“It could have been an accident—”
“Sure, but Warner isn’t the kind to make a mistake like that.”
“No, he’s levelheaded,” Jack returned soberly. “I figure if we do find that pass today—well, we may run into rugged going beyond that point.”
“You think someone besides Walz wants to keep us out of the valley?”
“It’s a possibility, isn’t it? I was thinking about it last night, Ken, before I dropped off to sleep. Maybe someone stumbled onto Old Stony’s secret long before we came here.”
“A prospector?”
“Possibly.”
“In that case, the gold’s gone—if ever there was any.”
“Maybe not,” Jack replied thoughtfully. “If the gold had been toted out, word of it would have spread like wildfire. Beside, wouldn’t the discoverer have cleared out of the valley as fast as he could, once he had the cache?”
“It’s all too deep for me,” Ken answered with a shrug. “My bones tell me, though, that we’d better be prepared for a dose of trouble before we’re through.”