CHAPTER XIV
TREASURE TROVE
To the delight of the girls, the next morning was clear. It had rained in the night and they had been sure that it would storm and they might have to stay at home.
The sun rose pleasantly warm, but the hour was five o'clock and the girls knew that before breakfast time it would be almost unbearably hot.
"But what do we care?" laughed Bet gaily. "We're out for adventure.
Today is the grand and glorious event. We will hunt for treasure."
"Oh, no, we won't," Enid returned decidedly. "You forget that Professor Gillette and Dad decided that it would be better to do the location work on that claim first."
Bet frowned. It was not her way to be patient. At last she said, "Oh, well, if it has to be done, we'll do it. We'll go over early and finish that ten foot hole by noon, then we'll have all afternoon for the treasure."
"Kit said it would take us at the very least, a full week, to do that work," returned Enid.
"Don't be a spoil-sport," pouted Bet. "You don't know anything about it."
But Shirley Williams and Joy Evans both backed up Enid. "Why, Bet, that hole has to be dug through solid rock, almost."
"How stupid!" shrugged Bet.
"If you should dig right into a vein of rich copper ore, you won't think so. Why not have hopes of a mine and forget the treasure?" said Shirley quietly. "Have you given up the idea of being a mine owner?"
"Not exactly. But to tell the truth, 'Orphan Annie' doesn't look very hopeful to me." Bet shook her head dolefully. "Well, it's no use fretting. If that hole has to be dug before we start looking for the treasure, it has to be, that's all."
"Now you're being sensible, Bet. It's just as the professor says, it's wise for us to have a real claim on the land around that tracing. It might be worth something. Perhaps there is a treasure buried there, but it isn't likely." Shirley was not a dreamer and Bet, for the moment, was disgusted. She turned away and left them.
"Let's get breakfast over," called Enid, leading the way toward the dining room. "We'll be pleasing Tang and that's a good start for the day. Then we'll be ready for Kit when she comes."
"Where do we meet the professor?" asked Shirley.
"He'll be waiting for us by the pass into the small canyon. Isn't he a dear to help us out instead of looking for his village? I like him!" declared Bet.
It was only seven o'clock when the girls bade good-bye to Mrs. Breckenridge, listened to her instructions about taking care of themselves, and started down the trail, Kit in the lead.
Although it was twenty minutes before the appointed time, Professor Gillette was waiting for them. On his burro, borrowed for the occasion from Dad Patten, he carried all the tools needed for prospecting.
"You look as if you expected to dig twenty mines," laughed Bet, as she drew up her pony beside the old man.
"Only one," insisted the professor. "At least I hope that is all we will need. But no one can tell for sure."
"I think it is all foolishness anyway," Joy exclaimed. "What we want now is that treasure, and instead of looking for it, you are going to dig a well."
Kit laughed as she always did at Joy's mistakes. "Call it a well if you want to," she said patronizingly, "but don't let Tommy Sharpe or Seedy Saunders hear you say it. They'll tease you unmercifully."
"It's this way, Joy," explained Bet, impatiently. "Kie Wicks might get wise to it, and come in at the end of two months and snap up this claim too, if we haven't done our work. That has to be done within two months."
"Then he'd get the stone with the markings?"
"Yes, that's it. And he might find the treasure, if we don't watch out," added Kit.
"Then let's get to work at once!" cried Joy, digging her spur into Dolly's side.
"You mean, Professor Gillette will get to work at once while you and the rest of us stand around and look pretty," said Enid.
"Why we don't mean any such a thing, Enid Breckenridge. I'm perfectly willing to work and do my share," snapped Bet, her face red with anger. "I'll not have Professor Gillette imposed on like that."
"We'll all do what we can," soothed Kit. "Although I'm not sure we'll make much headway with the pick and shovel."
"I think we should have a Mexican do the work, girls," said Enid.
"He'd do it in half the time."
"Professor Gillette said it was better not to have anyone else around for a while until we could find out something about this treasure," Bet said. "So we might as well make up our minds to dig right in and work hard."
Once on the site of the claim, the professor unloaded his tools and looked about for a suitable place to put down the ten-foot shaft. His knowledge of mining was not very great but he and Kit finally decided on the best spot.
The old man started in at once, swinging the pick as if it were a hammer. He soon dug away the thin layer of earth and crushed rock, and reached solid stone.
"It's a good thing I brought the drills along!" the professor threw down his pick and took up a drill and heavy hammer.
