Are you ready to turn the bend, Bob?"
"Sure," and the Kentucky boy ranged alongside his chum, by this
movement plainly indicating that he did not mean to let Frank take any
more risk than he himself was ready and willing to assume.
No sooner had the two saddle boys turned the bend in the passage than
they saw a singular spectacle.
A couple of lanterns were hung from wooden pins driven in the wall.
These lights, being protected by glass, could safely resist the
tremendous suction that accompanied each successive convulsion, as the
rocks trembled, and the air swept through toward the outer exit.
Only two figures were in sight--a man and a boy. In the latter they
recognized little Lopez, the hero of the adventure with the grizzly;
and if their suspicions proved true also, the little girl whom Bob had
rescued from the anger of the bully, Peg Grant.
The man was a rugged specimen, with long, iron-gray hair. Frank
recognized him as Lemuel Smith, whom he remembered to have met several
years ago when in a border town with his father.
Smith had always been a rolling stone, a prospector who spent his time
in hunting new strikes, and who lived year in and year out in the wild
hope of sometime or other hitting it rich. Frank suddenly remembered
that Smith had had one daughter, who, he believed, had married a
Mexican. And that would make the little girl his grand-daughter.
"They're packing up," remarked Frank, whose quick eye had noticed the
fact.
Pages:
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157