CHAPTER XXX

An Adventure

WHEN Nell bade good bye to Doss Umpey her intention was to get back to Camp’s Gulch as quickly as she could, in order to send a message asking Dr. Russell to come the next day to see the sick man. If she were too late to send a message by the cars, she would telegraph for him; but in any case she must get the doctor there next day.

The boy Joe offered to escort her all the way back to Camp’s Gulch; but this she would not hear of, for he had already walked the distance twice and must be very tired. Then, too, she did not think the sick man should be left so long alone, for he looked so frail and exhausted that she would not have been surprised if he had died whilst she sat beside him.

So, bribing Joe, with the promise of another pie next day, to take particular care of the invalid until she came again, Nell said farewell to the two; and turning the corner of the great rock was speedily out of sight of the miner’s encampment and making her way homeward as fast as she could go.

For the first mile or two she did very well, for the way, although rough, was mostly downhill, and being a keen observer she found her way without difficulty.

Then came a sharp rise which she remembered perfectly, for it was almost the only bit of downhill which had occurred on the way to Goat’s Gulch. But when she reached the top she found herself confronted by two valleys, and could not recollect which one she had to take.

Sitting down for a five-minutes’ rest on a big stone, Nell surveyed the scene before her and tried to discover which of the two valleys she had to take to get to Camp’s Gulch. It was already growing late, for she had stayed with Doss Umpey much longer than she had intended to do. Even if she walked her hardest and made no mistakes she would not be back until the evening work was all done; and this thought vexed her more than her own weariness, for Gertrude had quite enough to do, without the additional toil of waiting on those hungry evening customers.

A few minutes longer Nell sat on her big stone; then her sharp eyes saw something which made her jump up suddenly and hurry onward. A faint white mist was rising, and she knew it would spread and increase until it filled all the higher valleys with an impenetrable curtain.

Making up her mind in great haste, she plunged into the valley winding away to the left, and went forward as quickly as she could. For the first mile or so she imagined herself to be going right; then, turning an angle, where the trees grew down to the bottom of the valley, she found herself confronted by great yawning holes in the sides of the hills—empty pockets these, where the copper ore had all been cleared out with the miner’s pick—and then she knew all at once that she had come wrong, for she had passed no place like this when walking up with Joe.

A minute or two she paused irresolute, wondering if she would go back to the high ground and take the other valley; then, remembering with a shiver the crawling white mist which was creeping along the hillsides, she decided to go forward, feeling confident that she must come upon some trace of civilization before long, because those yawning holes in the hillside showed that people had been working there at no very distant date.

“I suppose I shall drop down into the Settlement presently,” she said to herself, as she tramped doggedly onward.

Her weariness was beginning to make itself very plainly felt now, and she had a thoroughly exhausted sensation, which was due to want of food. She had not had a proper meal since her early breakfast, and now it was late in the evening.

The valley seemed endless, and when at length she reached its extreme point, it was only to find that it forked, one way going down through a thickly wooded ravine, the other mounting a barren hillside.

Mrs. Nichols was always fond of saying, “When in doubt, take the way which seems easiest;” but although Nell remembered this well enough, she at once resolved in this case to take the hardest way, because once down in the timbered valley she could see nothing but her immediate surroundings. But if she got on to higher ground, she might be able to get some idea of her whereabouts, and luckily she appeared to have got clear of the zone of white mist.

The long upward slope was higher than she had thought it to be. Before she reached the top the sun was down, and the blue grey shadows of twilight were filling in the hollows of the hills, and blurring the outlines of the wooded slopes.

“I may see a camp fire, or a lighted window. If not I shall just sit still for half an hour until the moon rises,” she said to herself, as with sore feet and tired ankles, she toiled wearily up that long, long hill.

It was cooler at the top; a moaning night wind sighed across the great waste, and Nell, who was wearing only a thin cotton blouse, shivered from the cold, as she stood letting her keen gaze travel all round through the gloom.

“What was that?” she cried out, almost shouting in her excitement; for far away, still to the left, was a point of light, which in the distance looked like a camp fire.

“There it is; some one has just lighted a fire to cook supper,” she said, talking to herself, because the sound of her own voice somehow took away her horrible sense of loneliness.

She hurried on down the slope, having to go warily now because of the trouble to see her way. There were rocks and holes in the earth to be avoided on the higher ground, but lower down it would be soft spots which she had to avoid, and these were the most dangerous of all.