"Isn't it exciting!" cried Bet. "Do let me try to use the drill.
"All in good time, child, all in good time," he promised her as he adjusted the tool. "This is a two-man job anyway. Somebody has to help me."
Bet crouched down close beside him and held the drill steady while the old man prepared to hit. She glanced up at him, dubiously. The old man laughed.
"Don't know as I blame you any," he said as he twisted a piece of heavy wire about the drill and gave Bet an end to hold. "There, you can steady it with that, so I won't hit your fingers."
"Oh, I wasn't afraid," began Bet but the professor laughed and Bet did not finish her sentence.
"You looked as if you were very much frightened indeed. You were certain I would hit your fingers, and I'm not sure I wouldn't have," he chuckled.
And his first strong blow did miss the drill and the girls, watching him, laughed.
"Gee, if Bet's fingers had been there!" gasped Joy.
"Well, maybe I'd have been more careful if her hand had been there. I never take chances."
While Bet held the drill in place the professor dealt blow after blow until he was ready to drop with exhaustion.
"And some men keep that up all day, I'm told," he gasped as he threw down the tool and dropped to the ground. "I don't believe they do," he added.
"I've seen men keep at it pretty steadily for hours," interrupted Kit, "but they don't go at it so strenuously. You put all your soul and body into it. They don't get excited and they don't wear themselves out with wild flourishes. You see when a prospector has that work to do, he doesn't have to hurry. He has all the time there is."
"To tell you the truth," laughed the professor sheepishly, "I'm so anxious to start looking for the treasure that I don't want to dig this shaft, I'm like a child with a new toy."
"Come here, Kit," called Bet. "You hold this drill for a while and let me swing the hammer. I'm just dying to do it."
"And maybe I'm not glad there is a wire to hold. You'd hit me, sure."
"Don't trust me even yet," Bet returned with a gay laugh.
"That's right, Kit," trilled Joy. "You are only two feet away from her hammer, she might easily miss the mark by that much." Joy was glad of a chance to tease Bet.
Bet swung the hammer with vigor, bringing it down on the drill with a force that seemed impossible from her slender arms.
"Go it, Bet. You'll get there yet," shouted Joy.
Bet was soon worn out and the girls took turns and had the joy of finishing one hole to the required depth for setting the charge.
The professor was bending over the tracings on the rock. He had forgotten all about the location work that had to be done. While the arrow pointed southwesterly and showed the direction in which to look, it pointed over a deserted country that stretched for miles into Mexico.
"If there is anything thrilling about this, I'd like to be shown," pouted Joy. And in sheer boredom she got up, walked to a rocky ledge and scrambled up the steep face of it.
Enid and Shirley, who were watching the professor studying the markings on the rock, heard a cry of surprise from Joy, but before they could turn toward her, they saw her falling, clutching wildly at the ledges in an attempt to save herself.
Joy had turned her head to speak to her friends and had missed her footing. As she touched the ground, her ankle bent under her and she fell with a groan.
Bet ran to her help. "Speak, Joy, speak to me," we said shaking the girl. Joy's face was deathly white but her eyes fluttered open and seeing Bet she cried hysterically:
"I found it! I found it!"
"Found what, Joy? What did you find?"
"Another arrow. Right there on the rock!" Joy was struggling to her feet, but at the attempt she fell back with a groan.
"For the love of Mike, is that all? Why, Joy Evans, you'd get so excited over an arrowhead that you'd lose your footing!" Kit cried. "I thought you had more sense than that."
Between clenched teeth Joy answered, "It wasn't an arrowhead! It was an arrow carved on the rock."
"Don't be silly, Joy. You're dreaming!" laughed Kit.
"If I thought you were just teasing me, Joy, I wouldn't be sorry about your poor foot." Bet stared at the girl with a threatening look. "It isn't nice to tease about things as serious as hidden treasure."
"But the arrow's there," Joy answered.
"Which way did it point?" asked Professor Gillette, the only one who seemed to credit Joy's story.
"Why, really, I don't know. I never thought to notice. I saw an arrow and I think it was pointing toward that hill over there – but then again it might be pointing away from it. I'm not sure." Joy stopped helplessly, and clutched her aching foot.
"You're helpful at least," Kit shrugged her shoulders. "I do believe she's just teasing us. Joy would never find anything!"
"Then go and see for yourself!" snapped Joy.
"I'll do it," replied Bet suddenly letting go of Joy in her excitement.
Joy collapsed with a groan.
