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| The Open Road for Boys, 1932 February |
The
Incas' Treasure House –Part 4 of 5
By A. Hyatt Verrill
From The Open Road for Boys magazine 1932 February.
Digitized by Doug Frizzle, December
2013.
Illustrated by Heman Fay, Jr
The Story So Far
Bob Stillwell and Pancho
McLean become lost in the Andes on their
way to La Raya, a mining camp in Peru where Bob's father is manager. While lost they
save the life of an Indian chief, disabled
by a jaguar. Because of this they
are well treated by the Indians of the chief's village. The boys find these Indians different from
all others and they conclude that they
are a lost tribe, living as did the
Indians under the Incas before the time of Pizarro. They discover a temple with
amazing golden ornaments and relics of the
Spanish conquest.
Having recovered, Tonak
starts with the boys and two young
Indians, Kespi and Kenko, for La Raya, but first, because Bob and Pancho saved
his life, Tonak shows them a
fabulous treasure which the
ancestors of his people kept from
Pizarro's clutches, and tells them
that they may take with them as much of it as they
can carry.
CHAPTER XII AMAZEMENT!
GLEAMING, flashing in the glare of the
torches were jewels of every hue. Bob and Pancho found themselves
almost blinded by the brilliancy of the precious stones. Like living fire they scintillated and sparkled—blue, green, purple,
lavender, crimson and dazzling white. Never, the
boys thought, had white men looked upon such a vast treasure. Here, as Tonak
had said, was wealth which they
could carry—riches in condensed form—and though ignorant of the value of jewels, they
realized that a pocketful would be worth hundreds of pounds of the yellow gold."
They plunged their hands into the
chest, lifted the emeralds, rubies,
sapphires, diamonds, topazes, amethysts and countless semi-precious stones and
let them trickle in showers of flame
between their fingers. Could it be
possible the glorious things were
real, that they were seeing,
handling such gems as neither they nor anyone else had believed existed: limpid
green emeralds as large as pigeons' eggs, blood-red rubies the size of marbles, ropes of iridescent pearls from Lake Titicaca, topazes carved to represent the sun, fire-flashing diamonds set in beautifully
wrought ornaments of gold; golden and silver flowers with petals of gems,
golden insects with jeweled eyes and wings, golden ears of maize with kernels
of pearls and husks of silver, the
finest examples of Incan and pre-Incan art, the
work of the incredibly skillful
goldsmiths and lapidaries of the
vast ancient Incan empire!
The Indians stood silent,
motionless, watching the boys and
waiting for them to help themselves to the
vast treasure.
"My heavens!"
sighed Bob. "I can't believe I'm not dreaming. There must be millions and
millions of dollars' worth of jewels here."
"Fortunes!" agreed
Pancho. "When are we going to wake up?"
"Better fill our pockets
before we do," said Bob.
"I'm going to take these that are set in gold," declared Pancho.
"And one of these gold ears of
corn." He turned to Tonak. "Do you really mean that we are to have
all we can carry?" he asked. "We have done nothing to deserve so
generous a reward and this gold and these
jewels must be very precious to you."
Tonak nodded and spread his
hands in a wide gesture that seemed to sweep over the
entire contents of the room.
"All you wish of the treasure is yours," he said, "nor do
we feel that we give too much. The fearlessness with which you saved my life
and the friendliness with which you
have lived among my people make us most willing that you should choose and take
all that you can carry. There will indeed be ample left, for we five can take
away from the
entire treasure only as little as five ants could carry at one time from an anthill. Yes, my sons, it is yours."
Again and again Bob and
Pancho expressed their thanks to the Chief and for some
time examined the jewels and with
many exclamations of wonder and astonishment laid aside those which most
appealed to them. Taking Tonak at
his word, they also handed over to the Indians all which they
could carry.
At last their task was done, and with a final long look at the astounding heap of treasure which remained, they turned toward the
doorway, and with Tonak in the lead,
again traversed the various passages
and at last stepped out into the sunlight.
It seemed strange enough to come
back to their own world after having
lived for a few moments in an era
that had ended centuries before. Carefully the
Indians replaced the stones and then with scarcely a backward glance set off down the trail.
"I wonder," said
Bob, "if we shall ever come
back for any more of this treasure. There is no doubt in my mind but that Tonak
would be more than glad to let us come
again."
