They moved on cautiously until they came to the spot where the Baxters and Roebuck had been seen last. Here the landslide had been at its worst, and rocks and trees had been torn up and cast down as by a giant's hand. Not a trace of the enemy was to be discovered, until Jack Wumble at last made out a part of a man's coat lying a hundred feet away. They ran to the spot, and soon uncovered the lifeless form of Roebuck. The man had been literally mauled to death by the fury of the elements.
"Poor fellow!" murmured Tom, as he gazed at the remains. "It was a dreadful death to die!"
"Yes, and he probably wasn't prepared for it," said Dick soberly.
"I wonder if the Baxters were caught, too?"
"More'n likely," put in Wumble. "Look, here is a man's hat."
"Arnold Baxter's hat," cried Tom. "I noted it particularly when I was their prisoner. Where can the man be?"
"There are tons an' tons o' loose dirt just be low here," said Slim
Jim. "Ye see the ground turned over and over as it rolled.
Probably both o' the Baxters are under that dirt, mebbe twenty or
thirty foot down."
At this all of the Rover boys shuddered. Very likely the old hunter spoke the truth. What a terrible fate for their old enemies!
"Let us go away," whispered Sam. "I can't stand this any longer!" And he rushed off with the tears standing in his eyes. The others were also affected, and glad enough to leave the place, once and forever. Wumble and Slim Jim threw Roebuck's body into a hollow and placed some dirt over it, and then built up a little mound of stones to mark the spot.
It was not until the next day that the party returned to the creek and began to look up the Eclipse Mine once more. The landslide had cut across this, and it was not long before both Wumble and Slim Jim declared the ground to be full of good paying "dirt," to use their own term. The claim was staked out to the boys' satisfaction, and then Wumble staked out a claim just above Discovery, as it is called in mining laws, while Slim Jim staked out one for himself just below Discovery. All three claims ran to both sides of the creek, so that no one would suffer for water when mining operations should begin.
"And those claims will yield us thousands of dollars!" said Jack
Wumble. "Boys, we will all be rich."