Bet turned to help her but Enid shoved her aside. "Here is where I shine. You go and find your arrow and I'll play nurse and fix up Joy's ankle. You're lucky, Joy Evans, that it isn't broken."
"It feels as if it were," sobbed Joy.
"I don't see any arrow," called Bet in a disgusted tone. "Don't be mean, Joy. If there isn't one here, say so."
"Go on, Bet, up a little higher!" cried Joy.
Bet crept along the ledge, climbing from one projection of rock to the next.
There was a sudden cry of joy. "Here it is!"
The professor craned his neck to get a glimpse of the arrow. "Which way does it point, child?" he asked eagerly.
"It points toward the hill, that way," replied Bet, studying the markings carefully.
"That's our good luck. If it went the other way, it would be across the claims of Kie Wicks and his friend Ramon. Come on down, child, before you fall."
Bet slid down easily, her nimble body could cling to the sheer cliff, or so it seemed to those who watched her.
"I think we'll call you the goat girl, Bet, you sure can climb rocks," exclaimed Kit admiringly. "I never could do it."
"And you an Arizona girl?" laughed Bet.
"An Arizona girl only knows how to ride horses," retorted Kit.
"And if they can all ride the way you can, they need no other accomplishment." Bet ran to join the professor.
The old man was examining the ground in the direction the arrow was pointing.
"Who ever would have thought to look up at that rock for an arrow," Bet said excitedly.
"But you see, Bet, we're starting in the middle. Somewhere there's a map that shows all this, and by that map you would know you had to look at that cliff for the arrow," explained the professor seriously.
"But where to next?" asked Bet.
"Follow the arrow, that's all we know," answered Kit.
There was no more digging on the claim that day. Even lunch was eaten by them in a half-hearted way. Joy was suffering with her ankle or she might have done justice to Tang's picnic spread.
The professor was in a delightful dream. This was the sort of thing that he loved.
"Do eat something, Professor Gillette. You'll be sick if you don't," pleaded Bet.
"Why, I'm not hungry in the least. I do wonder why the arrow is pointing that way. There doesn't seem to be a thing in sight."
"Maybe if we climbed the hill, we'd find it," suggested Enid. "Suppose we divide up in teams. Some go over the hill and some hunt on this side."
"Who's going to stay with me? I won't stay alone," cried Joy her voice trembling with fear, "I'm afraid of buzzards. I've read about them. When they see people sick or crippled, they fly around, waiting for them to die. And sometimes they don't wait, they pick at them while they still live."
"Don't worry, Joy. I'll stay with you!" Enid looked longingly toward the hill, then turned to Joy.
The two girls watched the other members of the group, scramble up the steep ledge to the flat-topped hill.
"It's stupid to have to stay here," said Joy with impatience. "Couldn't you help me over there to that wall? There's some low bushes that will keep this horrible sun out of my eyes."
"Let's try it anyway. Come on!" Enid lifted Joy to her feet and supported her. "Now lean on me and just hobble along. Don't put any pressure on that ankle. Hop like a rabbit!"
Joy groaned as she limped along. By resting many times the girls reached the clump of Palo Verde trees, and were glad to drop down in their scant shade. Joy's face was white and strained.
"I know what I'd do if I had my way," announced Enid anxiously. "I'd get you home at once."
"But I won't go. I want to wait for the others."
Enid sat down on the ground beside Joy, crouched under the bushes.
They were close to the wall of the cliff.
"What a funny rock!" said Enid. "I wonder what causes these strange formations. Doesn't that look like an altar? And there is a figure of a man in a long robe. And the professor will tell us that it is all made by the rain."
"Yes," said Joy indifferently. "You know, Enid, I'm tired of this Arizona country. I hate these bare mountains, and I hate the herds of cattle that stare at you and then race madly away. Everything is unfriendly. Yet, I'm almost sure I'll be homesick, like Kit, when I once get away."
"It's glorious!" answered Enid.
"It frightens me. Everything seems cruel. I'd give a dollar this minute to see a soft, green meadow."
"I'm perfectly happy right here, I wouldn't have it different." Enid was gazing over the ranges of mountains that seemed to go on and on.
It was half an hour later when the girls heard Bet's familiar call.
"She's found the treasure!" whispered Enid. "You can hear the happiness in her voice."
But the girls were mistaken. The group had searched high and low but nothing was in sight. The professor had found a bit of old ruin, part of a wall that he claimed was Indian fortification. But that was all. No mounds or signs of a village.
