CHAPTER XVII.

A SECRET OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN.

"If we hang out here any length of time, Adrian, we'll try and come back to this place again, and see if we can make a discovery," suggested Donald, presently.

"You'll find me agreeable," replied the one addressed; but Billie made no remark, and doubtless secretly hoped they might change their minds.

"I've got the exact spot marked in my mind, so we won't make any mistake about it," Donald continued, seeming to have set his mind on solving this mystery, concerning which there was so much talk among the miners, and the visitors who came to the Zuni village from time to time, led by curiosity, and a desire to see the queer customs of this ancient people.

"It's his secret, all right," muttered Billie.

"And like as not," Adrian went on to say, thoughtfully, "handed down to him from his ancestors, or some other medicine man; for they tell me that at some time in their lives each Witch Doctor selects the one he thinks ought to succeed him, and teaches that party all the things he knows, that go to make him different from the other men of the tribe."

"Yes," added Donald, "as you say, this secret way of getting into the mountain has been known all the way back, for hundreds of years; but so much afraid are the Zunis of their medicine man, that never once would a brave dream of following the same, to watch him talk with Manitou in the heart of the Sacred Mountain."

"It's a trick, then, you believe?" questioned Billie.

"No doubt about that, Billie," Adrian replied, wishing to settle the matter once and for all in the mind of the other chum; "if you could once find the 'Open Sesame,' here to this rock, the same that Ali Baba did, you remember, in the '_Forty Thieves_,' ten to one you'd learn that the inside of the mountain has passages running through it every-which-way; and that once he gets inside the old humbug just feels able to appear and vanish whenever he feels like it, because he's right at home."

"Now, that sounds like hard, common-sense; and I'm beginning to think you're on the right track after all, fellows," Billie told them.

"That's comforting, anyhow," chuckled Adrian. "When we've advanced the argument so far that Broncho Billie approves of it, things begin to move, eh, Donald?"

"I s'pose now, that if one of your miners came along here, and set off his little dynamite cartridge right at the base of this same cliff, there'd be something showing after that, a hole in the rock that somehow we just can't seem to find now?" was the next suggestion on the part of the stout chum; who liked to think up all sorts of strange ideas that often bordered on the ridiculous; though he had been known to give his comrades a hint once or twice that had led to good results in their hands.

"We haven't any more business around here, have we, Ad?" asked Donald, with a little chuckle, as of amusement.

"I can't remember having lost anything," replied the other; "and if you've looked all you want to, and marked the place with a white stone in your mind, why, I reckon we'd better vamose the ranch."

"Second the motion; all in favor say ay--motion carried unanimously, so come on, fellows, let's back track to the ponies," Billie went on to say, hurriedly before Donald had half a chance to get a word in.

"All right, let's see if you can lead us there, Billie," suggested Adrian. "You've been showing some pretty clever stunts lately; and keeping track of things as you go, in case you want to return the same way, is part of the education of a true plainsman, you know."

Billie looked dismayed. The fact of the matter was that while they were on the way to this place he had been so busily engaged in keeping a bright lookout for signs of the dreadful medicine man, that he had paid little or no attention to the surroundings.

Still, that was no reason he should expose his ignorance to his chums, who, as Adrian had just said, were coming to have a good opinion of his abilities.

"Oh! all right, just as you say about it, boys!" he declared, cheerily; "but I'm hardly myself after my late terrible experience; and it might save time and bother if one of you took charge of the return trip. Not but that I'm able to do the thing, if it seemed really necessary--you understand that, of course."

Neither of his comrades made any remark, though able to read between the lines, and judge for themselves just how capable Billie might prove.

"Looks quite different in here to what it was out on the sand desert, don't it, boys?" Adrian remarked, after they had started away from the cliff.

"I should say it did," replied Billie, "with the trees around, and these bushes too. Ain't that a hazel bush, Donald, and this one, say, didn't you call it a rattlesnake weed once, when we were on the ranch?"

"Yes, but it doesn't get the name from being eaten by the crawlers, Billie. And here's another bush you ought to know," Donald told him.

"Buffalo berries, as sure as shooting," said the stout chum, eager to show that his memory was good. "I hid in a patch of the same that time I tried to coax an antelope up close enough to nail him, by waving my red bandana every little while. And he did come trotting along, now retreating, and then getting closer, till I just couldn't stand it any longer, and blazed away; but somehow I didn't get my game, though I thought I hit him, all right."

