The boy’s triumphant cry rang out, reverberating down the canon and penetrating even the again dulled senses of the inventor. Not for one moment did the boy doubt that the needle was telling the truth.
Unable to wait for the older man to climb to him, Gordon fairly leaped down from rock to rock, though he wondered afterwards at the sureness with which he had stepped, and catching the man’s hand, he dragged him up, up until the fissure was seen in a perilous place beyond and below.
“Why son, you couldn’t get down there. No one could,” the man said.
“But I did! See! I just chanced to find the way. I guess my guardian angel showed it to me. The instrument’s in that fissure and the needle dipped. Mr. Wallace, it dipped straight down. Oh, if only we had some dynamite.”
The boy’s faith was just the spur the older man needed. “There’s dynamite in a cavern just below here,” he said. “Wait, we’ll bring a stick and shoot it off.”
The boy secured the instrument and took it to a place of safety.
“We’ll have to make a long fuse,” the man told the lad. “We don’t want to take any chances with flying rock.” Then he looked at the sun. “We ought to get back to the cabin in half an hour. I’ll time it for about then.”
This was done and then the two scrambled back down the rocks. How Gordon hoped the fire of the fuse would not be extinguished. Too, he hoped the explosion would not take place before they reached the girls lest they should be too greatly frightened.
During the absence of the man and boy, Virginia glanced often at her watch. She did want to see Gordon before she left to thank him for having procured her pack animal and to urge him to bring his sister to V. M. before returning to Douglas. She was sure that Malcolm would wish her to do so. But the afternoon was wearing away and, as they did not return, the girl at last arose saying: “I fear that we cannot wait longer.” Then to the little mother, whose expression was much happier than when the visitors had arrived, she said, “Tell Mr. Wallace how sorry I am, not to have seen him this time, but I shall come again and often, and do remember, dear Mrs. Wallace, the V. M. Ranch house is large and if you run out of water in a few days, as you fear, I want you all to come to us until your cistern can be refilled.”