"Why Joy and I found something just as interesting as that," laughed Enid. "Under the trees here, the wall of that small cliff has the most peculiar weather markings. Take a look at it, Professor Gillette.
It's interesting."
The professor bent away some of the branches of the trees so as to get a good view of the rock. The girls standing near, heard him give a gasp of astonishment.
"What's the matter now?" asked Bet Baxter.
"Those markings were never made by the weather. They were carved by human hands. And our arrow is pointing straight toward it. I don't understand why we didn't see it before."
"It's the treasure!" exclaimed Bet. "Let's see what's there!"
CHAPTER XV
A SPY
The professor's hand trembled with excitement as he scratched the surface of the rock, tapped the face of the wall for a possible hollow sound, then called on Bet to bring him a pick.
He dug at the base of the wall, but soon came to solid rock.
"There's nothing there!" he exclaimed. "But this is interesting." The desert weeds had grown over all the crevices in the rock, and when the professor had carefully scraped them away, he found what he had hoped for; a small opening. Behind that wall there was a tunnel. As he looked into the darkness, a rattlesnake glided through the hole, and the old man sprang back just in time to save himself.
"That was a close shave!" Wiping his forehead with his handkerchief, Professor Gillette sat down on the rock to decide what the next step would be.
"Guess we'd better call it a day. We are all tired out. We can just get back in time for dinner," said Enid. "And Dad said you were to come home with us, Professor."
"I'd like to consult with the judge," said the old man. "He can give us valuable advice I'm sure." He wouldn't for the world acknowledge that the hot dinner, already prepared, tempted him to accept the invitation.
The girls turned away from the wall, unwillingly. They now felt sure that they were leaving a treasure behind them. And tomorrow seemed so far away!
Bet and Enid helped Joy to hobble along to the edge of the cliff, and Kit hastened down the incline to where they had left the horses near the stream.
"I'll bring Dolly up, that is if she'll climb, the lazy thing!" called Kit as she disappeared. By this time Joy's foot was badly swollen and was giving her acute pain.
Before leaving the wall, the professor had concealed the opening that he had found. As he turned to go he picked up a bit of the rock that he had pried loose.
It was this rock that kept the secret of the tunnel from Ramon Salazar, hidden in the brush of the hill opposite, where he had been set to spy on the girls by Kie Wicks.
He had become rather weary of his job until he saw the professor examining the wall of the cliff, then he braced himself up expectantly, but relaxed again when he saw the old man looking closely at a rock in his hand, which he carried away with him.
"He's found a colored stone that he likes," Ramon said to himself with a sneer of contempt at the professor who was always treasuring the brightly colored mineral specimens.
And it was this report that he carried to Kie Wicks: "They just fooled around, had a picnic, and climbed the hill above the claims. I don't believe they even know you jumped them."
"You mean you jumped their claims," corrected Kie Wicks.
Ramon laughed and slapped his leg. "That's a good one, yes, I jumped their claims."
"And you'd better get busy with the assessment work, too," advised Kie.
"Who pays me for that?" demanded the cross-eyed Mexican.
"There you go again! Always wanting money! I find you some good claims and a chance, maybe, to sell out at a big price in the future, and you want pay for doing the assessment work. You're an ungrateful cur!"
"Then I won't do the work. No pay, no work!"
But even as he spoke, Ramon knew that he would do whatever Kie Wicks asked him to do. The habit of obedience to this man was too strong in him. He had been a tool for this unscrupulous rogue for more than ten years. Just why, he could not have told, for Kie Wicks was not a generous master and the Mexican got little enough for his work. Rarely ever did he get any cash out of the storekeeper, and the supplies that Kie doled out were given grudgingly. Yet the man always returned, after promising himself many times that he was through.
Kie had given him a small shack in the canyon, that had once been used by some friends of his for a summer vacation, and it was this home that sheltered his wife and eight children, which kept the Mexican faithful to Kie.
Ramon had a bad name in the hills. He had tried his hand at every kind of rascality. Cattle had disappeared, horses rustled and Ramon was suspected of knowing more about them than he should. Yet it was Kie Wicks behind him, threatening and driving him on, that made Ramon the character he was.
And while Ramon refused, at first, to go on with the assessment work on the stolen claims, he knew that he would do it in the end, and that Kie would also give him supplies while he was working on the job.
Ramon did not like to meet the girls and perhaps Judge Breckenridge. The professor, he felt, was harmless, a silly old man who roamed through the hills, but the impressive looking judge was a different matter.
