“Can it be reached by way of Indian Ridge?” asked Mr. Jenks, wondering how he had been taken to the cave of the diamond makers. He did not remember Black Gulch.
“Yes, you can git there by Indian Ridge way, but it's more dangerous. You're likely to lose your way, for that's a trail that's seldom traveled.” Mr. Jenks thought that, perhaps, was the reason the gang had taken him that way. “It's easier to get to the stone head and Phantom Mountain by Black Gulch, but it ain't healthy to go there, strangers, take my advice on that,” concluded the miner, as he prepared to go to sleep again.
Tom could scarcely contain the exultation he felt. At last, it seemed, they were on the trail. He motioned to Mr. Jenks, and they slipped quietly from the place, just as another dance was beginning.
“Now for Black Gulch!” cried Tom. “We must hurry back to the airship, and tell the good news.
“It's too late to-night,” decided Mr. Jenks, and so they waited until morning, when they made an early start.
They found Mr. Damon and Mr. Parker anxiously awaiting their return. Mr. Damon blessed so many things that he was nearly out of breath, and Mr. Parker related something of the observations he had made.
“I think I have discovered traces of a dormant volcano,” he said. “I am in hopes that it will have an eruption while we are here.”
“I'm not,” spoke Tom, decidedly. “We'll start for Black Gulch as soon as possible.”
The airship once more rose in the air, and, following the directions the miner had given him, Tom pointed his craft for the depression in the mountains which had been given the name Black Gulch. It was reached in a short time, and then, making a turn up a long valley the airship proceeded at reduced speed.
“We ought to see that stone head soon now,” spoke Tom, as he peered from the windows of the pilot house.