CHAPTER XVIII

LOST LAKE FOUND

"Let me past! I'll catch him!" cried Bob.

"Wait a minute! Maybe that's him coming back?" replied Jerry.

Sure enough the next instant the auto, which had been lost to sight by reason of a turn in the road, came into view.

Straight up the highway it came, the figure of the Indian, wrapped in his blanket, with his headdress of feathers, an altogether brilliant figure, seated at the wheel; a strange enough combination as any one will admit.

The red man acted as though he had been used to running autos all his life. He sat straight as an arrow, his hands grasping the wheel, which was sending the car straight for the boys.

"He's just doing this to taunt us!" exclaimed Jerry. "I have a good notion to take a shot at one of the tires with my revolver and scare him into stopping."

"Don't do it! You might kill him," said Ned, "and you wouldn't want to do that. But what does he mean by stealing the car, and then bringing it back?"

A few seconds later the auto drew up in front of the boys, who had come to a halt. With an ease that bespoke long experience the Indian brought the machine to a stop, and then, while the lads looked on, so full of wonder at the whole occurrence that they did not know what to say, the red man grunted:

"Heap fine wagon. Ugh! Indian like um, he buy um! How much?"

"Look here!" burst out Jerry, so angry that he hardly took note of what the red man had said. "Do you know you are a--"

Then a strange thing happened. Wrapping his blankets closely about him, and drawing himself up to his full height of over six feet, the Indian said calmly:

"I really beg your pardon for the unwarranted liberty I took with your car, but when I saw it standing out here, so far from civilization, I could not resist the temptation to take a ride. I trust you will overlook it."

For a moment the boys were speechless, for the Indian they had supposed one from the half-wild plain tribes, and whose every appearance indicated that, had spoken in English as cultured as that of a college professor.

"What--why--when--where?" stammered Jerry, and the Indian burst into a laugh.

"I see I must explain," he said. "I am not what I seem."

"Aren't you an Indian?" asked Ned.

"A full blooded one, and the chief of a tribe," spoke the red man. "But I am not the half dime library sort.

"You see," he went on, "I have just come back from the school at Carlisle, where I am taking a post graduate course. I felt a sudden longing to don the dress of my ancestors, and roam the broad fields. I did so, starting from my home on the reservation this morning. I came along and saw the auto. As I said, the temptation was too strong to resist. I got in and took a little spin, as you saw. I am sorry if I caused you annoyance, or made you fear your machine had been stolen."

The eyes of the Indian twinkled and, beneath the paint on his face, the boys could see a smile coming.

"But how in the world did you learn to run a car?" asked Jerry.

"Easy enough," was the answer. "I acted as chauffeur for several months this vacation to earn money enough to continue my studies. I got to be quite an expert. That is a fine car you have."

"Well I'm stumped!" exclaimed Bob.

"How do you like my pony?" asked the red man. "I think we made a sort of unfair exchange, though, in spite of the fact that the animal is valuable. Now let me apologize once more, and then I will take my animal and go home."

"You are welcome to the ride," said Jerry. "We were so surprised at first that we took you for a thief."

"I don't blame you," spoke the Indian. "The sight of a red man in an automobile is enough to make any one wonder. Well, heap big chief, Whistling Wind in the Pine, must go."

"Is that your name?" asked Ned.

"It's my Indian one," was the answer, "but at the school I am known as Paul Rader. Now let me bid you good day, and a pleasant journey."

Then, before they could ask him to take a ride with them, the boys saw the Indian leap on his pony, from which Bob had dismounted, and ride away at a smart gallop, his blanket flying out behind him in the wind.

"Well, that's the limit!" exclaimed Ned. "To think of a wild-civilized Indian playing a trick like that."

"I certainly thought he was as wild as they come," put in Bob. "I was afraid it was all up with us."

Then the professor appeared and they told him the story.

"I wish I had met him," said the professor.

"What for; did you know him?" asked Jerry.

"No, but he would probably be able to tell me where to get some fine specimens," remarked the scientist.

In a short time they were all in the auto again, and were bowling along over the table land, the machine humming in a way that told that the cylinders were working well. They camped for supper, and then, as it was a fine moon light night they determined to continue on slowly, as they wanted to make up for lost time.

The moon rose early, a big silver disk shining among the trees, when the autoists started on their night journey.

"This is great!" exclaimed Bob, who seemed to have forgotten his desire for a bed under shelter. "Wouldn't it be fun to have a lot of Indians chase us now?"

"It might if they were tame ones," put in Jerry, who was steering, "but excuse me from any wild ones."

The road soon began a gentle ascent, and the auto ran more slowly up the hill. The road, too, became narrower, winding in and out. The trees, which had been scattering, were thicker, and the travelers could see they were getting well up among the mountains.

"How late are you going to travel?" asked Bob of Jerry.

"Until nearly midnight," was the answer. "The moon begins to go down then and it will not be very safe. But I think we ought to cover as big a distance as possible while we can. We have had delays enough."

The only noise, besides the puffing of the machine, were the cries of owls, the chirping of crickets and katy-dids, with, now and then, the howl of a wolf or fox. In spite of the number in the party, there was a feeling of loneliness about being so far from civilization among the wilds of the mountain region.

Up and up went the car, until the ascent became so steep that Jerry was obliged to run on the low gear. This made progress slow, and, because of the uneven road, so risky, that it seemed unwise to proceed further that night.

"I'll slow up when we get to the top of this hill," said Jerry, "and we'll go into camp."

But he reckoned without knowing what sort of a hill it was, nor did he calculate on the auto failing to stop as soon as he expected. For that was what happened. Reaching the summit of the slope Jerry shut off the power.

But something went wrong with the mechanism. The auto continued on, slowly to be sure, but with enough momentum to send it over the brow of the hill. Then it plunged down on the other side, gathering speed every minute.

"Is she running away?" asked Ned. "Seems so to me."

"She's not behaving as well as she should," replied Jerry, "but I have her under control. The brake is working all right," which fact he soon ascertained.

Faster and faster, however, in spite of the brake, did the auto plunge down the slope. Jerry kept his head, however, and was working to bring the machine to a halt. All at once Bob, looking up, saw where the road made a sudden turn to the left.

"Look out for that!" he cried, pointing.

Jerry tried to make the turn, but the steering wheel suddenly became a little stiff, so that, instead of the car being turned to the left, and around the bend, it kept straight on.

There was a crackling of brush and tree branches, and the big machine left the road and began plowing up the side of a slope, around the lower edge of which the road wound.

"Duck!" cried Ned, as a tree branch hit him in the face.

They all did so, and the next instant the big machine crashed through some briars, bending down several saplings in its journey. Then, having exhausted the momentum, the auto came to a stop, at the summit of the little slope, and Jerry jammed on the brakes to hold it there, the band this time gripping the axle firmly.

"Look! Oh look!" cried Ned, pointing ahead and down below them.

There, in a sort of basin formed by high hills, lay a body of water, sparkling and beautiful in the moonlight, the shadows of tall black mountains reflected in its calm surface.

"It's Lost Lake!" exclaimed Jerry, softly. "Boys! We have found Lost Lake! I am sure of it!"

For a few seconds no one spoke after that, for they were all lost in wonder at the beauty and strangeness of the sight. It was so quiet that it seemed almost as if it was but a picture painted by a master's hand.

Suddenly Bob, who was staring intently at the upper end of the lake, grasped Ned by the arm.

"See," he whispered. "What's that? That thing in white?"