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CHAPTER XVIII IN THE PALM OF THE MOUNTAINS

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shonto and his artificially elated companion continued their journey down the side of the steep cliffs without further mishap. the girl had taken the lead, stepping with a firm, springy stride, all horror of the abyss gone by reason of the potent drug. she was fearless but never reckless. the doctor had known that this would be the result of the hypodermic injection, so he did not worry about her safety and made no objection to her going first.

nevertheless he was worried—worried as never before. a great calamity had come upon all that were concerned in the expedition, but only dr. shonto knew that this was true. the lost medicine case was responsible for it. it was so prodigiously serious that his homely face had turned a shade paler, and his mind was struggling desperately with the problem that it presented for him alone to solve.

eventually the pair rounded the last switchback, and followed a gently sloping trail, quite wide, to the level floor of the valley. they came out upon the floor through a rocky pass, an eighth of a mile above the point where the green river swung in so abruptly to the foot of the cliffs. the land was wooded here. sycamores, cottonwoods, water oaks, live oaks, willows and[170] alders bespoke a more temperate clime than they had passed through since hours before they reached the cabin of shirttail henry richkirk. the valley was lower than ranger reed had estimated, and the explorers had entered the upper sonoran life zone, where existence would be less problematical during rigorous seasons in the wilderness.

there was little underbrush. the grass, though frost-nipped, was still green. digger pines were sprawling, their immense cones beneath the branches on the ground, many of them munched down to stems and scaly fragments by foraging squirrels. linnets were singing in the willows. wild canaries, mere dabs of pale yellow, flitted about importantly, bright-eyed, businesslike.

charmian’s brief sojourn in the land of don’t-give-a-whoop was over. the effects of the cocaine were waning. her mouth was dry, and she was nervous and depressed. the reaction had set in, but the melancholy period would last little longer than the space of blissful unconcern for which it was the price.

the doctor took her hand. “you won’t feel tough long,” he consoled her, as, together, they invaded the solitary valley. “i would have given you a little touch of morphine to counteract the effects of the cocaine, but— well, you know why i couldn’t.”

he heaved a sigh, and she looked up into his face questioningly.

“does the loss of your medicine case mean so very much to you?” she asked.

“more than you know now,” he said soberly. “not[171] only to me, but to you and mary and andy. but don’t question me just now, please. my mind was never so busy before. i must decide what is best to do—and decide right. and every expedient that presents itself strikes me as impossible.”

“why, how serious you are! you worry me, doctor. won’t you—”

“not now,” he interrupted hastily. “i shall be obliged to explain soon enough—after i have made my decision. to-morrow i’ll tell you—well, tell you all that i dare tell.”

he came to a halt as he finished speaking. they were following a well-defined trail that led them among natural obelisks of stone, tall and freakish. there was no other route to the floor proper of the valley. and at their very feet yawned a hole of large dimensions.

shonto sank to his knees and looked in. “i thought as much,” he muttered. “look, charmian! see those skeletons down in there?”

she knelt beside him, and when her eyes became accustomed to the gloom of the hole she saw the skeletons and skulls of many animals.

the walls of the hole were of solid rock, though masonry was not in evidence. the floor was level and many times wider than the mouth. this made the whole assume the shape of a funnel upside-down or an indian wigwam.

“why, they couldn’t get out!” cried charmian. “it is impossible to climb those walls.”

“and you’ll notice that the hole is directly in the[172] middle of the narrow pass from the cliffs above,” said he. “this, charmian, is an indian man-trap. in years gone by it was made here by residents of the valley to trap any enemies that might come down the trail to attack them. the hole was covered with light boughs, perhaps, with earth spread on top to hide them. i know this to be a trick of the klamath indians and the pitt river tribes. but we are hundreds of miles from their stamping ground. we are in the rocks, you’ll notice. there is not a grain of dirt near us. this accounts for the hole’s not filling up with debris and disappearing through all these years. it’s been gouged with infinite pains in comparatively solid stone. it’s conclusive now that at one time the valley of arcana was inhabited and was the scene of tribal warfare. that was doubtless years before the fire swept down the forest and the chaparral locked the valley against intrusion.”

