There was no response to his question. He leaned over and looked into the pit; but Jack's light had gone out, and everything was silent below. The rustling of feet had ceased, the moans had died away, and the mine was as still as the grave.

"Something has happened to Jack!" exclaimed Julian, running to his lean-to after his revolver and lamp. "I am going down there to see about it if all the ghosts in the Rocky Mountains should be there to stop me!"

Julian worked frantically, and in less time than it takes to tell it he was ready to go down to Jack's help. He hastily unwound the rope until all the length was out except the extreme end, which was fastened to the windla.s.s by a couple of staples, and swung himself into the mine. He went down much faster than Jack did, and when he reached the bottom he let go his hold on the rope, and, holding his revolver in readiness for a shot, he turned slowly about, as if he were expecting that whatever had frightened Jack would be upon him before he could think twice. But nothing came. In whatever direction he turned his light, everything seemed concealed by Egyptian darkness, and finally he resolved to let the ghosts go and turned his attention to Jack. There he lay, close to Julian's feet, his lamp extinguished and his revolver at a little distance from him; and it was plain that he was either frightened or dead, for Julian had never seen so white a face before. His own face, if he only knew it, was utterly devoid of color, and his hands trembled so that he could scarcely use them.

"I would like to know what it was that could make Jack faint away in this fashion," muttered Julian, first looking all around to make sure that nothing had come in sight before he laid his revolver down. "How to get him into that bucket, and the bail over him, is what bothers me just now; but he must go in, and get out of this."

Jack was a heavyweight, and if any boy who reads this has ever been called upon to handle a playmate who remained limp and motionless in his arms he will know what a task Julian had to put him into the bucket. And remember that he must go inside the bail, otherwise he could not pull him out; and the bail would not stay up without somebody to hold it. But Julian worked away as only a boy can under such circ.u.mstances, and was just getting him in shape, so that in a moment more he would have had him in, when he noticed that one of his hands was wet. He stopped for a moment to look at it, and at the sight of it he seemed ready to sit down beside Jack and faint away, too.

"It is blood!" murmured Julian. "My goodness! you must get out of here, and be quick about it! What was that?"

Julian straightened up again, but he had his revolver in his hand.

That moaning sound was repeated again, but the boy could not tell where it came from. It was not so great in volume as the first one that had saluted Jack, but it was a complaining kind of a sound, such as one might utter who was being deserted by the only friend he had upon earth. Julian stood there with his revolver in his hand, but, aside from the sound which rung in his ears for many a night afterward, his eyes could not reveal a single thing for him to shoot at. Julian thought now that he had got at the bottom of the mystery.

Hastily slipping his revolver into his belt, he turned his attention to Jack, and in a few moments had him ready to hoist to the top. Then he seized the rope, and, climbing it hand over hand, he reached the surface, when, throwing off his hat and revolver, he turned around to haul up Jack.

CHAPTER XXIII.

HAUNTED NO LONGER.

This time Julian laid out all his strength on the windla.s.s; but the bucket resisted, and he knew that Jack's weight was safely within it.

Presently his head and shoulders appeared above the pit, whereupon Julian slipped a bucket over the crank, and in a few minutes Jack was safe above ground. To tumble him out of the bucket and dash into his face some water that he dipped up from the stream with his hat occupied but little of his time, and almost at once Jack opened his eyes and looked about him.

"Well, sir, you saw them, did you not?" asked Julian, with a smile.

"I tell you, you wouldn't have smiled if you had been in my place,"

replied Jack. "That thing looked awful as it came at me."

"What thing?"

"There is some animal down there who is not going to let us work this mine if he can help it," said Jack, feeling around with his right hand to examine his shoulder. "As I stepped into the bucket with one foot he jumped--my goodness! I don't like to say how far it was; but I saw his eyes shining green in the darkness, and just as I pulled on him he sprang at me, dug his claws into my shoulder, and pulled me out. I thought I was gone up, sure; then all was blank to me. Did you see him?"

"I did not see anything," said Julian. "When the bucket came up easily, as though you were not in it, I went down after you; but I did not see a thing. What was it?"

"You tell. It was some kind of an animal that I never saw before. And didn't he make a howling just before he jumped! I wish you would look at my shoulder; it smarts awfully."

Jack could handle himself well enough now, and it was no trouble for him to roll over on his face and give Julian a chance to view his wounds. His shirt was torn completely off, and underneath were four scratches which went the whole length of his back and spent themselves on the thick waistband of his trousers, which they had ripped in two. Very little blood came from the wounds, and Julian a.s.sured him that they were not deep enough to cause him any inconvenience.

"You must have killed him before he got to you," said Julian. "A bear could not jump that far, and if it were a panther--why, you have done something to be proud of. You have done it anyway, for you have cleared up something that scared those two men away from here."

"Do you really think so?" asked Jack.

"I know it."

