He walked on slowly and halted suddenly when a light showed ahead. Some one was coming toward him, and Rawley instinctively snapped off his light and moved to one side. War habits were still strong upon him, and in any case he would not trust the Cramers.
Presently he saw that it was Peter, and called to him and went forward. Peter was astonished, but he was also glad to see Rawley.
“I meant to walk over to your place this evening,” he explained. “We’re so busy, right now—”
“With the dam?” Rawley sat down on a keg of powder, started to roll a cigarette and remembered that it might not be wise.
“Yes. We’re loading her as fast as we can. It’s a big job, and the old man is getting fractious over the delay.” Peter sat down on another keg and took off his hat, wiping his forehead with his sleeve. “It’s going to be a blistering day outside. Seems like an ice-box in here. How did you come?”
Then Rawley told him.
Peter listened in complete silence, his arms folded on his knees. When Rawley had finished, Peter straightened up with a sigh.
“I never dreamed we had cut into your ground,” he said heavily. “I thought, as you probably did, that the code described an old, underground watercourse some miles from here. But you must be right, this is it. Old Jess discovered gold near the river, at a point where this stream back here dives under the cliffs and empties, most likely, into the river somewhere under the water line. It was rich; a heap richer than any one ever dreamed, I guess. And the fact that the stream flowed right into the Colorado may have given him his first idea of gathering the gold that had washed on into the river. If you come with me, I’ll show you.”
“I can’t be too long,” said Rawley. “Johnny Buffalo’s up on top, waiting for me to come back with my pockets full of gold. It’s going to be hard on the old man, especially since Grandfather’s gold went into the clutches of Old Jess. I don’t know that I’d better tell him. At the same time,” he mused aloud, “I can’t tell him that there isn’t any gold; he is so firmly convinced that his sergeant told the truth. He’d have to know that some one else has beat us to it.”
Peter turned and looked at him thoughtfully. “I’ll give you some nuggets to take up to him,” he said. “Old Johnny’s pretty keen, and he holds a bad grudge against Young Jess and the old man. If I could, you know I’d replace the gold we got from under that blowhole. But I can’t. It has all been spent, practically. Gone into the dam, along with the rest.”