The Peril Finders Part 37

A very short time after they were going straight for the mountain--the great peak forming their goal, and the doctor taking its bearings by compa.s.s so as to know their route if mist should hide it, and when darkness came on.

To the surprise of all, both ponies and mules stepped briskly and well, the pasture upon which they had been busy having had a wonderfully good effect. The hardy beasts seemed now to need no water, and made light of their loads, while as the stiffness suffered by the riders pa.s.sed off with movement in the warm bracing air, the difficulties and perils of the past seemed to die away.

Griggs proved to be right, too, before they had been two hours on the way, for first one or two, then a covey of the large partridge-like birds that haunted the open appeared, and as the day went on several plump additions to their stores fell to the guns.

But the wood was so far wanting, and it was not until evening was approaching that they came upon a scattered patch of trees, which grew for a long distance in a meandering way, just one here and there, and from which a sufficiency for their purpose was obtained; but the pasture was no more plentiful, and they kept on, till all at once Griggs slapped his hand down heavily upon his leg.

"Got it!" he cried.

"Got what?" exclaimed the doctor, and the boys stared.

"That idea. Can't you see, doctor? These trees have been all along on our right for quite a time."

"Yes, that's plain enough," was the reply.

"And they go right on as far as we can see, wandering in and out, but getting thicker."

"Yes, I can see all that, but I confess that I don't see what it has to do with your excitement."

"Don't you, doctor?" cried Griggs. "Well, it means this: there's been a watercourse here some time or other, and there's enough moisture underground to keep these little scrubby trees alive."

"I see. It is possible."

"As it gets farther from the hills there are fewer trees, but as we follow it up you can see they are getting thicker, and I believe that if we keep on far enough we shall come upon gra.s.s and water, perhaps a pool."

"Then we'll keep on," said the doctor, "certainly; and may you prove to be right."

Griggs did prove to be right, for when the course of the trees had been followed for about four miles, the party found themselves upon a marshy patch of a vivid green, the trees they had followed ending at the very edge. Pools of clear water were plentiful, and the banks and swampy ground between them and the lakes were rich in deep green succulent and coa.r.s.e reeds and gra.s.sy patches such as cattle delight in.

A dry slope some fifty feet above the swamp was soon selected for the temporary halt--a place which proved to be quite free from reptiles; and here the mules were unladen, the fire was lit, and the boys joined eagerly in the culinary preparations, all being eager to help in the preparation of the evening meal.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

PEACE AND PLENTY.

"What do you think of this, boys?" said Griggs, at sunrise the next morning.

"Splendid!" cried Chris.

"Glorious!" shouted Ned. "Oh, bother the old gold and the tramping through choking deserts. Come along, Chris."

"Here, what are you going to do?" cried Griggs.

"Swell ourselves out again," replied Chris. "I'm dried-up like a stalk with all that miserable tramping, and I shan't come right again till I've been in for an hour."

"In where?"

"Why, in that big pool. You listen. You can hear me crackle with the salt and dust caked over me. I'm afraid to laugh, for fear I should crack my skin."

"Get out! But a good wash will be a treat. I say, though, that place looks deep. You can both swim very well?"

"Oh, tidily--eh, Ned?"

"I should think so!"

"That's all right then," said Griggs; "but how about--"

"About what?" cried Chris, for the American stopped.

"The anacondas and alligators and snapping turtles and garfish with teeth sharp as sharks?"

"Oh, I say," cried Ned, with his face contracting as he glanced at the smooth clear waters of the largest pool in sight. "You don't think there's anything of that sort in there, do you?"

"I dunno. Haven't given it a thought," replied the American.

"Come along," cried Chris; "he's laughing at us."

"Not I," said Griggs.

"Anacondas," said Chris thoughtfully. "Yes, they are the big boa-constrictor-like chaps that half live in the water, and lay hold of anything that goes in. No, it's all stuff, Ned. They don't live here; they're in South America. There's nothing to mind."

"I don't know so much about that," said Griggs. "What about alligators and snapping turtles? There's safe to be plenty of them in a place like this."

"But they wouldn't try to touch us," cried Chris. "I shall chance it."

Ned looked anxious.

"Here, I say, Griggs," he said. "No games. We want a bathe horribly.

You don't think there really are any biting things in the water, do you?"

"I dunno, my lad. This is a new place altogether to me. There are plenty of vicious hungry things down in Mississippi and Florida, I know that."

"But we're not in Mississippi nor yet in Florida," cried Chris. "I say, Griggy, where are we?"

"Why, here, to be sure," replied the American.

"Don't talk stuff!" cried Chris angrily. "What part are we in?"

"I'm not a geography-book, my lad, and I don't know where we are, only that we've travelled south-west. No finger-posts up here and no lines to show where the States are divided."

"Now you're bantering again, Griggs," cried Chris irritably. "You must know."

"If you come to that, why, so must you, my lad. But I really don't know, only that we're well into the wild unsettled parts of the country, and I should say n.o.body had ever been here before but prospectors--chaps like the poor fellow who came crawling to us regularly done up."

"But where should you think we are?"