Skeleton Lode (38 page)

The two men set off down the river by the light of the single lantern. Bowdre carried the useless one, for it was still two-thirds full of oil. They kept their silence, and when they reached the waterfall, they worked their way down the slippery, mossed-over rock.

“Damn,” Sandoval complained, “I’m sore as a beat dog. I feel like I been throwed and stomped twice in the same day.”

“Same here,” said Bowdre, “but we won’t have to do that again.”

They paused when they reached the point where, through some past volcanic upheaval, the underground river had been diverted.

“This cavern’s gettin’ smaller and smaller,” Bowdre said. “I reckon we ain’t gonna get out of here by follerin’ the river. I’d bet a hoss this old dry riverbed is the way out.”

“I wish I could believe that,” said Sandoval. “Looks like a dead end to me.”

“Look at that lantern’s flame,” Bowdre said. “We’re gettin’ some outside air from somewhere. It may not be much of a hole, but somewhere ahead of us, there’s some kind of opening to the outside.”

They reached the huge boulder that blocked what had once been an open passage, and by taking a sharp right turn, they were able to squeeze through the narrow aperture between the fallen boulder and the stone face of the mountain. Gratefully they stepped out into the cool darkness of the night.

“My God,” said Sandoval in relief, “I never been so glad to see them stars and smell the sage. I feel like lopin’ across the prairie and howlin’ with the coyotes, just for the hell of it.”

Cass Bowdre laughed. “Save it until we find the gold. I got to get back to camp and shuck off this boot, if my ankle ain’t already swole too much to get it off.”

Paiute, the old Indian, had waited in the darkness of the passage above the river until Bowdre and Sandoval were on their way down the wall. He was sorely tempted to cut the rope again, stranding them on that first ledge. But he restrained himself, for that would not accomplish what he had set out to do. These men must successfully reach the river and find their way out of the mountain. Only then would they bring Gary Davis into the cavern, where they expected him to reveal the location of the mine. Paiute smiled grimly in the darkness, for he knew that then the search for Hoss Logan’s gold would come to a swift and startling conclusion.

Despite their resolve to continue the search for Hoss Logan’s mine, Kelly and Kelsey Logan, Arlo Wells, and Dallas Holt lacked much of their former enthusiasm as they rode to the Superstitions yet again. They believed they had thoroughly searched the underground river, and they had found not a single clue to the location of the mine. Time after time, they had found Hoss’s sign of three little oak pins driven into a crevice somewhere in the rock. The last such sign had been in the hidden passage Dallas had discovered partway down the bluff, on the way to the river. But for all their diligent searching, there hadn’t been another sign, and it was Kelsey Logan who finally voiced what the rest of them were thinking.

“I’m not complaining,” she said, “and not suggesting that we give up the search for the mine, but I just can’t get excited about searching that river again. Somehow I don’t believe that last sign Uncle Henry left was pointing us toward the mine. Why couldn’t he have just been
sending us to the river so that we could find a way in and out, without going up and down that drop-off?”

“But unless the mine’s somewhere along the river,” Kelly said, “why would we need a way in and out?”

“I think Kelsey’s got something,” Arlo replied. “We’ve been misinterpreting what Hoss is trying to tell us. Those three wooden pins led us to a crevice that brought us down to the river, and they must have been for that purpose alone. Hoss intended for us to follow the river, to find a way in and out. I’m thinkin’ that’s exactly what Hoss is tellin’ us, that the mine is somewhere along the river, and that we most certainly
do
need a way in and out.”

“Well, hell,” said Dallas, “we’re right back to where we started. I can agree Hoss is tryin’ to point us toward the river, so we could follow it out. So if his purpose was to have us find a way in and out, then we can only conclude that the mine’s somewhere along that damn river. But where?”

