The mules were halted, and began to graze, while the party rode through the lush saplings and bushes that had sprung up so that it was hard work to get through, till they pa.s.sed under the spreading branches of the trees, where the undergrowth became thin and spa.r.s.e.

"There's the old board," cried Chris suddenly, and the party drew rein at last by the side of the heaped-up pile of stones with which they had marked the wanderer's grave.

No one spoke for a few minutes, but they sat there thinking deeply of the old man's coming, his death, and his legacy to the doctor, who broke the silence at length with a bitter sigh.

"Poor old dreamer!" he said sadly. "You bequeathed us your imagination, and sent us off on our quest for the phantom gold."

"Yes," said Bourne; "we'd better have left him his legacy and gone on home to the old-country."

"Oh, I don't know," said Wilton. "We've had a grand time of travel and adventure, eh, boys?"

"Splendid!" came in a breath. "I'm only sorry that we've come back."

"Yes," added Chris. "You'll think that over, father, about rigging up another expedition and making a fresh trial?"

"We shall see," said the doctor thoughtfully; "we shall see. What do you say, Griggs, about another search for the golden city?"

"Well, I dunno," said Griggs slowly. "Maybe I'll wait a year before I decide one way or the other."

"Griggs!" cried the two lads together.

"Oh, you needn't shout," said the American. "I've been thinking over it a deal, more'n you have, p'r'aps, and it seems to me that even if we had found the old place marked down on that old Rip Van Winkle map we should have had a deal of trouble to carry back enough gold to have made the journey worth while."

"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the two young men uproariously. "There's an old fox. He has just found out that the grapes are sour."

"Well, so they have been, boys," cried the American. "But talk about grapes, it's just five years since I planted some fine young vines in my patch and against the shanty. I wonder whether the blights have let them grow. My word, I should like a few bunches now!"

"I'm afraid they'll be as sour as the gold, Griggs," said the doctor.

"There, let's ride on and leave the poor old fellow to sleep in peace.

He took his secret with him, for his map was too vague for us to find his city of golden dreams. We have spent two years over the search, but we have travelled well over an unknown land and come back, I hope, wiser and more ready to do battle with the world."

"Oh, we shall try again, father," cried Chris, "and get real gold yet, not phantom gold, as you call it. _Nil desperandum_, you know. Never say die."

"Try again!" cried Ned.

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast," said Bourne gravely.

"Better luck next time," cried Wilton.

"Say, gentlemen," said Griggs dryly, "it don't seem to me a suitable time for you to be firing off your copy-book maxims all over the place when it's getting on for dinner-hour. I want to progress and ride on to the old plantations to see which of our old friends is going to win in the fight to have us for guests and give us a good sitting-down square meal."

"There's wisdom," cried Chris merrily. "Griggs is always right.

Forward!"

He led the way from beneath the spreading boughs of the great spruce, out from the solemn gloom where the old prospector lay and into the glorious sunshine of the luxuriant, verdant country, which seemed a very Eden after the parching sandy alkali deserts and the rocky tracts. The mules and ponies kept on s.n.a.t.c.hing at a mouthful here and a mouthful there, as if it were too rich and tempting to be pa.s.sed; but in spite of the loveliness of all around, the adventurers became more and more impressed by a something desolate about the attractive district over which they pa.s.sed. The hills and dales were glorious, but somehow they came upon no signs of cultivation, nor yet of settlements, till at last, with a feeling of sinking that was not all due to hunger, they rode right into the very centre of the cl.u.s.ter of plantations they had left two years before on their search for the golden city, to find on their return wherever they went traces of a fire here, completely over-run with greenery, there the remains of a shed or shanty with trees and vines dislodging the props and boards; and though they hailed and whistled it was only to scare birds or squirrels, and to awake no answering call.

They rode a little here and a little there, the ponies pushing their way through the tremendous growth; but it was all the same. Shanty after shanty was in ruins where it could be traced, but desertion everywhere.

But during the search, moved by a strange feeling of opposition, the friends shrank from approaching the dense grove which hid the home they had left. They all shared the feeling that it would be too painful to look upon the traces of the fire that without doubt had levelled with the soil the house they had toiled over, and it was not until Griggs spoke that something like a spell which had hung over them was driven away.