Yet the next morning when the professor arrived with the girls, Ramon was digging away at the farthest claim, and did not even look up.
"Guilty conscience!" whispered Bet to the professor.
"He complicates matters considerably," frowned the old man. "I hardly know how we are going to proceed, if he stays around here."
"With Ramon watching, the only thing to do was to go on with the drilling on the Orphan Annie claim. Bet fumed and fussed, scolding anyone who came near her. She insisted on being the professor's helper, holding the drill in place with the strong wire while he hammered. This gave her an audience and was an outlet for her anger against Kie Wicks and his Mexican hanger-on.
"Take it easy, child. There's lots of time to find that treasure – that is if there is one. We don't need it right away, you know," soothed the professor.
But it took Bet a long time to regain her poise. The other girls had recovered from their disappointment and were trying to make friends with the Mexican before Bet would even smile.
"I do wish we could tell which of us he's talking to. His eyes are so crooked they overlap," whispered Enid to Bet. The Mexican did not want to make friends with the girls. He answered a few words to their questions then went moodily on with his work. But not for long. Without a master over him, the man grew lazy and before the morning was far advanced he had disappeared in the canyon.
"I thought he'd get tired of it," smiled Kit. "A Mexican miner has to have someone to keep him on the job. And I don't believe that Kie Wicks will spend much time over here."
Ramon was no sooner out of sight than the professor dropped the drill and they rushed for the wall to begin digging there. They had just started to work when Judge Breckenridge rode up.
"Let's have a look at that treasure tunnel, Professor," greeted the Judge with a laugh. "How much bullion have you found?"
"Not any yet, but who knows?" returned the old man, his eyes shining with excitement.
"Stranger things have happened!" The Judge followed the girls and looked at the wall. "Well, well," he exclaimed, "this certainly looks interesting."
The professor had already begun to pick away the crumbling rock at the small opening, and found that they had hit upon the spot where the mouth of the tunnel had been filled up. After half an hour's work he had opened it sufficiently to look in. Using a flashlight, he could see that the tunnel was very shallow, another wall confronted him and this appeared to be the solid rock of the mountain.
He was about to give up when he noticed a peculiar stone on the floor of the tunnel, or what appeared to be a stone. With the pick he dragged it forward and was able to reach it. Drawing it forth, he stood before the Judge with glowing face.
"See this!" he exclaimed excitedly. "This comes up to any story of buried treasure that I've ever read in my life." He displayed his find, a tiny disc of copper and on it were engraved strange figures and signs. They had no meaning to the group of people that stood about the tunnel. But that little copper plate was telling a story, of that there could be no doubt.
"What do you think of it?" the professor gasped in a hoarse whisper. The old man was almost too excited to speak. He made several attempts then gave up, but he held the disc as if it were a jewel.
"Let's sit down away over here and have a look at it," the Judge suggested. "And if anyone is spying on us, he'll not be apt to suspect anything."
Judge Breckenridge examined the disc carefully then spoke.
"Now there is a possibility – a slight one, we'll say, that there is a treasure in that vault somewhere. Do you think your friend Ramon is suspicious?"
"It's hard to say," Kit burst out. "Kie Wicks may be watching us this minute from over the hill across the canyon."
"We will want to carry on the work as quietly as possible, but if Kie hears about a treasure, we'll not have a minute's peace," said the Judge, rising and surveying the ground. "The first thing we ought to do," he continued, "is to stake out a claim covering this wall. Then we'll own it."
"Yes, and have Kie Jump that claim, if he is watching us." Bet shrugged her boyish shoulders.
"We'll get ahead of him on that. We'll stake the claim and I'll send a man over to record it first thing in the morning, and tonight we'll have a watchman – two in fact. We'll not leave the tunnel unguarded for a minute until we find out what it contains."
"Oh, please, Judge, let us guard it!" cried Bet.
"No!" There was a harsh, decided ring in the Judge's voice and the girls did not urge him further. That "no" meant exactly that.
"I think it might be a good idea for me to go back to the ranch and get Tommy and some of the boys to move the professor's tent up here and Tommy and Seedy Saunders might stay for a few nights to guard your claims. You'll have all the excitement there is in it, even if there is no treasure."
Bet flared up at once. "We're not so silly as to want excitement and nothing else. We want the treasure now that we have started out to find one. Nothing else will do."
The Judge laughed as he mounted his horse and rode down the trail.
