CHAPTER XVII.—THE SUNBURST ON THE WALL.
The sound to which Case called attention was a long, quavering howl, such as a dog in captivity will sometimes make. It sounded far away.
“There’s the proof of it!” the boy said. “Captain Joe has been taken prisoner, and he’s trying to tell us about it. Now, how the Old Harry did any living person get him into a mess he couldn’t get out of?”
“What we want to know, just now,” said Alex, “is where he is, and not how he got there. The sound came from up above?” he asked.
“I thought so,” was the reply.
“Well, how are we going to get up there?” demanded the other.
The boys passed to the east of the precipice and came to a rugged incline which seemed to lead to the vicinity of the shelf of rock from which the ghostly visitors had apparently fallen. It was hard climbing for those unused to such exercise, but at last they stood on a summit which connected with the shelf farther along.
Below, five hundred feet or more, ran the Colorado river, its red waters hidden from the moonlight except in spots, for the outcropping walls make a view of the river from the top almost impossible. The boys could see the Rambler lying at anchor, however, and see the embers of the cooking fire not far away. There were no lights on board the boat when they first looked, but presently a glimmer was seen on the aft deck.
“What is it?” asked Case, mystified.
“Some one boarding the boat!” Alex cried. “The boys are asleep and Captain Joe is gone! Now do you see why the dog was abducted? We’ve got to get down there just as soon as we can. No knowing what may happen!”
“I guess we’re not going to lack for excitement!” Case mused. “We’ve got out of the path of commerce, but we seem to have struck a live wire, after all!”
“Shall we go back, or just wake the boys and go find the dog?” asked the other.
“If we don’t go back, we may not have any boat to go back to!” Case predicted. “The people down there are never prowling around for their health.”
“But the boys would be all right, awake, and I hate to leave the dog in bad company!” Alex protested.
“Say,” Case suggested, “suppose we take a couple of shots at the chaps who are monkeying with the Rambler? That will wake the boys!”
“That surely will wake the boys, anyway,” was the reply, and before Case could get his gun out Alex was peppering away at the air a few feet above the cabin of the motor boat.
The effect, below, was instantaneous. A light flashed out in the cabin, and then the prow lamp was turned on. Clay and Don could be seen scrambling out of the doorway, only half dressed.
There was no one else in sight. The intruder had made himself scarce at the instant the revolvers had been fired. It was evident that he had not visited the Rambler with the intention of attacking the boys.
“Hello, the boat!” yelled Alex, directly.
“Hello yourself!” came back in Don’s voice.
“What’s the shooting about?” demanded Clay.
“Take a run around the boat and see!” Case called back. “There is some one hiding near there! He can’t be very far away.”
“Why don’t you come on down?” asked Don. “Where are you?”
“Looking for the ghost!” Alex called out. “Come up and help.”
Finally Clay, who had made a quick circuit of the shore near the fire, reported that there were tracks of heavy shoes, such footgear as no one but a heavy man would be apt to wear, all around the remains of the fire! He asked the boys to return to the boat, but they advised a close watch and decided to continue their search for the dog.
“Because,” Alex reasoned, “they’ll take him farther away before morning, and, then, we want to see the ghost before he fades away at the coming of the dawn! The ghost with big feet!”
“He’ll fade away before the coming of the dawn if I get a shot at him,” grumbled Case. “He’s too free with our property!”
The boys heard the voice of the dog no more. Below they saw the motor boat blazing with light, the boys stealthily on guard in the cabin. Above, the moonlight flooded the lips of the canyon. To north and south the great river roared away, ever diving deeper into the bowels of the earth, as if to hide its red waters from the light of the sun.
From shelf to shelf, from coulee to coulee, from slope to slope! It was a weary night! Many times they thought they heard the dog calling to them. Once or twice they thought they heard voices. But always investigation of the localities from which the sounds had seemed to come brought no satisfactory result.
“Suppose we go back to the boat?” asked Alex.
Case threw himself down on a rock, yawned, and pointed to the western lip of the big canyon. It showed a tinge of pink.
“It is time, I think,” he said. “This light is not that of the moon, but of the sun! We’ve been all night blundering around here!”
But it was not possible to reach the boat in a few minutes. The lads were far up the east side of the canyon, and the path to the bottom was long, winding, and uncertain. They had wandered far to the north, too, and the location of the boat was hidden by a rocky summit.
Below them lay the level filling in front of the old copper mine. At the northern extremity of the fill stood a single shack, built of the boles of yellow pine and roofed with shingles rough-hewn from the same useful tree. Case pointed down and gave his chum a nudge in the ribs.
“Uncle David’s home!” he said. “The deserted shack!”
“Deserted!” echoed the other. “If it is deserted, tell me what the dickens the chimney is smoking for?”
What the boy said was true, for a thin column of smoke was ascending from the chimney of the old mine house, supposed to have been deserted by mankind long ago!
“Suppose we go down and make a social call?” suggested Case.
“It would be all right to find out who lives there,” Alex agreed.
“Probably some old hermit, like Don’s uncle,” Case ventured.
“Yes, probably; still, it may be the headless ghost! What do you make of that ghost business, anyway?” the boy added.
“I think it is easy enough to solve that puzzle,” Case replied. “Some man rode a horse down that shelf. Both were sheathed in white except their heads, which were wrapped in black. When they reached the end of the shelf the white garments, or blankets, or whatever they were, were tossed down the precipice. Then the black-clad horse and man went softly up the shelf again. There you have the solution according to Sherlock Holmes’ methods! Now, who is it that is playing ghost, and why is he doing it? That’s the question now.”
“But we went to the bottom of the precipice and found nothing white there. How do you account for that, wise one?”