“I reckon we can also agree,” Arlo said, “that when we finally reached that second ledge, where I almost knocked my brains out, all we wanted was to get to the bottom of that drop-off, to the river. Once you found that crevice at one end of that ledge, Dallas, and found those three oak pins Hoss had driven into that rock, neither of us thought of looking farther, that there might be other clues. We squeezed through that crevice, made our way down to the river, and that’s where we’ve been ever since. We made the mistake of taking it for granted that the signs Hoss left was pointin’ us directly toward the gold.”

“That’s exactly what we done,” said Dallas, “and by God, we didn’t bother seein’ what was at the other end of that ledge.”

“No,” Arlo said, “and that’s where we lost the trail. I think we’ll find a sign from Hoss at the other end of that ledge and some kind of passage that will lead us to the mine.”

“Oh, I can’t wait to get there!” Kelsey cried.

“It wasn’t easy, gettin’ down that crevice from the ledge,” said Dallas, “and I reckon it’ll be just as hard, climbin’ up it. It’s a tight squeeze, and you got to just inch your way along sideways.”

“I don’t care,” Kelsey said. “I just want to find the mine and put all this behind us. If you and Arlo could come down it, then I can climb up, and I’m going to.”

“So am I,” said Kelly.

“We’re all in this together,” Arlo said, “to the finish.”

It was the middle of the night when Bowdre and Sandoval returned to their camp beneath the west rim. Bowdre told them what they had long waited to hear, and despite the lateness of the hour, nobody slept. Even Gary Davis showed some interest when Bowdre and Sandoval spoke of the underground river.

“River,” Davis mumbled. “Gold under the river.”

“What?” Carp shouted excitedly. “What did you say?”

Carp seized Davis by the front of his shirt, and again Davis became a virtual madman. On his knees, he lifted Carp like a rag doll and flung him against a stone wall. Dazed, Carp sat up, his hand on the butt of his revolver.

“Carp,” said Bowdre coldly, “leave it be. If you pull iron, I’ll kill you.”

Gary Davis again became calm. He sat down and stared vacantly into the fire, speaking not a word.

“He knows,” Sandoval said softly. “By God, he knows where the gold is.”

“I think so,” said Bowdre, “and I don’t want him bothered before we get a chance to find out. You hear me, Zondo?”

“I hear you,” Carp said sullenly.

“Wells and Holt will be back in there tomorrow,” said Three-Fingered Joe.

“That won’t matter to us,” Bowdre said. “I think we got an edge on ’em, so we can afford to wait for them to leave. Tomorrow night, when they’re done, we’ll all go in and turn our dog loose.”

* * *

Despite their haste, Arlo didn’t get careless. He led them well north of their ultimate destination, and their horses and mules were picketed right where they had been left the day before.

“We’ll take it slow,” Arlo said, “just like we did yesterday, because we don’t know they won’t try to follow us again this morning. If they don’t, I reckon that’ll tell us they’re exploring these passages under the mountain instead of trying to cash in on what they think we’ve learned. As far as we know, there’s only one major passage they haven’t been into, and that likely means they’re only hours away from discovering that drop-off to the river.”

“Let’s just hope we’re right about Hoss leavin’ us a message at the other end of that ledge,” Dallas said. “Another day or two of just wandering along that river, and we’ll be face-to-face with this bunch, whoever they are.”

Arlo and Dallas moved ahead, leaving Kelly and Kelsey far enough behind to remain out of harm’s way if there was trouble. But there was no evidence of pursuit, and they went straight to the concealed entrance to the underground river.

“Dallas is right,” Arlo said. “This is not a real passage that leads down from that ledge. It’s no more than a split in one end of that stone drop-off, and I suspect it may be more difficult goin’ up than it was comin’ down. Kelsey, if you and Kelly would like to just wait…”

“No.” said Kelly, “we
wouldn’t
like to just wait. If that ledge offers enough of a hole for the two of you to go on, then we’ll be going with you.”

