Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 04.djvu/48

336 eration in wholesale electro-plating just at present. I've the ghost of an idea what it means, but let me test my theory a little before I formulate it. Id the meanwhile, won't you take a stroll with me?" "Certainly; nothing could please hie better," I replied. "Which way shall we go?" "To the top of the Grand Teton." "What! are you seized with the mountain-climb- ing fever?" "Not exactly, but I have a particular reason for, wishing to take a look from that pinnacle." "I suppose you know the real apex of the peak has never been trodden by man?" "I do know it, but it is just that apex that I am determined to have under my feet for ten minutes. The failure of others is no argument for us." "Just as you say," I rejoined. "But I suppose there is no indiscretion in asking whether this little climb has any relation to the mystery?" "If it didn't have an important relation to the clearing up of that dark thing I wouldn't risk my neck in such an undertaking," was the reply. Wandering Over the Great Teton Peak CCORDINGLY, the next morning we set out for the peak. All previous climbers, as we . were aware, had attacked it from the west. That seemed the obvious thing to do, because the westward slopes of the mountain, while very steep, are les3 abrupt than those which face the rising sun. In fact, the eastern side of the Grand Teton ap- pears to be absolutely unclimable. But both Hall and I had had experience with rock climbing in the Alps and the Dolomites, and we knew that what looked like the hardest places sometimes turn out to be next to the easiest. Accordingly we decided-^ the more particularly because it would save time, hut also because we yielded to the common desire to outdo our predecessors — to try to scale the giant right up his face. We carried a very light but exceedingly strong rope, about five hundred feet long, wore nail-shod shoes, and had each a metal-pointed staff and a' small hatchet in lieu of the regular mountaineer's axe. Advancing at first along the broken ridge be- tween two gorges we gradually approached the steeper part of the Teton, where the cliffs looked so sheer and smooth that it seemed no wonder that no- body had ever tried to scale them. The air was de- liciously clear and the sky wonderfully blue above the mountains, and the moon, a few days past its last quarter, was visible in the southwest, its pale crescent face slightly blued by the atmosphere, as it always appears when Been in daylight. "Slow westering, a phantom sail — The lonely soul of yesterday." Behind us, somewhat north of east, lay the Syx works, with their black smoke rising almost vertic- ally in the still air. Suddenly, as we stumbled along on the rough surface, something whizzed past my face and fell on the rock at my feet. I looked at the strange missile, that had come like a meteor out of open space, with astonishment. It was a bird, a beautiful specimen of the scarlet tanagers, which I remembered the early explorera had found inhabiting the Teton canyons, their brill- iant plumage borrowing splendor from contrast I with the gloomy surroundings. It lay motionless, its outstretched wings having a curious shrivelled aspect, while the flaming color of the breast wa3 half obliterated with smutty patches. Stooping to pick it up, I noticed a slight bronzing,' which in- stantly recalled to my mind the peculiar appearance of the victims of the attack on the mine. "Look here!" I called to Hall, who was several yards in advance. He turned, and I held up the bird by a wing?" "Where did you get that?" he asked. "It fell at my feet a moment ago." Hall glanced in a startled manner at the sky, and then down the slope of the mountain. "Did you notice in what direction it was flying?" he asked. "No, it dropped so close that it almost grazed my nose. I saw nothing of it until it made me blink." Andrew Hall Does Not Tell Everything HAVE been heedless," muttered Hall under his breath. At the time I did not notice the singularity of his remark, my. attention being absorbed in contemplating the unfortunate tanager. "Look how its feathers are scorched," I said. "I know it," Hall replied, without glancing at the bird. "And it is covered with a film of artemisium," I added, a little piqued hy his abstraction. "I know that, too." "See here. Hall," I exclaimed, "are you trying to make game of me?" "Not at all, my dear fellow," he replied, dropping his cogitation. "Pray forgive me. But this iB no new phenomenon to me. I have picked up birds in that condition on this mountain before. There is a terrible mystery here, but I am slowly letting light into it, and if we succeed in reaching the top of the peak I have good hope that the illumination will increase." "Here now," he added a moment later, sitting down upon a rock and thrusting the blade of his penknife into a crevice, "what do you think of this?" He held up a little nugget of pure artemisium, and then went on : "You know that all this slope was swept as clean as a Dutch housewife's kitchen floor by the thous- ands of miners and prospectors who swarmed over it a year or two ago, and do you suppose they would have missed such a tidbit if it had bees here then?" "Dr. Syx must have been salting the mountain again," I suggested. "Well," replied Hall, with a significant smile, "if the doctor hasn't salted it somebody else has, that's plain enough. But perhaps you would like to know precisely what I expect to find out when we get on the topknot of the Teton." "I should certainly be delighted to learn the ob- ject of our journey," I said. "Of course, I'm only go- ing along for company and for the fun of the thing; but you know you can count on me for substantial aid whenever you need it." "It is because you are so willing to let ihe keep my own counsel," he rejoined, "and to wait for things to ripen before compelling me to disclose them, that I like to have you with me at critical times. Now, as to the object of this break-neck