Jenny was enthusiastic over her Jack’s plans, and that they might not be separated so long again she consented to their marriage, which took place before he started on his second trip to Peru, and she accompanied him.
Now that Jack had really got started in his speculations, he studied how best he might promote his interest. His young wife going with him to South America, he resolved to locate in that country until he had got fairly under control the gigantic business he intended to build up.
While successful in his nitrate ventures, he still preserved the manuscript he had picked up in the convict cell on the island of Robinson Crusoe, and he looked forward to the time when he should be able to visit the strange lake in the Andes with means to reach its mysterious island of buried treasure.
So at last, accompanied by a party of surveyors and explorers, armed with papers which would make him the owner of the whole region as soon as the boundaries could be fixed, he started for the place.
He had told his real object to no one, knowing that to do so would be to ruin his prospects without benefiting any one permanently.
He had no difficulty in leading the way to the spur of the Andes where he had met with his thrilling experience with the jaguars, and then the party started for the rocky ridge overlooking the niche in the mountains holding the Devil’s Waters.
It was a route that Jack had traveled several times, and feeling in the best of spirits, he set off on a galop, on the pony he was riding.
“Poor Plum!” he murmured, as he rode along. “How I wish he was a live to enjoy this with me.”
On and on went our hero until he came to where there was a break in the trail. He was absorbed in thought at the time and did not notice that his pony turned to the left instead of the right.
The way seemed easy, and presently the pony set off on a galop, which soon brought Jack out of his revery.