Page:Allan Dunn--Dead Man's Gold.djvu/200

186 Twilight came before they reached the head of Stone Men Cañon and they lost no time descending to its ravaged floor. They did not stay to look for the petrified bodies in the pool. They were too busy finding practical trail for the nimble-footed burros. Healy, too, had to be aided, to avoid using his arm, which he carried in a sling. But they got down before it was dark, passing the cave with its fresh scar on the blackened limestone where the ledge had fallen, over the barrier of rock and mud and broken trees where the gorge debouched into the main cañon, and then upstream for half a mile above the place of tragedy.

Whatever investigation had been carried on by the Government authorities was long since over. The only traces left were those of the earth itself and the trees. Huge burrows of dirt doubtless covered most of the dead. But in the last of the afterglow, with the purple shadows piling up, the place had a gloomy look and an eerie atmosphere and they were glad to get above it and around a bend of the creek that hid the spot.

"W'ot's the matter wiv pushin' on ter-night?" asked Larkin as they ate their supper beside the fire. "Moon's bright henough. Carn't be far to the headwaters."

Stone looked at the rest.

"How about the burros?" he asked.

"Mile or so more won't hurt 'em," said Harvey. All four of them were caught in the fever of hope and anticipation. At last they were on the very threshold of fortune.