CHAPTER XXIV.

THE TWO FUGITIVES.

It will be remembered that when Buffalo Bill and Doctor d.i.c.k rode away from the caved-in mine and crushed cabin of the two gold-hunters in the Grand Canon, there were human eyes following their movements that they little dreamed were upon them.

Gazing at them from a hiding-place half a mile away were two men whose faces showed much anxiety as they saw the scout and the gold king moving about their quarters, when they had believed themselves hidden from all search by friend or foe.

Those two were Andrew Seldon and Lucas Langley.

Their escape had been miraculous, from being buried in the mine beneath the cliff, and they had established for themselves new quarters up the Grand Canon a few miles away from their former home.

This new camping-place was more secluded than the former one, and approached by a narrow ridge that no one would believe a horse could pa.s.s along, for in places it was only eighteen inches wide.

But Andrew Seldon had gone first along it on foot, and found beyond, up in the depths of a large canon opening into the mightier one, a perfect garden spot and scene of beauty.

A crystal stream trickled down a lofty precipice and flowed through the canon, and in its bed glittered grains of gold innumerable.

Back under the shadows of the towering cliffs there were found veins of precious metal giving promise of rich mines.

There were trees growing luxuriously in this nature's park, velvety gra.s.s covering acres of meadow-land, wild fruits that were delicious, and everything to make this home a most charming one.

They first made the effort to get their horses across the narrow ridge, upon either side of which was an abyss a quarter of a mile in depth, seamed with ravines, and looking like the craters of defunct volcanoes.

The first horse tried, Andrew Seldon's own riding-animal, followed his master without hesitation along the dizzy, awful pathway.

Turning, Seldon led him back again, and then the other animals followed slowly, and though nervously, yet without accident.

They were repaid for their fright when turned loose upon the acres of luxuriant gra.s.s in the valley.

A fence of poles made a barrier across the narrow entrance of the valley, and so the horses were allowed to roam at will.

A stout cabin was next built, and the two men having made themselves comfortable for the winter, were ready to begin their search for gold, feeling safe once more in their retreat, for who would believe that they had crossed that narrow ridge to find a hiding-place beyond?

And here these two men, so strangely met, with mysterious lives, and both in hiding from the world, settled down to win a fortune from the generous earth, to earn riches that would make them comfortable in their latter years far from the scenes that had known them in other days and to which they dared not return.

Each day they worked several hours in their gold-hunting, and then one of them would take his gun and go in search of game, while the other would do the ch.o.r.es about their cabin.

It was upon one of these hunting expeditions one day that Andrew Seldon found himself belated from having pursued his game much farther than he had thought.

It was some miles back to camp and the sun had long since ceased to send its rays down into the depths of the mighty chasm of the Grand Canon.

He started back, with his game swung up on his back, and the shadows rapidly deepening about him.

As he neared his old destroyed home he stopped suddenly, for across the canon a light flashed before his gaze.

"It is a firelight as sure as I live," he muttered.

"What does it, what can it, mean?"

He stood like one dazed by the sight for some time, and then slowly fell from his lips the words:

"It can mean but one thing--_that some one has come into the canon_."

After a moment more of silent thought he said almost cheerily:

"Ah! it is Lucas."

But again his voice changed as he added:

"No, he dreads the spot where he was so nearly buried alive and will not go there. Whoever it is, he is a stranger. I must know, for if they have come here to remain, if they are our foes we will be forewarned and hence forearmed.

"I will at once solve the mystery, for I had hoped never to behold a human face here other than Lucas Langley's and my own," and the gold-hunter walked away in the direction of the firelight which had so startled him.

He went cautiously, for he knew well the danger if he was discovered, and the builders of the camp-fire proved to be foes.

He knew the locality well, and that he could approach within a hundred yards of the fire, and discover just what there was to be seen.

Arriving within an eighth of a mile of the spot he halted, laid aside his game and rifle, and then moved forward from rock to rock, tree to tree, armed only with his revolvers.

He now saw that there were three fires, two near together and one a couple of hundred feet apart and off to itself.

The scene of the camp was a small canon near his old home and on the trail leading to it. There was gold in the canon, for he had discovered it there and taken some away, while he had marked it as his claim, it having been already staked as one of the finds and claims of the real Andrew Seldon.

In truth, there were a dozen such claims in the Grand Canon found by Andrew Seldon, all of them paying finds.

Having reached a point within a hundred yards of the camp-fires, Seldon leaned over a rock and began to survey the scene.

The three fires were burning brightly, and beyond the light fell upon a number of horses corralled in the canon, where there was gra.s.s and water. There were brush shelters near, three in number, and about the fires in front of them were gathered a number of men.

Counting them, Andrew Seldon found that there were eight in sight.

There appeared to be no guard kept, and the camp was certainly not a very new one, apparently having been made there several weeks before.

Emboldened by his discovery, the gold-hunter crept nearer and nearer, and then could see that the men were all masked.

This struck him as being a very remarkable circ.u.mstance, indeed, since they were clad like miners, some of them wearing beards that came below their masks. All were armed thoroughly.

They were eating their supper as Andrew Seldon looked at them.

Gaining a point of observation still nearer, the gold-hunter obtained a view of the camp-fire apart from the others. A comfortable little cabin was just behind the fire, and a rustic bench had been made near it.

A blanket hung over the door of the tiny cabin, and about the fire was the evidence of a supper recently eaten, for a cup, tin plate, and knives, with the remains of a meal, were upon a rock that served as a table.

Upon the rustic seat sat one whose presence there was a great surprise to Andrew Seldon.