"Yes," cried the doctor. "All right. Can you climb up?"

There was no answer for some seconds, and then the American said, in a peculiarly husky voice--

"Coming up. Haul steady."

Three pairs of hands were at the rope now, and their owners exchanged glances as they kept up a steady strain, feeling that Griggs was trying to climb, but jerking the line again and again as if his efforts resulted in a series of slips. After the last the adventurer's efforts seemed to be so feeble that the haulers kept on steadily gathering in the rope hand over hand, till Griggs' hands came within reach, when Chris and Ned each seized one to give the final tug which drew him over the edge of the hole and right away to a level spot, where he sank down, apparently quite exhausted, and with a peculiarly strained look about his eyes.

"Feel overdone?" said the doctor.

"A little, sir," was the faint reply. "Can you give me a drop of the water?"

This was quickly obtained, and the poor fellow swallowed it with difficulty, and then seemed to revive a little, while the doctor, who looked anxious, held one of his hands.

"Better now," panted Griggs. "That's beautiful water, cold and sweet; but I should have to be very bad before I dared go down to get any more.

I didn't know I was such a cur."

"I felt that it was too much for a man to do, Griggs," said the doctor quietly.

"So did I, sir," was the feeble reply; "but it had to be done, and I thought I could make a better finish out of the job. I say, nice example to set you two lads. It has made me feel as weak as a rat.

Ugh! It was very horrid when that stone gave way. I thought I was gone."

"It was horrible!" said the doctor. "There, you succeeded; now don't think any more about it."

"Can't help it, sir. I feel as if I must. I say, I hope that the people who lived here didn't all disappear down that hole and never come up again."

"It has quite unnerved you, Griggs," said the doctor kindly.

"I don't know about that, sir, but it has made me feel that I daren't go down that place again, even if it was to save my life. There, I'm sorry I made such an exhibition of myself. I did try to be plucky; but that place below there, with the water trying to sweep you off into the black darkness and the end, was too much for me. I believe I nearly lost my senses once. Well," he cried, half-fiercely, after a short pause, during which he looked keenly at first one and then the other of the boys, "you've both got the laugh of me this time. Did you ever see such a coward before?"

"Come along down below there, and see about a fire and a meal," said the doctor quietly. "Let it go now, Griggs. You didn't feel more nervous than I did. I was worse, I believe, for I felt guilty as well for letting you go down. There, I don't think we shall want to get our water from that place again."

"Why not?" said Ned suddenly. "We could get some up with a bucket if there was a heavy stone in the bottom. It would only mean half-a-bucketful at a time, but there's no reason why we couldn't do that."

Every one glared at the speaker as if wroth with him for proposing so simple and self-evident a means of getting at the water at a time when they had only succeeded at the risk of losing a valuable life.

But no one spoke, all preparing to descend the slope, at the bottom of which the barrel was slung and carried between Wilton and Bourne to the spot chosen for their camp. Here a good fire was soon made, dead wood being plentiful, and over the evening meal, hastily prepared, the incident of the afternoon was gravely discussed, Griggs joining in calmly enough now, for he seemed to have quite recovered his nerve.

"You'll have a good examination made of this place in the morning, sir?"

he said.

"I was thinking of moving off," said the doctor quietly, "and getting to somewhere better suited for a temporary camp."

"You couldn't get a better place than this, doctor," said Griggs quietly. "I've been thinking over what young Ned here said about dipping out water, and he's quite right. Don't think of going until the place has been thoroughly searched. I'm quite right now."

"Very well," said the doctor; "we'll have another day, at all events; but I do not antic.i.p.ate making much of a find here."

"I don't know, sir," said Griggs gravely. "We're getting into the gold country now, and such a place as this wouldn't have been made for nothing, nor be the living camp of a few poor wandering Indians. I shouldn't be a bit surprised to find traces of mining with furnaces and crucibles for melting the gold somewhere through these openings. They were evidently a big race of people who lived up here."

"We shall find that out to-morrow," said the doctor. "But what about keeping watch? Do you think there is any danger of Indians tracing us here?"

"Not a bit, sir," replied the American. "They don't care much for these rocky parts; they like the plains, where their horses feel at home."

"But there must have been a big tribe here."

"No, sir; not of Indians such as rove the plains. These must have been a different kind of people--miners and builders. Your regular Red Indian thinks of nothing but his horse, his hunting, and a fight with his enemies so as to get plunder. The people who mined for gold were a different kind of folk altogether."

"Well, we shall see to-morrow," said the doctor; "there are sure to be some traces of them in their old homes."

"I don't care what they were or what they did," said Chris that night, as they laid down to sleep in the dark bottom of the depression, gazing up at the great l.u.s.trous stars; "but I don't want any more water got like that. Ugh! It almost had a nasty taste when it was made into tea.

Didn't you notice it?" he said, after a pause; but there was no reply.

"I say, didn't you notice that the water seemed to taste nasty?" said Chris, a little louder; but still there was no reply.

"Oh, what a fellow you are!" cried the boy impatiently. "Such a one as you are for eating and noticing everything, I should have thought you'd have had something to say about it. Asleep again! Why, I couldn't sleep after what we've gone through to-day, even if I tried."

That was Chris's opinion, but he evidently could sleep without trying, for the next minute he was breathing heavily, and without a single troublous dream born of the perils of the day.

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.

IN THE STONE AGE.

The experiment was tried next day. A bucket, loaded with stones heavy enough to sink it, was lowered down the black-looking pit, and was drawn up again nearly full of water. This was given to the nearest grazing animals, and the bucket sent down again, to catch against some projecting block and tilt out the ballast, after which it refused to sink, but made a jerk or two to escape, and then had to be drawn out.

Fresh stones were put in the bottom, and again were tilted out, but the result of another trial from a little different spot resulted in the vessel's coming up full.

More trying resulted in the adventurers finding that they could depend upon obtaining about five bucketfuls out of a dozen trials, and with this they were content.

An attempt to reach the first terrace was now made, and this did not prove to be so difficult as it appeared from below, Chris finding a spot where the rock-face was a good deal broken away and proposing to try and climb it.

The doctor hesitated.

"What about the snakes?" he said.

Chris started, looked up, and then looked down, to see that Ned's eyes were fixed upon him, and he turned red.

"A snake couldn't climb up there!" he said sharply.

"No," said his father, "I should doubt whether one could; but there is every probability that one or many might have come down from above."

"Bother!" exclaimed the boy, and he hesitated for a few moments before saying, "If one did fall, or come creeping down one of those great cracks, perhaps, it wouldn't stop there. Snakes want something to eat, and there doesn't seem to be anything to live on up there. Wouldn't it come down lower, after all?"

"Possibly," said the doctor, laughing. "You want to venture?"

"Yes, father."

"Very well, go. But take a good stick with you--say such a piece of sapling as Griggs carried, only much shorter, and use it well as you go."