_ CHAPTER XIV. OLD MONTRESOR'S LEGACY
"I'm afraid to fix the beds in those finger caves, Anne," whimpered Barbara, coming over to where the young woman was weaving the beds of spruce.
"What is there to be afraid of? The burros and horses won't hurt you, and they are too weary with this day's troubles to bother about kicking or trampling you. However, you can do this, if you like, and I will make up the beds for the beasts."
The spruce beds were being made--Anne showing Barbara how to lay the tips in rows as wide as the bed was to be, then folding under the sticks of the second row to run under the tips of the first row, and so on, until the length of the bed was made.
This work finished, and the bedding for the horses arranged in the "fingers" as Polly had directed, the two girls stood near the entrance of the cave, wondering what possibly could have happened to keep Polly and Eleanor so long.
"I just felt in my bones that it was an awful risk to go into the black hole of the unknown!" cried Barbara.
"It isn't that that bothers me at all, Bob. But Polly has no sense of fear, and I think they may have found an exit at the other end, so Polly is coming around that way. It is a hazardous thing to do, in this storm!" said Anne.
"Anne, can't you try to squeeze in there and see what has happened?" asked Barbara.
Anne looked at her without saying a word, so Barbara thought she hesitated on account of leaving her alone in the cave.
"I won't mind staying alone for a little time. I'll watch the fires and see that the horses do not get away!" said Barbara.
"Really!" was all Anne said, as she turned to place another pine knot on the fire.
But the tone silenced Barbara, who had food for thought thereafter.
Meanwhile Polly and Eleanor had crawled into the aperture, and by dint of squirming and twisting through the passage, found that only the section nearest the cave was of soft debris. It gradually widened as they advanced and Polly distinctly felt a current of cold air blowing in her face.
After creeping along for some distance without finding an outlet, Eleanor pulled on Polly's foot to attract her attention.
"Let's go back, Poll. No use hunting down in the bowels of Grizzly Slide."
"Nolla, the smoke of the torch blows harder than at first, and there is enough air to waft it backwards, so there will be an opening at the end, I am sure. That is what I must know for certain."
"All right, lead on! I'll be with you at the death!"
Polly chuckled at Eleanor's loyalty and crept on.
Finally Eleanor rugged again at her feet and shouted: "Hey, Polly! Aren't we most through to China? Let me know the moment you get the first peep at a pig-tail, as I have to brush the cobwebs from my Chinese!"
Polly laughed at the girl who made merry of a journey that would have staggered an older person. Finally, however, the tunnel widened so that both girls could advance comfortably and then, suddenly, the flame of the torch and the smoke ceased to blow into their faces, for they had come out into an open space.
"We're here!" laughed Polly, trying to stand up and giving her head a smart rap against the overhanging rock.
"'We're here!' For goodness' sake, tell me where?" cried Eleanor, thrusting her torch ahead so that it was almost snuffed out against Polly's shoes.
"Gracious me, Nolla! Don't burn my soles!" cried Polly, managing to stand upright and hold aloft her torch.
"Ha, that's good! Don't burn your soul!" teased Eleanor.
But the moment the girls saw where they were, not another word was uttered, for they found themselves in a vault-like cave somewhat smaller than the entrance cave, but having no "fingers" or outside opening. The dome and sides were rocky, but everywhere, embedded in the rock, myriad points of light reflected as the flare of the torch lit up the place uncertainly.
Eleanor thrust up her torch also, and both girls pivoted around, forgetting about wild beasts and the errand they came upon. After blinking at the bright yellow gleams for a time, Polly turned and stared at Eleanor.
"What is it?"
"I'm sure I don't know, Nolla. It looks like copper."
"Polly! If it's copper, then we're rich!"
Both girls rushed over to examine the metallic gleams at close range, and Polly frowned as a thought entered her mind. Eleanor turned and looked about to be sure no one could hear, and then whispered:
"Polly, it looks like gold! Can it be real GOLD!"
The girls stared at each other and then burst out into a simultaneous laugh. But it was excitement, not mirth, that occasioned it. Before the wild echoes had rung through the vault, the hysterical girls were tearing at the hard walls, trying in vain to dislodge a nugget.
"Oh, why did I leave that ax in the pannier!" wailed Polly.
"Isn't it always that way--when you need a thing!" exclaimed Eleanor.