But the fire was burning brightly now, and she made her way towards it, thankful to find some one besides herself in that great loneliness, yet with many misgivings as to the kind of people she might find camped about that fire.

In mining districts, the population is always rough in the out-of-the-way hollows of the hills. There were a great many men working who were wanted by the police on both sides of the border, and it was characters like these whom Nell was so afraid of encountering.

But the miners were not all bad, and she knew very well that if it were any of the Syndicate upon whom she chanced to stumble she would be as safe as in her own home, for, thanks to her courage in the matter of the depot robbery, they all regarded her as an absolute heroine, and treated her with the utmost deference.

She was near enough now to see that a man was bending over the fire, apparently cooking supper, and she was hurrying in order to get over the ordeal of accosting him, when the ground suddenly gave way under her feet, and, with a terrified cry, she plunged downward into the darkness.

If she had been watching the path half as carefully as she watched the fire, she would have seen a pocket yawning before her unwary feet, and so have been saved the pain and humiliation of her tumble.

At the sound of her cry, the man who was cooking supper abruptly suspended operations, and sent an answering shout through the darkness.

“What is wrong; do you want help?”

Nell heard the shout through the confusion of her fall, and the sound somehow brought a sense of comfort to her, for the voice had a cheery, resolute ring which was reassuring.

But she was brought up with a sudden jerk on reaching the bottom of the pocket, and lay there for a minute or two, with so much of the breath knocked out of her that she had no power even to shout back.

Then she heard footsteps, and saw a gleam of light. The man had made himself a torch by stuffing a great resinous bough in the fire, and was holding it aloft in order to see better.

“Where are you?” he shouted; and again the sound of his voice brought a thrill of comfort to poor Nell.

“I am here; be careful, or you will fall down too,” she called back; then laughed hysterically because, even as she spoke, the man stumbled and floundered on the edge of the pocket, the torch dropped from his hand, and immediately went out.

“A nasty hole this, especially when you happen upon it unexpectedly,” the man said, in a breathless fashion, as by a great effort he just managed to save himself from rolling down the slope, and crashing upon poor Nell, who was beginning to pick herself up and estimate the number of her injuries.

“Give me your hand, then I will pull you up; but I don’t dare come lower for fear of losing my hold, and tumbling in upon you,” said the man, as, gripping the top with a firm hold, he stretched his other hand down to Nell.

She put her hand into his, wondering why it was his voice had such a familiar ring, then, by a great effort, she pulled herself up the steep side of the pocket.

“How comes it that you are wandering about in such a desolate place so late, and alone?” he asked, with so much reproachful sternness that Nell coloured hotly in distress and mortification.

“I could not help it. I have been to see a sick man at Goat’s Gulch, and I lost my way in returning to Camp’s Gulch depot; can you direct me, if you please?”

There was a thrill of indignation in her voice, for she was angry with him for presuming to lecture her on the impropriety of her conduct.

The man’s grasp of her hand suddenly tightened, and Nell saw that he was peering at her through the gloom.

“Who are you?” he asked, with a ring of anxiety in his tone.

“My name is Eleanor Hamblyn, and I keep the food-shop close to Camp’s Gulch depot; can you direct me there, please? They will be in such a state of worry about me at home,” she said, with a pathetic little break in her tone caused by weariness and fright, for the man had not relinquished her hand.

The moon was coming up, and the purple gloom was being shot with silvery light, when the man suddenly exclaimed, in a tone of delight—

“By all that is wonderful, I believe you are my Miss Nell, my good friend of nearly two years ago!”

“Mr. Bronson?” she said, in amazement. Then, because her relief was so great, collapsed suddenly in a flood of undignified tears.

“Poor little girl!” he said gently. “Come over to my fire, and I will give you some supper. But are you hurt?” he asked anxiously, as Nell stood quaking, shivering on the edge of the yawning pocket, which the light of the rising moon showed so plainly now.

“No, thank you; but I am very tired, and—and hungry,” she admitted, in a burst of candour. “I was rather frightened too, for I thought you were a miner, and some of the people about here are very rough.”

“I am afraid that I look rather rough too, but I have been on the tramp for two weeks now, and work of that sort soon rubs the fresh newness from one’s appearance. Sit down on this stone by the fire, and I will get you a mug of tea and a rasher of bacon in no time. One good turn deserves another, you know, and the last time we met it was you who succoured me,” he said, seating her on a big flat stone close to the blazing wood fire, and then bustling about with hospitable haste to get her some supper, which she was needing so badly.