“oh, isn’t it all interesting?” she cried, dark eyes aglow.

but the enthusiasm died out of them as she took note of the continued gravity of her companion’s mien.

“oh, you worry me so!” she complained again. “please don’t look so solemn. tell me, and let me help.”

“you can’t,” he told her, forcing one of those rare smiles that almost beautified his face. “i alone can work out an answer to the problem. and i will know the answer by to-morrow morning. meantime i’ll try my best to forget it.”

a little farther on they found another man-trap,[173] similar to the first. then they left the cemeterial region of obelisks and passed out upon the broad floor of the cañon.

here yellow california poppies were blooming late among the grasses, their orange-gold beauty staying the destructive hand of old jack frost as a soft answer turneth away wrath. the air was warm, delectable. the willows and cottonwoods were losing their leaves, but as yet their branches were far from nude. over a carpet of grass the explorers wandered toward the river and the untarnished land about it—toward grotesque cliffs that in the distance upreared themselves from the level land, toward enchanted forests that intrigued them from afar.

charmian’s depression had gone. she was bright-eyed, vivacious, eager as a child. shonto subdued his gloomy thoughts and made himself enter into the spirit of the quest; for he knew that, for him, there might not be another day in the valley that they had come so far to see.

they reached the river. it was wide and deep, and the jade-green hue of its waters that had lured them from above no longer was revealed. height and distance had given the river colour, for now it was like any other clear, cold mountain stream. its course was boulder-strewn, its bottom often pebbly. large trout flashed in the sunlit riffles, where the water was like shaved ice, or lay like amber pencils in shaded pools.

they came upon ancient bridge abutments, fashioned of large stones, the crumbling red adobe mortar still[174] to be seen in the crevices. once a bridge had spanned the river at this point, probably merely a long pine log, axed to flatness on the upper side, and suspended between the pillars, shonto said. they followed the river’s course, almost despairing of finding a crossing. the doctor shot a jackrabbit sleeping under a bush, long ears laid back along his spine. they continued up the river for an hour, through a forest of oaks and alders and an occasional spruce; then they came to a narrow place through which a torrent roared. here grew handily a clump of straight, tall alders, and with his hunting axe shonto set about felling one so that it would fall across the cataract and bridge the gap for them.

alders are not tough-fibred, and soon the tree was swaying. it leaned nearly in the right direction, and charmian pushed at it as he completed the last few strokes. it groaned and started down. shonto sprang up and aided the girl at pushing, then jerked her back to safety as the tree crashed down. it fell directly athwart the stream, with each end resting on solid stone.

shonto crossed with both packs, walking sidewise, cautiously springing the trunk to test its strength. then he returned to charmian, face to the front, stepping easily and confidently.

“a romance is never complete,” he smiled, “until the he character has carried the she character from one side of a stream of water to the other in his arms. or maybe you’d prefer to go hippety-hop to the barber shop on my manly back.”

[175]she studied a moment. then, with a trace of colour sweeping her face, she faltered:

“which—whichever way you think better, doctor.”

he stooped and placed his long left arm behind her knees. his right arm he passed behind her back. he straightened, lifting her to his breast.

“don’t move,” he cautioned, “and don’t listen to the rush of the water. relax. we’re off!”

she closed both eyes as he stepped upon the trunk. then she opened them again and looked up into his face. his strong jaw was set, she noted, but not a tremor did his body convey to hers. the roaring of the cataract was in her ears. again she felt faint and dizzy. but without hesitation he placed one foot firmly and elastically before the other on the swaying bridge, until he stepped from it to the solid rocks on the other side.

“nothing to it, was there?” he laughed, without a sign of nervousness, as he gently stood her on her feet.

“you have wonderful control over yourself, haven’t you?” she said. “you never even trembled.”

“didn’t i?” he was looking straight into her eyes. “i thought i was shaking like a leaf—especially when i reached this side and just before i set you down.”

“why, how funny! you certainly weren’t frightened.”