"But you could do much better than that now, Billie," said Adrian, soothingly; "because you've had ever so much experience since that try. Yes, and brought down game worth talking about, too."

"Thank you, Adrian; it's kind of you to say that, and I won't forget it soon, either!" declared Billie, as he turned his head to take one last look at the beetling cliff before they passed out of sight of it.

Immediately they heard him give an exclamation.

"Well, I declare!"

"What is it?" asked Donald, also whirling around.

"Why, he must have been watchin' us all the time, fellows; just think of the cunning of the old rascal!" continued the fat boy, whose face was filled with a mixture of surprise and alarm.

They did not have to question him any farther, because both of the others had by now made the same discovery that had arrested the attention of Billie when he turned to say good-bye to the mysterious cliff.

There, about three-fifths of the way to the top they sighted an object marked plainly on the white face of the wall. It was indeed the old medicine man, dressed in all his panoply of feathers and skins and colored beads until he looked like a gay advertising sign.

"Whew! he's staring right at us," said Billie, uneasily; "just like he knew we had gone and follered him here, and wanted to ask us what business it was of ours if he chose to sneak away and talk with the Manitou of his people?"

"Try your kodak on him, then, Billie, and have something to show to prove your story when you come to spin it," suggested Donald, who did not appear to be very much concerned over the new happening.

Apparently Billie thought this might not be a bad idea, for dropping his rifle he hastily swung the little camera around until he could grip it in both hands.

"Better hurry," warned Adrian, "because I think he's on to your dodge, and objects to being potted without having his palm crossed with silver. That's the way with most of the Indians along the line of the Southern Pacific now; they dodge, and hide their faces whenever they see a camera coming, or poked at them, until you throw them a quarter, when they'll pose."

"Click!" went the shutter, followed by a satisfied exclamation from the operator.

"That was another good one, I'm telling you!" Billie affirmed, triumphantly; "mebbe I won't have a dandy lot of views to pay for all my trouble in toting this same little black box all the way over desert and mountains."

"He still watches us," observed Donald; "and I'd give something just to know what is passing through the mind of that sharp old humbug right now; because he must guess that we're interested in his actions, or we wouldn't have followed him the way we did."

"Oh!" remarked Adrian, "chances are he's been followed many times before now, without anybody ever picking up any information worth while. Trust the crafty old scamp for knowing his business through and through. If you were close enough right now to see what he's doing I reckon you'd find him laughing in his sleeve, as they say, because we ran smack up against a dead wall over there. We're not the first, by a long sight, because the story of that lump of gold would be apt to lure lots of prospectors over this way. And they've been fooled every time by his disappearing so queer like. Perhaps some of them, being ignorant and superstitious like the Zunis, really began to believe the Witch Doctor did have the power to open the side of the mountain, whenever he wanted to talk with Manitou."

"Anyhow, it's plain he means to stand up there and watch us out of the place," Billie went on to say; and then being overwhelmed with his customary desire to acquire information he added: "looks like the face of that cliff is as flat as any house wall; so what d'ye think he can be standin' on up there all this while?"

"Some sort of small ledge, you'd find, if ever you got there," Donald advanced, positively enough, as though it did not admit of a doubt in his mind.

"Oh! that's it, eh?" Billie continued; "then he must have come out through some crack that we can't see from here."

"But we may, some fine day not a great while off," remarked Donald, lightly.

"That is, if you can find the way in down at the base?" said the fat chum, who did not like to take things for granted when they seemed to be barricaded with all manner of unsolved problems.

But as Donald turned away and resumed his progress along the trail he was heard to say, half to himself, though the others caught his words plainly enough:

"That hidden entrance down below shouldn't bother us any, if once we make up our minds we mean to see for ourselves what the old chap has got concealed inside his Sacred Mountain; because cowboys always carry ropes along, and it wouldn't be such a hard job, after all, to drop down from the top there, and land on that same ledge, some time when we knew the Witch Doctor was busy in the village. I've got the spot marked to a certainty in my mind, and all of you notice that there's the finest cedar growing directly above him on the top of the wall, just as if it had been meant to fasten a lariat to. Leave it to your Uncle Donald, and perhaps before a great while we'll make a try to solve the secret of the hidden treasure of the Zuni medicine man."