CHAPTER XXVII

A PERILOUS SEARCH

Surprise and disappointment held them all silent for a few moments after Jim Nestor had made the momentous discovery. Jerry was the first to speak, and he asked:

“Are you sure this is the place, Mr. Brill? Might you not be mistaken? There are so many big rocks, and from here I see another that looks something like a church.”

“No, this is the rock all right,” declared the prospector. “Look, here is where I left one of the sacks that I carried the nuggets in,” and from under a small pile of rocks that held it down he picked up a canvas bag.

“That’s right!” exclaimed Jim Nestor, scratching his head in perplexity. “But where is the gold?”

“That’s what we’ve got to find out!” exclaimed Ned.

“Are you sure this is the sack you left?” asked Bob of the prospector. “Maybe some of the grub-stakers dropped this here when they were searching for the gold.”

For answer Mr. Brill held out the sack, and silently pointed to the initials “H. B.” marked on it in ink.

“I put ’em there,” he said. “I’d know ’em anywhere. It was one of the three sacks I had the sixty nuggets in. I took the others away with me, but as they bulged out my pockets so, I left this one here, after I put the nuggets in a box. Oh, there’s no doubt that this is the place where I hid the gold.”

“But what has become of it?” asked Professor Snodgrass, who, now that he had found his snakes, consented to take an interest in other matters.

“Those fellows got it!” declared Jim Nestor. “They got ahead of us after all, and they’ve taken it!”

“It looks so,” agreed Ned. “What had we better do?”

“Take after ’em right away!” declared Harvey Brill.

“That’s right!” agreed Bob. “We’ll have dinner, and start the chase.”

“Yes, be sure and have dinner first,” remarked Jerry, half sarcastically. He was bitterly disappointed over the failure of their expedition. So were the others, as their faces showed.

“We ought to be able to catch up to ’em in the airship,” was Mr. Brill’s remark.

“But we can’t tell how long ago they were here,” said Jim Nestor. “It’s been some time since you hid the gold--isn’t it, Harvey?”

“Yes, some time.”

“Well, the only thing to do is to start, I suppose,” said Jerry, wearily.

He advanced toward the airship, with a glance at the empty pocket where the gold had been.

“Stop!” suddenly exclaimed Professor Snodgrass, catching hold of Jerry’s sleeve. “I’m not so sure the gold has been taken away--at least by a human agency.”

“What’s that?” cried the tall lad.

“I say I’m not so sure the gold has been taken away.”

“But it’s gone; isn’t it?” demanded Ned.

“Yes. But let me ask Mr. Brill a few questions,” went on the scientist. “I’d like to know,” he continued, “if this place is exactly as it was when you hid the gold?”

“Well, no, not exactly,” declared the prospector. “There have been quite some changes. Of course the big rock is just the same, but those around it seem to have been moved. And, now that I look at it again, I can see that the pocket isn’t in exactly the same location.”

“I thought so!” exclaimed the professor, in triumph. “And now can you see any traces of water having covered this place since you were here?”

Mr. Brill glanced curiously at the scientist, and then looked carefully around him.

“Water?” he repeated. “Why, yes, now that you mention it, I should say there had been a sort of washout or flood here.”

“Exactly!” cried Mr. Snodgrass. “And it’s the flood that took away the sixty nuggets--not the grub-stakers!”

“A flood!” cried Jerry.

“Yes,” went on Uriah Snodgrass. “The gold was washed out of the pocket by a rush of water. There have been heavy rains since Mr. Brill hid the nuggets. Or there may have been a cloud-burst, or even an underground river may have burst to the surface after the landslide. Whatever happened, the gold has been washed away, but the canvas sack caught under a rock and was held.”

“But where is the gold now?” demanded Ned, with hope in his voice.

“Scattered along the track taken by the flood,” answered the scientist. “Look, you can see which way it washed,” and, now that their attention was called to it, they could all see traces of the flood. There were riffles in the heavy sand, bits of driftwood, and marks on the stones that showed how high the water had risen. It had swept on down the valley.

“We’ll have to follow the track left by the flood,” exclaimed the professor, “and we may find the gold that way.”

“Good!” cried Ned. “Then everything isn’t lost yet.”

“Not by a jugful!” exclaimed Jerry. “We may get the gold yet.”

Eagerly they began their search, but it was soon seen that it was not going to be an easy task. For, a little way from the big rock that marked the location of the pocket, they came to a wild and desolate part of the valley, where great stones lay piled loosely one on the other, ready to topple over at the least disturbance.

“We’ve got to be careful,” warned Jerry. “We may be caught under some of those boulders.”

“That’s right,” agreed Professor Snodgrass. “This is going to be a perilous search.”

“But we won’t give up on that account!” cried Ned.

“I guess not!” agreed the two Westerners.

The party halted for a short time for dinner, and then resumed looking for the gold. The marks of the flood were plainly to be seen, and put them on the right trail.

“Look low,” advised Mr. Snodgrass. “Gold is about the heaviest metal there is, and it will lodge low down. Look at the very bottom of where the flood swept.”

Their search was indeed perilous and full of danger. Several times one or the other of them just managed to get out of the way as a big boulder came crashing down. But they found not the slightest trace of gold. It all seemed to have vanished.

Bob, who had strayed ahead of the others, leaped from one stone to another to get into a little depression where he thought he might find some of the yellow nuggets. As he did so he dislodged a small stone, which fell with a crash.

The silence that followed was broken by a menacing growl, and Bob, looking quickly ahead of him, saw, crouched on the trunk of a dead tree, a tawny yellow body--a mountain lion ready to spring!