Nell felt too tremulous and unsteady to trust herself to say much for a few minutes, and she sat watching him in silence, and wondering how it chanced that a man with so much culture and refinement, should be roughing it in the wilds like a common miner.

“Are you criticizing my cookery, or are you wondering how it is that I am wandering round in this fashion, and leading such a vagabond life?” he asked abruptly, as he carefully lifted a tin mug of tea from the coals and brought it to her.

Nell laughed softly. “I was not thinking of the cookery; but it did puzzle me that you should be wandering about in such a fashion, because you—you don’t match the life,” she said, with a little halting confusion of speech, feeling rather ashamed of her curiosity.

He dished a rasher of bacon onto a tin plate, and placed it before her, with a clasp knife, a two-pronged cooking fork, and a big slice of bread, then told her to begin supper at once before the food got cold. But he made no attempt to explain his position, and Nell had a vexed sensation of having been snubbed because of her unwarrantable curiosity.

But the tea was good, despite the battered old tin mug in which it was served, and the bacon was nice to one so hungry as Nell, although, if her appetite had not been so keen, she might have objected to it being scorched black on one side and nearly raw on the other.

When she had taken the sharpest edge from her hunger and thirst, she suddenly became aware that her host was eating nothing, but just sitting on another stone and watching her feed.

“Oh, I am so sorry; it is your supper I am taking, and you have nothing!” she exclaimed.

“Not a bit of it. There are provisions in plenty; it is only the implements which are wanting,” he replied, with a laugh. “You see, there is only one mug, which is kettle, teapot, and teacup all rolled into one; and it is the same with the knife, fork, and plate. However, there is no need to worry, for I am not very hungry to-night, as I had some lunch in the middle of the day, a very unusual thing for me when on tramp, for then, as a rule, I make two good square meals suffice for twenty-four hours.”

Nell finished her supper in a great hurry.

“Now I will cook for you,” she said hastily. “Then, when you have eaten, you will perhaps be so very kind as to show me the way to the depot at Camp’s Gulch, for they will be getting in a fearful state of worry about me.”

“I can show you so far as the Settlement; but after that I fear you will have to be the guide, for I have only come that way once—nearly a year ago—so I can’t be very sure of my road.”

“If you can guide me to the Settlement that is all I shall need, thank you. I know the road perfectly from there,” she answered.

“I hope you don’t suppose that I should let you go all that long way alone. You have had quite enough in the way of adventures for one day, I fancy. But sit still and rest. I shall not be more than ten minutes or a quarter of an hour before I am ready to take the road; and you will travel all the better for the pause,” he said, as he brewed himself another mug of tea and began to eat a hunch of bread.

“Are you not going to have some bacon?” asked Nell, with dismay in her tone.

“No; the bread is quite enough; and I can see you are impatient to be on the move again,” he said. When the tea was to his liking, he swallowed it in great gulps and declared himself ready to start.

“I am so sorry to take you all that way,” murmured Nell, as Mr. Bronson prepared for his start by huddling his cooking utensils into a bag which he slung across his back; then, picking up another bundle and a big umbrella which stood at the foot of a tree close by, declared himself ready to start.

“Are you not coming back to this camp?” she asked in surprise, seeing that he had taken all his belongings and was preparing to kick the fire to pieces.

“No; any two trees suffice to sling my hammock in; then I roll a blanket round me, hoist my umbrella, and sleep peacefully until morning,” he said, laughing at the concern on her face.

“What a dreadful life!” she exclaimed, with consternation in her tone.

“It is just beautiful,” he answered, with enthusiasm. “I go into the wilds for my vacation every year; but I have not ventured on a horse since I had to shoot that poor beast in the swamp two years ago. Then last year and this year I have been looking for you.”

“What do you mean?” asked Nell, in great surprise, thinking she could not possibly have heard aright, since she knew of no reason why Mr. Bronson should want to seek her out.

“Just precisely what I said,” he replied, laughing at her wonderment. “Common gratitude for what you had done for me took me to Blue Bird Ridge last year, only to find that the Lone House had other tenants who could not or would not tell me anything about you. Then I travelled on to Button End and interviewed Joe Lipton; but he knew nothing, and his wife, who might have helped me, was away visiting and could not be got at, so I had to give it up because the end of my vacation was in sight. I had left that part to the last, you see.”