“Then this is how we’re going to do it,” Arlo said. “That crack in the stone is very narrow, and like Dallas said, you’ll have to ease along sideways, taking it slow. I’ll take one lantern and go first. Kelly, you and Kelsey will come next, and Dallas will follow you with the other lantern.”

Arlo led them past the waterfall, and when they again neared the foot of the drop-off, the stench of rotting flesh became more oppressive than ever.

“My God!” exclaimed Kelly. “Be quick finding that split in the bluff, and let’s get away from here.”

Even though Arlo and Dallas knew the split existed, it wasn’t easy to find, and when they did find it, the crevice seemed even more narrow and inaccessible than it had been when they crept down it before.

“I see what you mean,” Kelsey said. “It is awful narrow, and it’s knee deep in water.”

“Considerably deeper than it was,” said Dallas. “It wasn’t more than a trickle when we first came this way.”

“Yes,” Arlo said, “and that bothers me. It could be bad news. The nearer we go to the head of this river, the higher the elevation. That’s why this joker’s so loud, because the water’s runnin’ downhill before it even reaches the falls. If there’s passages somewhere along it, they could be flooded, which would account for this high runoff.”

“Wonderful,” said Kelly. “When we finally find the passage where the mine is, it could be full of water.”

“It could very well be,” Arlo said. “Or if it isn’t, there may be a continual danger of it. This river is moving with one hell of a force, and it could break through. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Arlo led the way, inching along the narrow cliff sideways, careful not to bump the lantern against solid rock. A few yards before they reached the low end of the narrow ledge, the water they were wading through played out. Finally they reached the ledge that ran across the face of the bluff, several hundred feet above the surging river.

“God,” Kelsey said, “it must have been a nightmare coming down the face of this cliff with ropes.”

“It did get a mite scary,” said Arlo, “when I discovered that rock overhang wouldn’t allow me to reach the ledge. I smashed my head against that rock up there, and I still don’t know how I made it alive.”

To their dismay, the opposite end of the ledge began to narrow as they progressed. Eventually they were inching along sideways, their backs to the rock wall, trying to
keep their balance. But as they rounded the end of the bluff, there was a slight widening of the ledge, with yet another narrow, ragged crevice as uninviting as the one they had just endured.

“Tarnation,” said Dallas, “that one looks even steeper than the one at the other end of the ledge, and from the angle of it, we’ll be moving away from the river. It’s time to see if Hoss left us a sign.”

Arlo and Dallas began searching the ground beneath their feet and the stone wall to their backs. Finally Dallas found three wooden pegs driven into a crack in the rock about head-high.

“This may be it!” Arlo exclaimed. “We’ll take it sideways, same formation as before. Dallas, you can lead this time, and I’ll come last.”

A dozen feet into the split, and the stone wall to their left vanished. One corner of the great stone bluff had peeled away, leaving them facing a steep, precarious ledge that led downward. They were assaulted by a rush of damp air that told them there was an open void before them. Somewhere below, well beyond the feeble glow of their lanterns, they heard the splashing of water.

“Dammit,” said Dallas, “why in tarnation didn’t we bring some rope? I’d feel better if we could lower a lantern and see what’s down there. We could step off this ledge into ten feet of water.”

“Not if we take it slow,” Arlo said. “Don’t step any farther than the lantern’s light will reach. We can always backtrack if we have to.”

But when disaster struck, it came swiftly and there was nothing they could do to prevent it. Something gave way under Kelly’s boot, and with a terrified scream, she vanished into the blackness before them. Somewhere below there was a splash, and they knew she had fallen into water.

“Careful, Dallas!” Arlo shouted. “It won’t help if you fall on top of her. We’ll get down there as fast as we can.”

“Careful be damned! Kelly, I’m coming. Can you hear me?” Dallas shouted.

But there was only silence and the horrifying realization that if Kelly Logan had been hurt in the fall, she might drown before they could reach her.

“Kelly, where are you?” Dallas cried desperately.

But he heard only the distant splashing of water and the thundering of his own heart.