Finally, the entire party of eight men and boys was conveyed to the Flathead plateau. The landing place chosen this time was a level and comparatively smooth spot west of the patch of timber and east of the pool.
Hal, with the permission of Dr. Byrd, had brought with him the rifle that had been found in the cave. He, too, hoped to see the mountain lion again and get a shot at it. As they approached the landing place he examined closely the ruins of the homes of the cliff dwellers, where they had seen the panther on the day before, but it was no longer there.
“Wasn’t that a funny place for cliff dwellers to build their homes?” Hal inquired as they were descending to the plateau.
“Yes, it is,” replied the doctor. “I can’t account for their going up so high, unless there was unusual need of defense against some of their war-like neighbors.”
“How do you suppose they got up here?” asked the boy.
“The same way you did probably—behind the waterfall. I imagine they were afraid to trust that secret passage alone to protect them against their enemies, so they made their homes high up in these cliffs as a second precaution.”
“Let’s go up in some of those caves before we go back,” Hal proposed.
“I am planning to make as thorough an exploration of this plateau as possible to-day,” the doctor replied. “But first we must investigate the death of this man whose body you found.”
The other members of the party were awaiting the arrival of the last airship-load of passengers, as the coroner desired the presence of all the original witnesses when he removed the body. After all had been landed on the top of the mountain, no further delay was necessary, and they proceeded directly to the cave in the passage through the long ridge.
Two lanterns had been brought along, and with the aid of these the coroner made a careful inspection of the cave. He asked numerous questions in order to determine if the boys had destroyed or disarranged any clews that might lead to a clearing up of the mystery surrounding this strange life and death on the mountain top. Meanwhile, not an article of the contents of the cave was moved until the careful examination was finished. Mr. Huffman even caused Hal to lean his gun against the wall as nearly as it had been found as possible.