“We can make it all right, can’t we, Frank?” asked Bob, as they found themselves surrounded on all sides by the wildest kind of rocky scenery, through which the trail zigzagged, with gigantic walls towering above their heads.
“No trouble about it,” replied the other. “Fact is, Bob, right now I’m rather expecting to sight some of the boys above there. If the wind was right we could see the smoke from the stamp mill and the ore crusher. And that makes me remember how I heard the machinery working sooner than this the last time father brought me over to the Cherry Blossom.”
“But you don’t get the sound of the stamp mill or the crusher now?” asked Bob.
“It’s all as silent as the grave,” replied Frank, looking into the troubled eyes of his chum, with a set expression on his own face. “That would seem to mean the mine is shut down. But look up there; isn’t that a man waving his hat to us right now?”
CHAPTER IX
A THREATENING STORM
“You’re right, Frank,” remarked Bob, after a searching look.
“I wonder if he expected us?” suggested the other, as they continued to advance up the trail that led through the canyon.
“Why, how under the sun could he?” exploded Bob. “We didn’t send any word about our visit, you know. And besides, only for your father’s lame leg, he would have made the journey himself.”
“Oh! I know all that, Bob; but what I mean is this: You can see he is waving at us as if in friendly greeting. Now, at such a time as this, with a strike on at the mine, most likely, any stranger coming toward the Cherry Blossom would be looked on with suspicion by the men who were out.”
“I reckon you’re right,” declared Bob, eager to know all that was passing in the active mind of his chum.