Chapter XXVIII: A New Start

"They have vamoosed all right," announced Juarez after examining the trail.

"The whole pack of 'em, too," affirmed Jim.

"Perhaps we can get a view of them," added Juarez.

"We will hitch our horses here," remarked Jim, "and try a squint up the trail from that grove yonder."

This they did, and from their point of vantage they were able to see a part of the trail, two miles distant, where it curved around a shoulder of the mountain.

"Maybe they have got beyond that point," suggested Jim.

"Hardly," replied Juarez. "That's a long steep climb up there. They will have to go slow if any of 'em are hurt."

The boys waited a few minutes with eyes intent upon the trail. Then they saw a man on horseback ride into view, then another and another, until seven had gone round the shoulder of the mountain.

"That isn't all," said Jim, "there's three missing."

"Maybe that Gus Gols is knocked out," said Juarez.

"It begins to look like it," said Jim.

"There they come," cried Juarez. "He is hurt some, for it takes two of his men to hold him on his horse."

"They are not likely to bother us now then," said Jim, "but all the same I am going to see if we cannot find a safe way around."

"All right, Jim," agreed Juarez. "I will go back to camp and look after things."

So they separated. Towards evening Jim came riding into camp, with Caliente showing the effects of a hard climb. Jim dismounted rather wearily.

"Well, what luck?" inquired the boys.

"There is a way around," he said. "It's tough in places, but we can make it all right."

"We ought to get an early start," said Juarez.

"You are right there," agreed Jim. "We will turn in early this evening."

So they did, and by half-past two Jim sounded the early rising alarm. The boys all got up with alacrity, except Tom, who did considerable growling, as was his custom, but if Tom wanted sympathy he would have to find it in the dictionary, as the fellow said.

The boys lighted a fire within the stockade to get their breakfast by, but it was hidden so that no hint of their plans would be given to a watchful enemy. The boys felt jovial when they got fairly waked up. The air was cold and bracing, and they all felt that the end of their long journey was drawing near.

By four o'clock everything was ready for the start. The mules were packed, and the boys rode out in silence through the starry darkness across the level floor of the valley. Jim was in the lead, and the rest followed in order. Instead of going up the main trail through the big canyon, Jim bore to the right, making straight through the park where the men had killed the deer.

It was well for the Frontier Boys that they took this way, for Eph, Ed and a number of Mexicans were lying in ambush at a narrow and hidden part of the trail, and, with one concerted rush, were ready to send the boys down five hundred feet. Whether the Frontier Boys would have been so rash as to have walked blindfolded into this trap is doubtful. Nevertheless, when they took the other way they escaped a very serious danger.

When the first steel shining rays of dawn struck the slope of the mountain above them the boys had climbed up several thousand feet and could see the valley below and the distant snow-clad peaks to the south, rosy with the first touch of morning. It was a beautiful sight, and the boys turned sideways in their saddles, taking it all in when their horses stopped to breathe.

"Going to take us above timber-line, Jim?" inquired Juarez.

"He's going to lose us," complained Tom.

"Then there would be a lost kid to go with the Lost Mine," declared Jim humorously. "Yes, boys, I'm going to take you above timber-line."

"Well," said Jeems philosophically, "it is a whole lot better than going over the range altogether, as might have been the case if we had taken the trail through the big canyon over yonder."

"Say, Jeems!" exclaimed Jo, with a catch in his voice, "you never told Jim and Juarez about the time you was sitting with your back to a tree and they slipped up and tied you, and if we hadn't come along there was no telling what might have happened to you."

"That was a close call," said Jeems. "It was when you, Jim and Juarez were off hunting, and the boys had gone fishing. They got back just in the nick of time." Then he went solemnly to work to tell of the thrilling escape he had had. At the climax of his narrative, Tom and Jo burst into roars of laughter.

"What's the matter with you two guys?" inquired Jim. "I bet my hat that you were at the bottom of this rascality."

The two admitted their guilt, and, after his surprise was over, Jeems took it good-naturedly, while even Jim had to laugh, for it was certainly a successful practical joke.

"Sometime," said Jim prophetically, "you two kittens will get caught up with."

The boys had now ridden above the stunted trees that marked the limits of timber line, but they did not cross over the barren, rocky summit that rose above them for two thousand feet, covered with a broad mantle of snow, but instead bore south through a deep gorge, that threatened to close its rocky jaws upon them at every turn. But Jim was too good a scout to lead them where they would be trapped.

Before noon they had made their way out of the gorge and were upon the northwestern slope of the great mountain. Looking off, while they gave their horses time to breathe, they saw a somewhat different looking section of the range than that which they had been traveling through the past day. From the height where they now stood the vast region beneath them was made up of low mountains, extending onward like recurring billows of the sea, hemmed in by peaks and higher mountains.

"Down there somewhere is the Lost Mine," said Jim, with a sweep of his hand.

"Talk about a needle in a haystack," growled Tom, "this beats it."

"You talk as if you were sitting on the needle," declared Jim. "Try to talk cheerful even if you do feel bad."

"It isn't quite as bad as it looks, Tom," said Jeems encouragingly. "You see that mountain with the rocky hump on it. That mine, according to my calculations from the chart we have, ought to be there or within two miles of it."

"We will dig over every inch of that mountain," declared Tom, his eyes shining with enthusiasm, for he dearly loved money.

"We don't want you to become a miser, Tom," said Jim judiciously, "so I will appoint a committee to take care of your share."

"Eh?" cried Tom, his jaw dropping, then recovering, he yelled, "No you won't, James Darlington, I'll go to law. You can't cheat me of my rights." Tom was pale with anger and Jim was disgusted.

"Ah, go on with you," he said, "you are nothing but an Eastern money shark, anyway."