With this piece of information the hunters mounted their horses and rode down the gully out of sight. Simon Cool stood motionless and silent for a moment, gazing fixedly at the ground, and then shouldering Archie’s Maynard, he moved slowly away in the same direction and also disappeared. Bad as their situation was, the boys told themselves that Simon’s was infinitely worse. They knew where to go to find friends and shelter; but Simon was turned adrift in a strange country, in the face of a blinding snow-storm, without a horse or blanket, and with only one load in his rifle to bring him subsistence. If that load failed him he would be in a predicament indeed, for his revolvers would be next to useless in hunting. They were intended only for short-range shooting, and such game as he would fall in with—if he was fortunate enough to fall in with any—would be wary and hard to approach, and could only be reached by a long-range rifle. It was at least one hundred and twenty-five miles to the Fort, and that was the nearest place at which Simon could procure food.
As soon as Simon was out of sight, Archie, who knew that there was nothing to be gained by sitting still and mourning over their hard fate, jumped to his feet and began to stir around. He set to work to gather up all the wheels and weights that had been scattered about when Zack demolished the machine that had been found in the trunk. His companions joined him in the search, and finally the Pike himself mustered up energy enough to lend his assistance. His wife and son sat still and stared at the ruins of their furniture.
“Is this contrivance of yours, whatever it is, patented?” asked Archie, who thought the old man might be induced to cheer up a little if he could be engaged in conversation.
“Not yet,” was the answer.
“What do you intend to do with it?”
“I was going to use it to run my quartz-mill.”
“O, this is only a model, then!”
“Yes. I accidentally found a rich gold-mine while I was in California, two years ago, but it could not be developed, because there was no power there to run a mill. It would have cost a fortune to sink wells through the rock and bring a steam-engine over the mountains from Placer city; but this invention of mine could have been put up in a week or ten days, and would have furnished power enough to run a dozen mills. Just think of it! I should have had that gold-mine all to myself, and there is no telling how rich it is. Why, you can see the veins in the rock as thick as your finger. I am now sixty-five years old, and I have worked at this invention ever since I was twenty. I got it done just at the right time, too, and now I must lose all my work.”
“Perhaps not. The machinery is all here, and can be put together again. It doesn’t look as if it were damaged at all. What motive-power are you going to use—steam or water?”
“Nary one. The invention furnishes its own power.”