“no, tempted,” said shonto, while charmian’s face flushed crimson.

they wandered through an open forest of immense live and black oaks, with gnarled trunks and bulbous[176] boles, and roots moss-upholstered where they were exposed. gray moss hung from the upper limbs, draped and festooned with the delicacy of nature’s artistry. wild grape vines clambered in all directions, drooped in loops down the trunks of lofty trees, or extended in masses from the ground to the topmost branches like the standing rigging of a sailing ship. the clusters of grapes were ripe and ready to fall with their seed to the earth from whence they sprang.

they came upon large flat-topped stones, in which holes the size of a man’s head had been gouged. in these the indian squaws had powdered the acorns to make flour for their native bread, using heavy stone pestles as pulverizers.

a half-mile from the river they suddenly entered a clearing, studded with tall, monumental stones of granite, and with wide-branched oaks scattered about here and there. in the middle were the ruins of a house—the remnants of what had been a large house built of stones and sod and poles.

“that,” said shonto, “speaks plainly of some northern tribe. the northern indians were further advanced than the tribes of southern and central california. the stone abutments back there made me believe that a tribe of comparatively high intelligence once occupied this valley. this ruin confirms it. few of the california tribes built large public houses, as this undoubtedly was, for their ceremonial dances and big dinners and other social activities. i have never told you—for i hadn’t the slightest idea that we’d find evidences of indian life in the valley—but i’ve made[177] quite a hobby of studying the aborigines of the pacific slope. so has andy. we took it up together while nosing around in the mountains and on the desert, and we became intensely interested. i wish i could—” he came to a stop and gave her a look that was as near an admission of discomfiture as she had ever seen him reveal. “it’s getting late. no doubt there’s a spring close by, for this evidently is the site of the old village. let’s camp for the night and cook our rabbit.”

close by the ruins of the community house they located the spring. it was in a ferny dell with mossy banks. charmian stooped for water and saw a white object a little distance off, half hidden by the drooping fronds. instinctively she knew what it was. she rose and walked around to it. it was the tibia bone of a human being, and, scattered here and there throughout the ferns, she discovered the remainder of the skeleton, including the skull.

it gave her somewhat of a shock, but in the days to follow she was to grow accustomed to finding the bones and skulls of men in every conceivable place. this scatteration, the doctor held, bespoke the extinction of the tribe from the ravages of some epidemic—possibly smallpox—rather than a war of annihilation. particularly so because no weapons were discovered near skeletons they found on open land.

the broiled jackrabbit was appetizing, for their stomachs were turned against salt meat and jerky. though the air was frosty, the evening in the protected valley was pleasant, the smoke of the incense cedar of their campfire sweet. dr. inman shonto had been taciturn[178] during the preparations for supper and the coming night. his face was grave, his eyes thoughtful. finally charmian asked:

“your case would sink, of course, wouldn’t it?”

“i saw it sink out of sight,” he replied. “there were some surgical instruments in it that made it heavy. and the river must be deep where it fell, with that sheer wall above it. besides, all of my medical supplies that were not in corked bottles would be ruined, provided we could drag it up. it’s a goner.”

they made no further mention of the subject until the meal was over and shonto, having heaped more wood on the coals, leaned back against the hole of a tree with pipe aglow.

he puffed thoughtfully for several minutes, while the girl gazed into the leaping flames, silent, sensing that her companion was nerving himself to lay his troubles before her. finally he knocked the dottle from his pipe, pocketed it, and looked at her with a brotherly smile.

“i have decided sooner than i thought i should,” he began. “so you may as well know the worst to-night. i don’t think i’ll have reached a better solution by morning.”

he smiled again, patiently, as does a strong man in the face of threatening disaster.

“charmian,” he said, “to-morrow i must start back to mary and andy and leave you here alone. i’ll get andy and send him on to you, while i make an effort to take mary back to shirttail henry’s—or at least as far as mosquito. then i go on to civilization, while[179] you and andy wait for me to return to the valley of arcana. i’ll probably come back to you in an aeroplane. only by following that plan can andy jerome be saved.”

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