“The name of it is Eagle City; I guess it’s named after the Eagle Scout Award, hey? All right, I’ll go on. Mr. Temple went there, there’s a train stops there every Tuesday and a week from Friday⸺”
“You’re worse than Roy Blakeley,” said Westy.
“All right, he went to Eagle City,” said Artie, pursuing his narrative more seriously. “That was as near as he could get to the pass by railroad. That’s where he first met Uncle Jeb. Uncle Jeb was buying tobacco at the village store and Mr. Temple wanted somebody to guide him up to the pass; I guess it was about fifty miles. They told Mr. Temple that Uncle Jeb was an old trapper and a guide and a lot of things like that. That’s how Mr. Temple got in with Uncle Jeb. Uncle Jeb said his cabin was up toward the pass, somewhere up that way, so anyway it wouldn’t be out of his way if he guided Mr. Temple to where he wanted to go.”
“Did Mary tell you that?”
“Sure she did,” said Artie, “and there must be some reason why nobody at Temple Camp knows anything about it. Anyway, I never heard Mr. Temple or Uncle Jeb say anything, did you? So then Uncle Jeb guided Mr. Temple up into the mountains—oh, but it was wild and lonely! They stopped at Uncle Jeb’s cabin, just where you and I were going to go⸺”
“Yes, go on,” urged Westy.
“Then they went on up to the pass, but they couldn’t find the surveyors anywhere. Uncle Jeb found marks that showed they had been there and he showed them to Mr. Temple. He found little holes in the ground that showed where one of those surveyors’ instruments had stood, and they found footprints, and a place where a campfire had been, and a place where a tent rope had been around a tree—gee, I guess Uncle Jeb didn’t miss anything. They kept following the pass where it led through the mountains and they found more signs, remains of fires and all like that, but they never found the surveyors and those surveyors were never heard of again—not to this day. Tell your father that!”
Westy stared. “You mean they never got any news about them at all, ever?”
“And there’s something else too,” said Artie.