"But think of the howling he made! It seemed as if the pit was full of bears and panthers, and I didn't know which way to look. Have you got all the blood off? Then let us go down there and see about it. We can't work our mine with those fellows in there. If I killed him at once, how did he come to jump so far? And then he took himself off after clawing me; that is something I don't understand."

"You have to shoot one of those fellows through the brain or in the spine, in order to throw him in his tracks. Did you have a fair chance at his heart?"

"I don't know. I simply shot a little ways below that green spot, in the darkness, and the next thing I knew I didn't know anything."

"Because, if you had a fair chance at his heart, a wild animal will sometimes run a good way before he drops. He is down there somewhere, and I'll bet you will find him. But, Jack, there are others that we must get rid of before we own this mine."

"What do you mean by that? I was in hopes I had shot the last one of them."

"Well, you did not. While I was working over you I heard those moans repeated. That proves others are there--don't it?"

"I am going down to clear it up," persisted Jack, who had got upon his feet by this time and started toward the lean-to. "Hold on till I get cartridges to put in this revolver. I used to grumble at you because you spent so much money in Denver, last winter, in shooting at a mark, but I begin to believe you were right and that I was wrong. If I had been as awkward with this shooting-iron as I used to be, you would have got the whole of that hundred thousand dollars to spend for yourself."

"Don't speak about it!" exclaimed Julian, who wondered what he should do if Jack was taken away from him. "I need somebody to grumble at me, and you will do as well as anybody. Are you not going to put on another shirt?"

"Not much, I ain't. Maybe I did not kill that animal, whatever it was and he will come for me again. Now, you hold up and let me go," said Jack, when he saw Julian place one foot in the bucket."

"I am a better shot than you are, and if I pull on one of those ghosts you will see him drop," returned Julian, drawing the other foot in.

"Take hold of the windla.s.s and let me down easy. If I halloo, you must lose no time in hauling me up."

Jack was obliged to submit to this arrangement, and he carefully lowered Julian out of sight. When the bucket stopped he seized the rope, and in a moment more stood beside him.

"I am glad it is animals that are interfering with us, for I am not at all afraid of them," declared Jack. "Now, where is that other sound you heard?"

The question had hardly been formed on Jack's lips when that sound came to their ears--not faint and far off, as was the one that caused Julian to handle his revolver, but louder and clearer, as though the animal that made it was close upon them. Sometimes they thought it was in front, and they held their revolvers ready to shoot at a moment's warning, and then, again, it sounded behind them; and in a second more it appeared as if the rocks on each side of them concealed the enemy that was uttering those startling sounds.

"It is the echo--that's what it is," said Julian. "There is only one animal in here, and we can't shoot him any too quick."

Julian, aided by his lamp, led the way cautiously along the subterranean pa.s.sage, which would have been level but for the carelessness or haste of the men who had worked the pit before them, peering into every little cavity he saw, until at last he stopped suddenly and pointed his revolver at something that lay upon the floor.

"What is it, Julian?" whispered Jack, pressing eagerly to his side.

"Well, sir, you have done it now," answered Julian, bending over and examining the animal as well as he could by the light of his lamp.

"This is the thing that frightened the other two men away."

"What is it?" repeated Jack. "A panther?"

"No, sir; this animal will make two of the biggest panthers you ever saw. It is a lion!"

"In America?" said Jack, in astonishment.

"It is what the miners call them, anyway. When we get it into the bucket I will let you have the crank, and we will see if it does not weigh almost as much as you do. This animal is a mother, and her babies are crying for her."

Jack was surprised when he saw what a monster animal his lucky shot had put out of the way, for he did not lay any claim to his skill as a marksman in making that shot. He must have shot her plumb through the heart, or else she would not have died so quickly. She looked as big as a yearling, marked for all the world like the panthers he had seen in the shows which he had attended; but it was her size more than anything else which impressed him. It was wonderful, too, what a change the sight of this animal made in Jack. His courage all came back to him, and after taking a hasty glance at his trophy he took the lead and pressed on toward the farther end of the pa.s.sage. Every few feet he found what the miners called "false diggings"--that is, places that they had dug, either on the right-hand side or the left, to see if the vein they were following turned that way. In one of these "false diggings" Jack stopped and pointed silently before him. Julian looked over Jack's shoulder, and saw that the miner had dug through the embankment there and into a cave which extended through into the gulch--the boys could see that by the little streaks of light which came in at the other end. On a slight shelf which formed one side of the pa.s.sageway some leaves had been gathered, and in this bed were two cubs about the size of full-grown cats, while a third had crawled out and was trying, in his clumsy way, to follow his mother into the mine.

The little thing was wild, and set up a furious spitting as the boys approached.

"These things account for the noise you heard," remarked Jack, picking up the cub and beating its head against the floor.

"What made you do that, Jack?" exclaimed Julian. "We ought to save the young ones alive."

"Well, suppose we do; what will we raise them on? It is true that we might tell the milkman to leave us an extra quart or two to feed them on, for such little things can't eat bacon and hard-tack. Now, after we get through--"