CHAPTER XXX
An Adventure
WHEN Nell bade good bye to Doss Umpey her intention was to get back to Camp’s Gulch as quickly as she could, in order to send a message asking Dr. Russell to come the next day to see the sick man. If she were too late to send a message by the cars, she would telegraph for him; but in any case she must get the doctor there next day.
The boy Joe offered to escort her all the way back to Camp’s Gulch; but this she would not hear of, for he had already walked the distance twice and must be very tired. Then, too, she did not think the sick man should be left so long alone, for he looked so frail and exhausted that she would not have been surprised if he had died whilst she sat beside him.
So, bribing Joe, with the promise of another pie next day, to take particular care of the invalid until she came again, Nell said farewell to the two; and turning the corner of the great rock was speedily out of sight of the miner’s encampment and making her way homeward as fast as she could go.
For the first mile or two she did very well, for the way, although rough, was mostly downhill, and being a keen observer she found her way without difficulty.
Then came a sharp rise which she remembered perfectly, for it was almost the only bit of downhill which had occurred on the way to Goat’s Gulch. But when she reached the top she found herself confronted by two valleys, and could not recollect which one she had to take.
Sitting down for a five-minutes’ rest on a big stone, Nell surveyed the scene before her and tried to discover which of the two valleys she had to take to get to Camp’s Gulch. It was already growing late, for she had stayed with Doss Umpey much longer than she had intended to do. Even if she walked her hardest and made no mistakes she would not be back until the evening work was all done; and this thought vexed her more than her own weariness, for Gertrude had quite enough to do, without the additional toil of waiting on those hungry evening customers.
A few minutes longer Nell sat on her big stone; then her sharp eyes saw something which made her jump up suddenly and hurry onward. A faint white mist was rising, and she knew it would spread and increase until it filled all the higher valleys with an impenetrable curtain.
Making up her mind in great haste, she plunged into the valley winding away to the left, and went forward as quickly as she could. For the first mile or so she imagined herself to be going right; then, turning an angle, where the trees grew down to the bottom of the valley, she found herself confronted by great yawning holes in the sides of the hills—empty pockets these, where the copper ore had all been cleared out with the miner’s pick—and then she knew all at once that she had come wrong, for she had passed no place like this when walking up with Joe.
A minute or two she paused irresolute, wondering if she would go back to the high ground and take the other valley; then, remembering with a shiver the crawling white mist which was creeping along the hillsides, she decided to go forward, feeling confident that she must come upon some trace of civilization before long, because those yawning holes in the hillside showed that people had been working there at no very distant date.