“Moccasins are the things for a job like that,” he declared. “I’ve studied it all out; I believe I could go through there without a scratch.”
“What in the world would anybody want to do it for? What is there to be gained by it, to the good of anybody?” she wondered.
“Well, there’s the reward of five hundred dollars offered by the newspaper in Denver,” he answered. 34
“It’s a pitiful stake against such odds!” she scorned.
“And all the old settlers say there’s gold in there–rich pockets of it, washed out of the ledges in the sides of the walls and held by the rocks in the river-bed and along the margins. A nugget is picked up now and then on the other side, so there seems to be ground for the belief that fortune waits for the man who makes a careful exploration.”
“He couldn’t carry enough of it out to make it worth while,” she objected.
“But he could go back,” Dr. Slavens reminded her. “It would be easy the second time. Or he might put in effect the scheme a sheep-herder had once.”
“What was that?” she asked, turning her face up to him from her place on the low stone where she sat, the moonlight glinting in her eyes.
He laughed a little.
“Not that it was much of a joke the way it turned out,” he explained. “He went in there to hunt for the gold, leaving two of his companions to labor along the brink of the cañon above and listen for his signal shout in case he came across any gold worth while. Then they were to let a rope down to him and he’d send up the treasure. It was a great scheme, but they never got a chance to try it. If he ever gave any signal they never heard it, for down there a man’s voice strained to its shrillest would be no more than a whisper against a tornado. You can believe that, can’t you, from the way it roars and tears around out here?” 35