“Five years of buried hopes,” said Bourne slowly; but the boys were silent, neither daring to trust his voice.
“And now,” cried the doctor, “for five years of unburied hope and looking forward to the future. Here, boys, you ought to give a cheer. Who’ll lead?”
No one: the moments were too sad, for there seemed to be a thick black veil hanging before them right in front, and neither dared to think of what might be to come.
Onward, onward into the future, with the wilderness unseen waiting to swallow up the adventurers in the unknown way—the perils to be encountered happily hidden from them as yet.
Chapter Nine.
A Night Scare.
It had been decided that they should make for the farthest part known to them south and west, where the wildest country lay, and they had been twice before, Griggs having paid double that number of visits in search of game. There the cultivation ceased entirely, for the rich soil gave place to sage-brush and a far-stretching tract of salt or alkali desert, Griggs proposing that they should cross this, for after a good deal of questioning the settlers in that direction, he elicited the information that one of the settlers upon the verge of the good lands had seen a strange-looking tramp, as he called him, pass his lonely shanty one evening, but feeling no desire for any such company he had stood back among the trees, and his place had certainly not been seen by the stranger.
“That shows we should be a bit nearer where he came from,” said Griggs, “and it would be a fair day’s journey for a beginning. We could find a spot to camp out for the night, and start early the next morning to see if we could not cross the bad land before dark.”