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Darwood, could you take us back in your sleigh, if we paid you for it?" "I'll take you back, and it shan't cost you a cent," answered the farmer, quickly. "Hadn't we better find out what became of Reff Ritter?" questioned Jack. "I'll run over to the Saldy farm and see," answered Andy, and set off without delay. While Andy was gone, Samuel Darwood went to the barn to hitch up his team.
Darwood did not give me a very cordial welcome; he ordered me out of his camp. Not only that, but he threatened me in case we persisted in following him. I think he would have used his pistol on me if I had not gone away when I did." "Is this true, Darwood?" questioned the Professor, who was restraining himself with an effort. "I reckon it's right, so far as it goes.
Darwood thinks we are like some others he has met. He thinks we are trying to steal his gold mine," declared Tad in an impressive voice. Professor Zepplin flushed deeply. "What!" fairly exploded Professor Zepplin. "Mr. Darwood accuses us of having followed him to find out where this wonderful gold deposit is located. He thinks we want to steal it away from him." "Preposterous!"
"Suppose you set the example," said Tad quietly. He had not spoken up to this point. "Keep still!" commanded Darwood. "Put down those guns." "Don't be in a hurry," advised Tad. "Before you do anything that you'll regret, let me say that every man of you is covered. The slightest hostile motion on your part is your death warrant." "The Indian's got away!" cried Dawson.
"I call it tiresome," declared the fat boy wearily. "I prefer something exciting." Ned suggested that he jump overboard. Stacy replied that he would were it not that he didn't want to put his companions to the trouble of rescuing him. The entrancing scenery continued at intervals until the evening of the second day after their unsuccessful attempt to draw out Curtis Darwood.
"I reckon I'm going. You'll hear from me again. Next time the shoe will pinch the other foot." "It will be the foot that kicks you out of camp in that case," answered the Professor. "Hooray!" howled the fat boy. "Three cheers for Professor Zip-zip!" "Be silent!" thundered Professor Zepplin. "Yes, you had better look out or he will take it out of you after Mr. Darwood has gone," warned Tad.
"Come right in and I'll stir up the fire!" and he stepped aside that the cadets might enter. When Pepper deposited his burden in a chair it was seen that Gus Coulter was in a bad way. His eyes were closed, and he was shaking as with convulsions. "Here, we'll strip off some of his wet clothes and rub him down!" cried Andy. "And can you get something hot to drink, Mr. Darwood?"
"What's the meaning of this outrage, gentlemen?" he demanded. "I gave you warning to mush back to where you came from," answered Darwood. "And I told you we'd do nothing of the sort!" "You're going now, and in a hurry!" "What will you do if we refuse again?" "You'll find out what we'll do. We're north of fifty-three now. You know what that means. Put down those guns, and do it quick."
Sit down and have breakfast with us and then we will lead you to the place." "I can't say much," said Darwood falteringly. "We've been a bunch of driveling idiots." After breakfast Anvik was sent to the men's camp for pans and implements and supplies, and the others set off in Tad Butler's wake to explore the gulch.
I am glad I am at sea, where I can't dig. Nothing was done in the matter of locating and working the claim for some years after the Doctor's death. Then a grandson, Curtis Darwood, who is now aboard this boat, found a paper or map or something of the sort, on which was a description of the Doctor's find. It couldn't have been very definite or they wouldn't have been so long in locating the place.
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