our country. The old maps had the Buenaventura so wrong in every particular that I learned considerable about the true one, which you know is called Salinas by most people."
"If we are very careful, I think we can get home without trouble; but although there must be white people--settlers and miners--in these parts, still they are so scattered that we are less likely to see them than we are the Indians."
"Boys," said Tim O'Rooney, who had not let his pipe go out since morning. "Shall I give yez some good advice?"
Both expressed their eagerness to receive it.
"There bees plenty of the rid gintlemen yet in this counthry, and we haven't got beyant them. If we goes paddling in this canoe when the sun is shining overhead, some of 'em will see us, and if we don't put into shore they'll put out after us--that they will."
"What is it that you propose, then?"
"That we turns the night into day, and slaaps and smokes and meditates by sunlight, and does our traveling by moonlight, or what is bether, without any light at all."
This proposal suited the boys exactly. It was so plainly dictated by common sense that the wonder was they had not thought of it long before. Elwood took the paddle in his hand and held it poised.
"Which way--east or west?"
Howard pointed to the left bank.
"That is the side where _they_ are," replied Elwood, referring to the Indian party they had passed.
"And where _he_ is," meaning their good friend, the Pah Utah.
"To the left--to the left," said Tim. "Didn't I git into the worst throuble of me life--always barring the repulse me Bridget give me--by hunting in them parts?"
Elwood delayed no longer, but plied the oars with a dexterity that showed his experience had not been lost upon him.
"You understand it quite well," said Howard approvingly.
"Yes; but my arms ache terribly."
"Ah! here we are."
The prow of the canoe moved as silently and easily into the undergrowth as if it were water, and our friends at a step passed from every portion of it to dry land.
As they intended remaining in their present quarters until darkness, they took some pains to select a suitable place. They finally hit upon a spot, on an incline of the river bank, and about a dozen yards distant. Here the grass was green and velvety, and the wood so thick that they had little fear of discovery, unless by some who had seen them land and took the trouble to hunt them out.
It was about noon when they landed, and as they had all spent a wakeful night, their first proceeding was so to arrange themselves as to enjoy a quiet sleep. Terror was placed on duty as sentinel, and all lay down with a sense of security to which they had been strangers in a long time.
As usual, the boys were the first to awake, doing so almost at the same moment. They saw by the sun that the afternoon was about half gone, but they were not troubled from hunger, as their morning meal may be said to have been their midday one, and had been one of those royal ones whose memory is apt to linger a long time with us, especially if we are boys.
"This is tiresome," said Elwood, yawning and stretching his limbs, "let us take a tramp of discovery."
The proposal suited Howard, although prudence told him to remain where he was and keep his friend with him. But the restraint was so irksome that he was all too willing a listener to the persuasions of his companion.
"I noticed there was quite a high range of hills just back of us," added Elwood. "Let's take a look at them."
"Is it prudent?" and Howard only repeated audibly the question that his conscience had just asked him.
"Prudent? Of course it is, if we only take good care of ourselves."
"Shall we awake Tim before we go?"
"No; he will sleep until to-morrow morning."
"We must leave Terror to watch him then, for it wouldn't do for him to lie alone and asleep."
"Of course not."
The Newfoundland, which had risen to his feet, was told to remain on guard, and the boys started off on a ramble that was to be a most eventful one to them. _