In her haste to reach a fragment that looked easy to break off, Polly dropped the torch. She stooped to pick it up again and saw a nugget of the ore on the ground, half-covered with dirt.
"I've got a piece! Oh, Nolla, look! LOOK!" shouted Polly, holding aloft her treasure.
Eleanor ran over and both girls examined the chunk of yellow streaked and studded rock.
"Polly, it really looks like gold," ventured Eleanor, awed.
"And it's red-gold, too, like Old Man Montresor's nuggets," added Polly.
At the mention of the gold-seeker, both girls looked at each other and the same thought flashed to both of them at once.
"Maybe it is!" breathed Polly.
"Oh, Poll, hold the torch down near the ground so I can find a chunk, won't you?" beseeched Eleanor, now anxious to find a nugget for herself.
"There, Nolla--see over by the hole! A little piece for you."
Eleanor ran over and found it to be smaller than the one Polly found, but there was more metal in the nugget. They examined it closely and decided that the shining metal must be gold.
"I'm so excited that I feel as if wheels were turning all inside of me--do you?" laughed Eleanor, hugging her nugget to her heart.
"It's sort of a dizzy and squeamish feeling, isn't it?" explained Polly, looking at her companion. Then for the first time since they emerged from the tunnel, she noticed the face.
"Oh, Nolla! If you could but see yourself! Just like a negro, but streaky where you smudged the torch smoke from your eyes."
"You're no 'bleached blonde' either, Poll!" laughed Eleanor, rubbing her sleeve across her face and looking at the soot in amusement.
"But mine can't be as black as yours, 'cause you got all the smoke from both torches."
"Never mind now; if this is gold we can afford to have the tunnel and cave wired with electricity at once," laughed the excited girl.
"Well, let's finish our hunt in the tunnel and then find some more nuggets for Anne and Barbara. They'll want a share, you know," suggested Polly.
"Good gracious, Poll! You're not going on
now, are you?"
"Of course! The gold won't melt away, but we've got to close up any opening into outdoors, you know."
"Let's go back and tell the girls and then finish the tunnel work," pleaded Eleanor.
"How silly to worm a way back for the sake of showing off the ore. No, let's do this thing up and then go back to stay for the night. If we don't close up any aperture, a wild beast may crawl through, then what good will the gold do us if we are dead?"
"Sensible as ever! Even gold can't turn your head!" said Eleanor, starting for the narrow place opposite the tunnel they came from. "Funny, isn't it, that this cave should be here just as if it was an inflated bubble in a glass-blower's tube?" said Polly.
"I'll reserve my opinion till I see the end of the tube!" said Eleanor, waiting for Polly to creep into the opening.
After considerable twisting and crawling, Polly first, with her torch, and Eleanor second, they suddenly felt a current of fresh air.
"Oh! Oh, thank goodness!" gasped Polly. "I shoved the torch ahead! I'd have fallen headlong into this abyss."
"What is it, Poll?"
"A pit ever so wide, and I can't see how deep it goes down. It's right in the tunnel ground, cutting off all further investigations."
"It'll cut off investigations of a wild beast, too, won't it?" asked Eleanor with relief in her tones.
"Of course--there isn't a chance of anything coming in this way. I can hear water rushing, too, way down at the bottom, and the wind blows up from this pit, so there must be an opening down there where the subterranean river rushes out."
"Maybe this tunnel was a river, once, and emptied down into that pit," ventured Eleanor.
"I don't care if it was! I'm anxious to go back and eat, now that we know the worst," replied Polly.
"We won't need both torches now, Poll, so drop yours in the pit and see how deep it may be," suggested Eleanor.
"All right, but for pity's sake don't let yours go out!"
Polly waited to steady the flame and then dropped the torch. It fell straight down and flared up showing the rocky sides of the pit, then suddenly it "sh-isshed" in water and all was dark once more.
The girls then wormed their way back to the gold cave (as they termed it) and sought for nuggets in the dust and dirt of ages that covered the rocky floor. Eleanor found a few pieces the size of walnuts and Polly secured a handful of small bits.
"How can we tie them up if we have to crawl back?" asked Eleanor.
"Got a handkerchief?"
"No, I gave it to Bob out of meanness," laughed Eleanor.
"Hum! Well, we might put them in our middy blouses, only we take a chance of losing them in squirming back through that tunnel," remarked Polly.
"I've heard of folks smuggling things in their shoes."
