“Why not?” said Ned suddenly. “We could get some up with a bucket if there was a heavy stone in the bottom. It would only mean half-a-bucketful at a time, but there’s no reason why we couldn’t do that.”
Every one glared at the speaker as if wroth with him for proposing so simple and self-evident a means of getting at the water at a time when they had only succeeded at the risk of losing a valuable life.
But no one spoke, all preparing to descend the slope, at the bottom of which the barrel was slung and carried between Wilton and Bourne to the spot chosen for their camp. Here a good fire was soon made, dead wood being plentiful, and over the evening meal, hastily prepared, the incident of the afternoon was gravely discussed, Griggs joining in calmly enough now, for he seemed to have quite recovered his nerve.
“You’ll have a good examination made of this place in the morning, sir?” he said.
“I was thinking of moving off,” said the doctor quietly, “and getting to somewhere better suited for a temporary camp.”
“You couldn’t get a better place than this, doctor,” said Griggs quietly. “I’ve been thinking over what young Ned here said about dipping out water, and he’s quite right. Don’t think of going until the place has been thoroughly searched. I’m quite right now.”
“Very well,” said the doctor; “we’ll have another day, at all events; but I do not anticipate making much of a find here.”
“I don’t know, sir,” said Griggs gravely. “We’re getting into the gold country now, and such a place as this wouldn’t have been made for nothing, nor be the living camp of a few poor wandering Indians. I shouldn’t be a bit surprised to find traces of mining with furnaces and crucibles for melting the gold somewhere through these openings. They were evidently a big race of people who lived up here.”
“We shall find that out to-morrow,” said the doctor. “But what about keeping watch? Do you think there is any danger of Indians tracing us here?”
“Not a bit, sir,” replied the American. “They don’t care much for these rocky parts; they like the plains, where their horses feel at home.”