_ CHAPTER XXIV. THE TWO FUGITIVES
It will be remembered that when Buffalo Bill and Doctor Dick rode away from the caved-in mine and crushed cabin of the two gold-hunters in the Grand Canyon, there were human eyes following their movements that they little dreamed were upon them.
Gazing at them from a hiding-place half a mile away were two men whose faces showed much anxiety as they saw the scout and the gold king moving about their quarters, when they had believed themselves hidden from all search by friend or foe.
Those two were Andrew Seldon and Lucas Langley.
Their escape had been miraculous, from being buried in the mine beneath the cliff, and they had established for themselves new quarters up the Grand Canyon a few miles away from their former home.
This new camping-place was more secluded than the former one, and approached by a narrow ridge that no one would believe a horse could pass along, for in places it was only eighteen inches wide.
But Andrew Seldon had gone first along it on foot, and found beyond, up in the depths of a large canyon opening into the mightier one, a perfect garden spot and scene of beauty.
A crystal stream trickled down a lofty precipice and flowed through the canyon, and in its bed glittered grains of gold innumerable.
Back under the shadows of the towering cliffs there were found veins of precious metal giving promise of rich mines.
There were trees growing luxuriously in this nature's park, velvety grass covering acres of meadow-land, wild fruits that were delicious, and everything to make this home a most charming one.
They first made the effort to get their horses across the narrow ridge, upon either side of which was an abyss a quarter of a mile in depth, seamed with ravines, and looking like the craters of defunct volcanoes.
The first horse tried, Andrew Seldon's own riding-animal, followed his master without hesitation along the dizzy, awful pathway.
Turning, Seldon led him back again, and then the other animals followed slowly, and though nervously, yet without accident.
They were repaid for their fright when turned loose upon the acres of luxuriant grass in the valley.
A fence of poles made a barrier across the narrow entrance of the valley, and so the horses were allowed to roam at will.
A stout cabin was next built, and the two men having made themselves comfortable for the winter, were ready to begin their search for gold, feeling safe once more in their retreat, for who would believe that they had crossed that narrow ridge to find a hiding-place beyond?
And here these two men, so strangely met, with mysterious lives, and both in hiding from the world, settled down to win a fortune from the generous earth, to earn riches that would make them comfortable in their latter years far from the scenes that had known them in other days and to which they dared not return.
Each day they worked several hours in their gold-hunting, and then one of them would take his gun and go in search of game, while the other would do the chores about their cabin.
It was upon one of these hunting expeditions one day that Andrew Seldon found himself belated from having pursued his game much farther than he had thought.
It was some miles back to camp and the sun had long since ceased to send its rays down into the depths of the mighty chasm of the Grand Canyon.
He started back, with his game swung up on his back, and the shadows rapidly deepening about him.
As he neared his old destroyed home he stopped suddenly, for across the canyon a light flashed before his gaze.
"It is a firelight as sure as I live," he muttered.
"What does it, what can it, mean?"
He stood like one dazed by the sight for some time, and then slowly fell from his lips the words:
"It can mean but one thing--
that some one has come into the canyon."
After a moment more of silent thought he said almost cheerily:
"Ah! it is Lucas."
But again his voice changed as he added:
"No, he dreads the spot where he was so nearly buried alive and will not go there. Whoever it is, he is a stranger. I must know, for if they have come here to remain, if they are our foes we will be forewarned and hence forearmed.
"I will at once solve the mystery, for I had hoped never to behold a human face here other than Lucas Langley's and my own," and the gold-hunter walked away in the direction of the firelight which had so startled him.
He went cautiously, for he knew well the danger if he was discovered, and the builders of the camp-fire proved to be foes.
He knew the locality well, and that he could approach within a hundred yards of the fire, and discover just what there was to be seen.
Arriving within an eighth of a mile of the spot he halted, laid aside his game and rifle, and then moved forward from rock to rock, tree to tree, armed only with his revolvers.
He now saw that there were three fires, two near together and one a couple of hundred feet apart and off to itself.
The scene of the camp was a small canyon near his old home and on the trail leading to it. There was gold in the canyon, for he had discovered it there and taken some away, while he had marked it as his claim, it having been already staked as one of the finds and claims of the real Andrew Seldon.
In truth, there were a dozen such claims in the Grand Canyon found by Andrew Seldon, all of them paying finds.
Having reached a point within a hundred yards of the camp-fires, Seldon leaned over a rock and began to survey the scene.
The three fires were burning brightly, and beyond the light fell upon a number of horses corralled in the canyon, where there was grass and water. There were brush shelters near, three in number, and about the fires in front of them were gathered a number of men.
Counting them, Andrew Seldon found that there were eight in sight.
There appeared to be no guard kept, and the camp was certainly not a very new one, apparently having been made there several weeks before.
Emboldened by his discovery, the gold-hunter crept nearer and nearer, and then could see that the men were all masked.
This struck him as being a very remarkable circumstance, indeed, since they were clad like miners, some of them wearing beards that came below their masks. All were armed thoroughly.
They were eating their supper as Andrew Seldon looked at them.
Gaining a point of observation still nearer, the gold-hunter obtained a view of the camp-fire apart from the others. A comfortable little cabin was just behind the fire, and a rustic bench had been made near it.
A blanket hung over the door of the tiny cabin, and about the fire was the evidence of a supper recently eaten, for a cup, tin plate, and knives, with the remains of a meal, were upon a rock that served as a table.
Upon the rustic seat sat one whose presence there was a great surprise to Andrew Seldon.
"By Heaven, it is a woman!" he almost cried aloud in his amazement.
Then he determined to get a still nearer view, and after surveying the position, he decided that he could do so by passing around to the edge of the cliff and creeping along it to a point not sixty feet away.
As he, after very cautious work, reached the point he sought, some forty feet from the one at the camp-fire, gazing upon her he muttered to himself:
"It is a young and beautiful girl, and why is she here with those strange men? Who is she, and what is this mystery? I must solve it."
He noted that the single fire was just around a bend of the canyon, and that the men were camped below her.
"This looks as though she was a prisoner. But how did they find this spot, and how dare they venture down that dangerous trail?
"Well, Andrew Seldon the real did it, I did it, Lucas Langley also, and Buffalo Bill and the comrade with him were two more to make the venture, so why not these men?
"But why are they masked, and what does it mean that they have that young girl in their midst? Beyond doubt she is a captive, and yet I dare not communicate with her. It would betray my presence and I would lose all, perhaps my life.
"They do not know of my presence here in the Grand Canyon, and they will hardly find our camp, at least as long as they find gold where they are. Well, I will return to my home and tell Langley of my strange discovery."
After so musing, and gazing the while at the girl, Andrew Seldon was about to leave his position, when he saw a horseman ride into the lower camp. The horse seemed to have been hard ridden, for he came in with lowered head, and that the newcomer was in authority there was shown by the men rising as he approached the fire, while one of them took care of his horse.
"I will see what this arrival means," muttered Andrew Seldon, and he kept his position among the rocks. _