“But we found footprints, didn’t we? That shows that there was some one there to-night, doesn’t it? And we found tracks showing that Captain Joe had been seized, muzzled, and dragged along, didn’t we? No ghost would do that! Circumstantial evidence is good in this case, but it wouldn’t convict the ghost of falling over the ledge or of stealing the dog, because, you see, there is proof that some other person had a chance to do these same things! Do you understand me?”
“All right, figure it out to suit yourself,” Alex agreed. “Perhaps you’ll be able, after a time, to reason out the purposes and personality of this false-alarm ghost, and to release the dog by induction!”
“I half believe you think there is a ghost here,” Case argued, half provoked at the mental attitude of the other. “Don’t you, now?”
“I certainly do not,” was the answer. “What I object to is your lofty, cocksure manner of accounting for everything. Here you go ahead and explain the events of the night as if you had seen every move made. But you may be right! Really, I half believe you are, and I’m sorry I didn’t beat you to it by figuring the thing out for myself!”
“Well, then, as we agree on the ghost matter, suppose we go down to the house and see who is there? Perhaps the occupant of the shack will invite us to eat! I’m hungry as a wolf, and then some.”
As the boys were about to descend to the level space in front of the old mine bore, Case caught Alex by the arm and pointed to the opposite wall of the canyon, some distance away. There was excitement in the boy’s tone and manner as he said:
“You remember the sunburst on the paper?”
“I should say so,” replied Alex. “I’ve got a copy of it right here with me. Why do you bring that mystery up now?”
“There’s a sunburst over there on the smooth wall!” Case said. “The sun shines on the rocks so as to produce the effect of one, anyway.”
“You’ve got to show me!” Alex exclaimed, with a provoking grin.
Case took out his watch and noted the time. Six o’clock.
Alex, puzzled, held the paper he had taken from a pocket out to his chum, asking:
“Six o’clock, you say? Now, look here! On this paper there is a figure six marked by the side of the drawing of the sunburst exactly at the point where the sun now strikes the sunburst on the wall. What does that mean?”
“Well,” Case answered, scratching his head, “there is a seven below the six. We’ll see if the seven stands in the same relation to the sunburst that the six does.”
“What do you mean by that?” asked Alex. “I don’t understand.”
“Look here! The figure six marks where the line of sunlight lies on the wall at six o’clock! That’s easy, isn’t it? Does the figure seven stand so as to show where the line of sunlight will lie on the wall at seven o’clock? Do you get that, muddlehead?”
“Well, what of it? I don’t see no sustenance in that?”
“Look at the other paper?” suggested Case. “Look at the big ‘X.’ That means ten o’clock, what? Suppose it means ten o’clock? Does that give you no idea? I guess you’re dense this morning, kid!”
“My head is so empty that it rattles, just as my stomach does!” Alex replied. “I don’t know a thing!”
“Well,” Case went on, “I’d like to be here at exactly ten o’clock and see where the line of sunlight lies on the wall then!”
“Oh,” cried Alex, “you think the papers point to time! When the line of sunlight reaches ten on the wall, as shown by the paper, a door will open and a troop of trained bankers will issue forth bearing chests of gold in their hands. Something like that, old chum? Do I get you at last?”
“No use trying to explain anything to you!” Case replied, turning away in a rage. “You’d better run back to the boat before you get lost.”
“Now, don’t get a grouch!” laughed Alex. “You know what I mean. When ten o’clock comes the line of sunlight will lie over the place where Don’s uncle hid something. Is that your idea?”
“Exactly!” was the reply. “Why didn’t you say that before, instead of giving out fool talk about trained bankers?”
“Then we’ve found the treasure!” Alex cried, eagerly.
“That depends,” answered Case. “We’ll come back here at ten this forenoon and see where the line is. There may be a cross on the wall there, or there may be a rock formation which resembles an ‘X.’ We’ll have to investigate. But wouldn’t it be fine if we could dig up this secret while Clay and Don were puzzling over it?”
“Indeed it would! But suppose we go down to the shack and see what kind of people live there. There may be something to eat in it!”
“If I had your appetite,” Case grumbled, “I’d go somewhere and run a restaurant! You’re either hungry or sleepy all the time!”
The lads laughed at the idea of Alex owning a restaurant, and scrambled down the slope to the level dump where the shack stood.
Smoke was still coming from the chimney. The windows had been covered with boards, securely nailed on, and the boys found the doors locked when they, after knocking, tried to enter. Circling around the shack, which was of good dimensions, they finally discovered a small door which was unfastened, and through this they entered.
They passed, with their electric lights on, through what must at one time have been a storeroom, came out in an old kitchen, passed on to a sitting room, which faced the front of the shack, and stopped to listen.
The smothered breathing of a dog came from an adjoining room, and they hastened to open the door. Captain Joe was tied up with a chain to a hook in the wall, the chain so short that he could not move more than a few inches. His head was covered with a heavy burlap bag, which was tied tightly around his neck.
When released and caressed, the dog appeared to be dazed, and the boys saw at once that he had been doped with some stupefying drug. This undoubtedly accounted for his being in captivity. In his usual health the dog would have made the tying of him up a difficult and dangerous proceeding. After a time Captain Joe lay down and rubbed the sides of his head with his paws, as if he had a very bad headache!
In the room where the dog was there was a bed, rumpled and dirty, and a couple of chairs. Under the bed was a pair of heavy boots, and Alex whispered to his chum as he looked at them.
“Big boots,” he said, “and the taps have been worn so that the nails protrude. Our ghost wore them, all right.”
Case went to a closet and began rummaging about. Presently he came out with a couple of milk-white sheets and a couple of black bags with eye and nose holes in them.
“We have either struck the home of a train robber or a ghost!” the boy said. “I’d like to know which!”
“You are likely to be informed soon,” Alex replied, “for there is some one coming in at the front door right now!”