But when he returned to the ranch and informed the boys what he wanted, he was met with roars of laughter.
"You want us to guard a buried treasure! That's a good one!" said Seedy Saunders, the old cowboy who was now staying with Judge Breckenridge. "Let Tommy do it! He has a treasure map in his shack that he paid five dollars for. He'd love to do it!"
However, when the cowboys heard how much it meant to the girls to have the tunnel guarded against Kie Wicks, they entered into the spirit of it, and even though they laughed and joked, they carried out the Judge's instructions.
They moved all the professor's belongings over the mountain, and took another tent and cots for themselves.
"There just naturally has to be two of us," insisted Seedy. "We'd be scared stiff to sleep alone there, even with the professor."
"Which are you scared of?" laughed Tommy Sharpe. "Kie Wicks or the ghost of the Indian Chief's daughter?"
"Both," returned Seedy pretending to shake with fright. "But I'm mostly scared of that there ghost that walks."
The boys were hilarious as they unpacked their stuff at the Orphan Annie claim.
"By rights we ought to camp in the canyon, we'll have to pack all the water up the hill," suggested Tommy.
"You'll camp right at the mouth of that tunnel, boy!" insisted Enid, and there was something of Tilly the Waif in her command. Tommy looked up at her quickly, then burst into laughter.
"Yes'm," he said meekly with a twinkle in his eye. "I obey!"
They had the tents pitched and the girls were arranging the beds and making them cozy when Judge Breckenridge returned, with a boy driving a burro loaded with provisions.
In his hand he held something white which he waved as he came up the mountain?
"It's a letter!" exclaimed Bet. "I hope it's from my Dad. I haven't had a letter for a week."
"It's a letter for me," announced the Judge, "but it may contain news that will please you. The boys will arrive this week. Phil and Bob are going to join us."
A shout went up and echoed through the hills.
Tommy gave an Indian war-whoop and the girls danced about, hugging each other in their joy.
"Won't it be good to see them!" exclaimed Bet.
"Is Paul coming with them?" asked Enid. "I'm homesick for my brother," she murmured with a happy sigh.
"Yes, the three boys will come together by airplane to Phoenix," said the Judge.
"By airplane!" echoed Bet Baxter. "If they don't let me go up with them, I'll never speak to them again, never. I want to fly!"
The hunting for treasure took second place now. The coming of their friends was more important than anything else.
"You know," said Kit solemnly, "we shouldn't get so fond of those boys.
We'll spoil them."
"I've never seen any spoiling!" Billy Patten had helped Judge Breckenridge bring over the supplies, and now confronted Kit. "Don't pretend you're soft-hearted, for you're not."
Kit laughed at her teasing brother and with a wave of her hand pushed him aside. "Children should be seen and not heard," she said.
"What did Joy say when you told her that Bob was coming?" asked Bet.
"She shed a few tears; perhaps she was afraid she would miss all the fun with her sprained ankle."
"She's in luck if she only knew it," laughed Enid. "A girl with a sprained ankle will just appeal to the sympathy of those boys. Joy will be the center of the stage."
"And won't she love it?" chuckled Kit.
With many final instructions to the boys to guard the tunnel, the girls mounted their horses and hurried toward home, their faces glowing with joy.
From the mountain opposite, where Ramon had watched the previous day, Kie Wicks was on guard. He saw the preparations for camping at the claims and wondered what it was all about.
His eyes narrowed to pin-points when he saw the professor examining the wall of the cliff.
"What's he got there?" he muttered to himself. "But he can't put anything over on me. If I could get my hands on Ramon, I'd teach him to do as I tell him. If he had stuck around, I'd know what all this fuss is about."
But that was all that Kie was to know for some days. He watched by the hour, he questioned every man, woman and child he met, but the professor and his men were not talking. The location work on the Orphan Annie claim and the digging of a tunnel seemed to be their only interest.
Kie noticed that a monument had been built to cover the claim where the tunnel was being driven and smiled to himself. "These city fellows think they've got a mine with a couple of claims. They've got a lot to learn!"
The secret had to come out, of course. And when Kie Wicks heard it a few days later, he was wild with fury.
"Digging for treasure, are they?" he snorted. "I'll get them yet, those two-faced, underhanded robbers. They haven't got no business in these mountains. I'll show them!"
"If they've found a treasure, it's mine! I've hunted for it for years! I'll get it somehow!" Kie Wicks was almost beside himself with rage when he reached the store and told his discovery to Maude.