"I have it! Take off our shoes and put the nuggets in, then tie the shoe-strings tightly about the top and fasten them about our necks!" exclaimed Polly.
This being a good plan, both girls soon had their precious ore well- tied in their mountain boots, and were ready to proceed. As the two discoverers neared the cave where the others were, Polly shouted excitedly, and Eleanor joined in the clamor.
Anne and Barbara had become so frightened at the prolonged absence of the two girls that Anne was about to crawl in to find them, while Barbara realized how much she really loved her younger sister. The moment they heard the awful sounds issuing from the tunnel, however, they were certain a wild beast had attacked them and the victims were fighting a way out.
Anne grabbed the ax and held it aloft ready to strike, while Barbara stood wringing her hands in despair. By this time Polly stuck her head out of the opening, but neither Barbara nor Anne recognized the black face--her voice alone told them it was Polly.
"Oh, my dear child! Are you badly hurt?" screamed Anne, dropping the ax and pulling Polly forth, Eleanor crawling directly after her.
"Gold! Gold! GOLD! See--lots of it! Mountains of it!" yelled Eleanor, trying to drag her nuggets from the boot without untying the strings.
"Oh, Anne, we found a gold mine! A great big cave full of gold!" cried Polly, managing to untie the strings.
"Poor children! Are you daffy?" exclaimed Anne, not sure whether to cry or laugh.
"You'll go daffy when, you see that cave--all shining gold!" laughed Eleanor, handing her nugget to the curious sister.
"See here, Anne, isn't this gold?" asked Polly, working the large chunk of ore from her shoe.
"It looks like it, Polly, but I'm no judge."
"Oh, let's crawl in and see the cave!" now begged Barbara eagerly.
"You know you'd get stuck in that narrow tunnel, Bob! Besides, I'm starved," said Eleanor.
"Moreover, you wouldn't go when there seemed to be danger for the girls, and I'm sure I'm not going to try it now!" added Anne.
"Dear me, won't any one go with me?" complained Barbara, who stooped to gaze in at the tunnel, and seemed too fascinated to leave the spot.
"Bob, the gold has been there for centuries and it isn't likely to melt away while we eat supper!" declared practical Eleanor, following Anne to the opening of the cave.
As they went to the place where Anne had spread the supper, Polly told them of the magnificent sight when they crept out of the dark hole and saw the glimmering of the gold. Over and over, the two girls had to tell minutest details of the cavern, Barbara sighing, frequently, to think she was not small enough to crawl in and see for herself.
While the two adventurers washed their faces and hands with melted snow, Anne fried the fish over some red-hot embers scraped out of the fire. This done, they sat down to eat.
As they ate, they talked continually of their mine not so far from the festive board.
"Well, Polly, you surely were born with a silver spoon in your mouth!" sighed Anne, smilingly.
"What makes you say that?"
"You can see for yourself, can't you? First you fall into a family that owns no end of wealth in jeweled cliffs, and now you fall into a gold mine," replied Anne.
"But Nolla owns half of this mine, and I'm not so sure but you and Bob come in for your share!"
The other girls stared at Polly's generosity, as they had never thought of holding any interest in the mine.
"Anyway, nobody owns it yet! It legally belongs to the first one who files a claim, so what we must do is to hurry back to Oak Creek and register the mine," said Barbara, businesslike.
"My! Gold has brought Bob's brains uppermost!" teased Eleanor.
"Who knows but this claim has been staked years ago!" said Anne, meaningly.
Polly and Eleanor exchanged glances. But Barbara wondered.
"What do you mean?" asked she.
"Well, look out in front: there's a ledge cleft in the side of the mountain wall. Between it and the other lower ledge is a canyon that might be the one Montresor found on his up-climb. Yonder the slope meets the chasm and above is the steep sides leading to Top Notch Trail. Could not the land-slide have buried this wall and then a great wash-out have cleared it again? If we only had a gushing mountain stream pouring from the cliff-side the setting would be complete!"
Barbara gasped, but Polly clapped her hands. "Nolla, that's it! The subterranean stream we found in there. Some big upheaval changed its outlet, or maybe this gold vein runs clean through and Montresor's claim is staked opposite this side--just where the river pours out. We must look over that side to-morrow."
The two younger girls then told of the pit and the river and all agreed that it might be the stream found by the prospector before the landslide covered his claim. _