"Seems to me," he said, "that when the fellows burned or carried off all their stuff they made a pretty clean sweep. I'm just going across now to have a look at my old spot; but I don't suppose there'll be any dinner waiting there. Won't you have a look at your old roost first?"

"Yes," said the doctor, making an effort. "I couldn't go in yonder before. Chris, boy, there's no one to blame but ourselves; we deserted the old place; but it seemed to be hard to bear. Let's look at the ruins, if there are any left."

They forced their way through a dense grove of fruit-trees and wild growth which towered above the plantings of the past, the ponies breaking down the lush vines and succulent canes, till they were brought up suddenly by something solid which was overgrown by a vine.

"What!" cried the doctor.

"Ahoy! Griggy!" roared Chris through his hands. "Ahoy! Hooray!

Here's one of our vines loaded and breaking down with grapes."

The next minute the American and his companions had forced their way up to the front of the big shanty and its shed--the barracks, as they had termed it--to find that their fellow-settlers had respected the nailed-up doors and shutters, leaving at their exodus the unlucky district just as it had been at the peril finders' departure; but Nature had been hard at work for her part, toiling as she toils in a rich country to destroy man's work and restore all to its pristine state.

But though vines had draped, and shoots had dislodged shingles, the stoutly-nailed walls stood firm. No firebrand had been set to the sawn-up wood, and after some work with an axe to wrench away the boards that had been nailed over window-shutter and door, there was the old place fairly intact, with the utensils just as they had been left.

The consequence was that the wanderers, after seeing to their weary beasts and leaving them grazing in the midst of abundance, made their own dinner seated at the rough table, drinking the water from the swift river hard by, and finding, half smothered by the competing growth, abundance of peaches and Bartlett-pears to supplement the grapes ripening on the roof of the old home.

"I say, Chris," said Ned, with his mouth full, or nearly so, of juicy pear, "is this all a dream?"

"My peach tastes just like a real one," was the reply. "But I say, father, the fruit never used to grow like this."

"No, my boy," said the doctor; "I feel half stunned in my surprise. A complete change seems to have come over everything. The weeds and wild things have run rampant, but the fruit-trees, such as I can see, all look clean and free from blight."

"Say, neighbour," cried Griggs, "I'm going over to my place now, if some one else will help at the clearance. These grapes, you know."

"They're splendid," said the doctor. "What about them?"

"Why, this," said Griggs; "I planted lots, and they'd never grow any more than my oranges would."

"Oranges!" cried Chris. "Here, father, we haven't looked at our grove."

"Come on with me, then," said Griggs, "and we'll take it on the way. I want to see mine too. As to the grapes, if yours'll grow like this so ought mine; and if they have--But wait a bit."

All mounted again, to make their mustangs breast their way in the direction of the dried-up peach and orange-grove which they had toiled over in despair, and at the first glance a shout of delight arose.

"Why, father," cried Chris, "what was the good of going there through thirst and starvation to find phantom gold when it is glowing and growing, and breaking down the branches here?"

For it was a golden sight indeed for weary, longing and disappointed eyes.

Progress was difficult after they had literally gloated over the beauty and promise of the orange-grove, for the tracks were wonderfully grown over, everything showing that the settlement must have been forsaken almost directly after the departure of the adventurers. Then Griggs'

plantation was reached and found to be as full of promise as that which they had so lately quitted; and this proved to be the case wherever they rode, for the change everywhere was complete, the crops, as far as the encroaching wildings would allow, being abundant, but not a hand left to gather, those whom the party had known having forsaken the place to a man.

The rest of the day was devoted to cleaning and making the old home suitable for temporary if not for permanent habitation. Creeper and vine had to be cut back, so as to admit light and clear the choked-up chimney, while with the growth endless intruders, insect, reptile, and bird, were banished. The remaining stores, now very low, were brought in, and what all declared to be a very jovial supper prepared and most thoroughly enjoyed.

"One never knows what a day will bring forth," cried Bourne, smiling upon his listeners. "Here we were this morning weary and despondent, looking forward to someone taking us in to-night by way of charity, while now we find that we have fallen on our feet, and are quite at home in the midst of abundance."

"Yes," said Wilton; "I've seen enough to prove that Nature has retaken possession here, and that an hour with a gun will give us all we want to-morrow in the way of game."