“Yes, I know,” said Nell, thinking of that day in last summer when she had seen Mr. Bronson standing talking to a man at the depot, and Joey Trip had said that it was Dick Brunsen, only it must have been the other man whom Joey meant.

“How did you know?” he asked in surprise.

“I will tell you presently, only I should like to hear your story first,” she answered, with a little catch in her voice, as she thought of the confession she would have to make concerning her disposal of those thirty dollars; and then she began to wonder how long it would take her to save the money which Doss Umpey had spent, so that it might be restored to its rightful owner.

“There isn’t much more story to tell. When I crossed to the mainland this day two weeks ago, I took the cars to Lewisville, tramped from there to Button End, and, happily, found Mrs. Lipton at home. From her I learned a lot about you, which interested me greatly; but when I asked for your address, Mrs. Lipton could only direct me to a Mrs. Nichols at Bratley Junction, and I should have pursued my pilgrim way to Bratley in due course, but for your dropping out of the clouds at my feet, as it were, this evening. But where have you been hiding so carefully all this long time, and why?”

It was Nell’s turn for explanations now, but her story took so long in the telling, and raised so much comment from the listener, that by the time it came to an end the two were going down the last slope of the road to the depot, while a flood of silvery moonlight showed up their figures in strong relief.

“Nell, is it you?” rang out a shrill boy’s voice, and Patsey came bounding from the shadows by the side of the road, where he had been watching and waiting for the last hour, afraid to go any farther from the house, lest he should miss her, and so add to the anxiety and confusion already existing at home.

“I lost my way, that is why I am so late. Is Gertrude much worried?” asked Nell.

“Flossie has nearly cried herself sick, and Gertrude has bothered a good deal. But a lady has come—the summer boarder; only it isn’t the Miss Alfreton that you expected, but her sister, a Mrs. Bronson, and she’s a downright good sort, for she has been in the kitchen all the evening serving soup and toad-in-the-hole.”

“My mother!” exclaimed the man with the big bundle on his back, who was walking on the other side of Nell, and at whom the boy had been peering curiously.

“Oh, I say, are you the Mr. Bronson, the professor at Royal Mount College, that had the tussle with a bear in the Yosemite Valley?” demanded Patsey, eagerly.

“The very same; but that is ancient history now, for it happened five years ago, and I have become wiser since then,” he said, with a laugh which rang through the quiet night.

“Why, that is my Dick’s laugh, I should know it anywhere,” said Mrs. Bronson, who had been standing with Gertrude outside the house door, listening for the first sound of Nell’s coming.

“And that is Nell talking to Patsey; how merry they seem, and how thankful I am that she has got home safely!” exclaimed Gertrude, with a sigh of relief.

Mrs. Bronson had started off to meet the group coming down, and Gertrude followed her.

“My dear Dick, where did you spring from?” cried the mother’s voice, with a ring of glad welcome in it.

“I might ask you the same question, I think,” he replied as he stooped and kissed her, and then as the moonlight fell on her face, Nell saw that she was the original of the portrait, which had been in the case with the thirty dollars—a woman past middle life with a beautiful face, and a sweet, kindly expression.

“What have you been doing, Dick?” the mother asked anxiously, as if her son’s appearance caused her anxiety.

“I have been paying my debts, mother, and helping Miss Hamblyn out of a difficulty, because she helped me two years ago,” he said quietly.

“Oh, you have found her at last!” exclaimed Mrs. Bronson, and then putting her hands on Nell’s shoulders, she looked searchingly into the girl’s face.

“I lost my way and fell into an empty pocket; then Mr. Bronson pulled me out, and kindly gave me some supper; but he has had nothing himself, except a piece of bread and some tea; will you please induce him to come in and let us give him some food?” asked Nell, who had flushed to a bright red under Mrs. Bronson’s gaze.

“Oh yes, we will make him come in and feed him. Then he can sling his hammock under the cedar tree and sleep in peace until morning,” the lady said, with a satisfied laugh, as if her close inspection of Nell had pleased her. “I foresee that he will also want breakfast when morning comes, so you will have two boarders on your hands instead of one.”

“But I shall be more help than hindrance, I am sure, because, you see, I can help with the cooking, or do it all at a pinch,” replied Dick, slipping his bundle from his back when he reached the gate of the garden.

Then Nell, remembering the bacon scorched to a cinder on one side and almost raw on the other, laughed merrily, in spite of her weariness; and they all went indoors to get the hungry man some more supper.