The Peril Finders Part 39

"But there must be pools and marshes," said Wilton.

"Pools sometimes, but where you do find one it's as salt as the sea, only a deal nastier, and if you drink any of it you find it makes you ill."

"You've had that experience?" said the doctor.

"More'n once, sir," replied Griggs, "and it aren't nice. Which way do you mean to go to-day, sir?"

"Straight for the mountains," replied the doctor.

"Humph!" grunted Griggs. "Won't get there in one journey."

"No," replied the doctor, scanning the beautiful elevation through his gla.s.s, "but I think we might do what we can in the way of selecting another camp to which we can move a day or two later."

"Yes, we can do that, sir. But what about here?"

"I should set up the tent here before we start," suggested Wilton.

"What for, sir?" asked Griggs sharply.

"It will be a big white object for our guidance on our way back."

Griggs shook his head and smiled.

"We shall take our bearings, and be able to find our camp again. The water here will do for one big mark when we're yonder on the hills. If you set up that tent with no one to mind it, the mules won't be long before they come rubbing themselves against the ropes and upsetting it, for one thing. Another is, that if a roving band of mounted Indians came along they'd be down upon it at once to see what there was worth taking."

"But surely there are no mounted Indians about here?" said Ned eagerly.

"Maybe no, maybe yes, my lad. I don't know that there are, and I don't know that there aren't. Here's plenty of room for them, and a nice country where there's water and perhaps game. Likely enough there may be Indians. For they're here to-day and a hundred miles off to-morrow, roving about in search of eatables."

"Yes," said the doctor gravely, "and the thought of the life they lead is encouraging to me."

"Encouraging?" cried Bourne and Wilton together.

"Certainly. I have been a good deal exercised in my mind about the failing of our provisions forcing us at last to turn back, but if we follow the example of the Indians there is no reason why we, so long as we have sufficient ammunition, should not be able to keep on for years if it were necessary. What one band can do, surely another can."

"That's what you think, then, is it, sir?" said Griggs sharply.

"Yes; why do you speak like that?"

"Only because I'm glad you see fully what we've got to do, sir, and are ready to do it."

"But we must husband our stores," said Bourne.

"Of course, sir," said Griggs, with his eyes twinkling. "We will, as long as they'll stop to be husbanded; but they'll shrink away to nothing at last, and we must look forward to the time when all the extras'll be gone and we shall have to live on meat and water."

"Rather starvation rations, Griggs," said Wilton, while the boys stared at one another.

"Oh no, sir. I've been through it, and it isn't half bad. You soon get used to it, and then you find out what roast meat and cold water really are--about the most delicious eating and drinking in the world. Your appet.i.te's splendid; you can sleep like a top; and as to what you can do, it's wonderful. You never seem to be tired."

"Then you don't feel any apprehension about our having to give up for want of supplies?"

"Not a bit, sir, as long as the powder and shot last. When they're done the sooner we make for civilisation the better."

"Yes," said the doctor thoughtfully. "You must be right, Griggs."

"Yes, sir, I am right," said Griggs, without a shadow of brag in his way of speaking. "I wouldn't speak out as I do if I hadn't proved it."

"How long did you lead such a life as that?" asked Chris.

"Going on for four years. Why, I've talked to you and Squire Ned here often."

"Yes, of course, about your experiences in the big north-west," said Chris; "but I didn't know it lasted so long."

"Don't you remember about his fight with the Indians, when they rode round his party?" asked Ned.

"Yes, I remember," said Chris. Then thoughtfully, "You think we shall find Indians out here?"

"No, I don't, my lad; but I feel pretty sure they'll find us."

"Most likely," said the doctor, nodding his head; "but we can beat them off. You feel, then, Griggs, that we need be under no apprehension about our stores?"

"Not a bit, sir, so long as we keep within touch of the mountains. I'd almost go as far as to say that we could do better without them. We could after a time, for it will save a lot of trouble in loading up the baggage. But they won't fail yet awhile. A man can do without tea and coffee and sugar and pepper, and without meal too when he's obliged. We shan't want for salt, I dessay, though the less we come across that the better. We shan't fail over finding where that poor old chap made his map, on account of the eating and drinking. I was thinking about him in the night when I woke up to have a look round."

"What about him?" said Chris, for the American had stopped short.

"'Bout how long he'd been living out somewhere in these parts."

"Or some other parts," said Wilton.

"That's right, sir."

"How long had he been out here, then?" asked Ned eagerly.

"Can't say, squire; but a many, many years, for he was pretty nigh worn out, warn't he, doctor?"

"By privation princ.i.p.ally," said Bourne thoughtfully.

"Privation had had a good deal to do with it certainly," said the doctor; "but Griggs is right, he was nearly worn out."

"With his long fight?" said Wilton.

"Princ.i.p.ally from old age. He must have been very far past seventy."

"What?" cried Bourne.

"Oh yes, he was very old," replied the doctor quietly.

"Ay, he seemed so," said Griggs. "Old enough to be a hundred; not that he was. I'll say eighty. Well, he might easily have been wandering about in his gold hunt for twenty or thirty or forty years."