"I don't know about
that," said Pancho. "He isn't going to take any chances of having the location of this wealth discovered. These
Indians must have guarded it most carefully or some
inkling of its whereabouts would have leaked out during the
last few hundred years. He has paid his debt to us, but of course he doesn't
want the hoard plundered, and if I
am not mistaken, would never again be willing to bring us here."
"You may be right,"
said Bob, "and anyway, I wouldn't want to come
back for any of the treasure without
his permission; but all the same, it
will do no harm if we try our best to remember how to reach this place. I'm
going to watch for landmarks carefully and note them
down so that I won't forget them."
"That's all right with
me," assented Pancho. "I'll do that too, but I don't believe we have
a chance in the world of ever being
able to return to this spot. These Indians will see to it that they leave too confused a trail."
So, concentrating their minds on the
character of the surrounding hills
and valleys, the boys followed
silently in Tonak's footsteps, wondering how long it would be before they would reach La Raya.
DAY after day they plodded steadily on, sometimes
following narrow paths, at other
times proceeding where no trail was visible; turning now east, now north, now
west, now south, until the two boys
were hopelessly confused and had not the
most remote idea of the general
direction in which they had
traveled.
"It's lucky Tonak knows the way," panted Bob as they
climbed a long slope. "Sometimes
I wonder if he really does or is just going round and round, as much lost as we
were on the other
side of the mountains. If he does
know where he's headed for, how on earth does he find his way?"
"I guess it's
instinct," replied Pancho. "Same way pigeons and toads and other things find their
way home. He knows where he's going
all right."
Though the
journey was long and the boys
desperately footsore and weary, they
at least did not suffer for want of water or food. The Indians carried a good
supply of parched corn, barley meal, dried beans and jerked meat; the country through which they
passed, though often barren, was cut by many small streams; and while game was
scarce, still hardly a day passed that Pancho did not shoot something. At night the
boys threw themselves down utterly
tired out, but the Indians made
nothing of it. Even burdened with their
loads of over one hundred pounds each, Kespi and his brother
seemed never to tire, and Tonak, who had so recently recovered from injuries that would have left a white man a
semi-invalid, kept up his same swinging pace for hours on end with never a sign
of weariness.
Frequently Bob or Pancho
asked the chief how much farther they
would have to go or how many more days it would be before they arrived at La Raya—and he invariably replied in
some unintelligible metaphor or
declared he could not say, as it all depended on how fast they traveled.
By the
end of a week the trip seemed like
an endless nightmare. It did not appear possible that they
could have walked steadily for seven days without seeing a single human being,
a house or a village. To be sure they
had passed within sight of several ruins of ancient buildings, but the entire country seemed devoid of human life, a
wilderness of hills and valleys, of dark cañons, of broad punas and grassy
upland plains, of tumbling mountain streams, gleaming silvery lakes and distant
phantom-like mountains.
They camped wherever the end of the
day found them—sometimes in the
shelter of a pile of rocks, sometimes
in a cavern in the hills, sometimes in hastily constructed huts beside streams
or ponds. One morning they came to a
large lake that barred their
progress and the boys groaned as they thought of being forced to tramp the long way around it. Then to their surprise the
Indians threw down their loads and,
wading knee-deep into the water, commenced gathering
great bundles of the tall,
inch-thick reeds that grew everywhere in the
shallows. These they placed in
bundles on the ground and lashed them together
with withes and roots.
Kespi grinned when the boys questioned him and informed them he and the
others were making a balsa.
"We know just about as
much—or as little—as before," complained
Bob. "What's a balsa, anyhow?"
"Looks as if they were making some
kind of boat!" Pancho said.
IT WAS soon evident that a
boat was precisely what the Indians
were making, for they worked
rapidly, tying bundles of reeds together,
lashing these bundles into place,
and forming a canoe-shaped affair some
twenty feet in length by six feet in width. Within three hours from the
time they had begun work the strange craft was completed,
and as the astonished boys looked
on, two of the Indians lifted the little vessel to their
shoulders, carried it to the shore
of the lake and placed it on the water.
"Well I never saw
anything like that!" cried Bob. "Come
on, let's see if it'll hold us!"
The balsa seemed
scarcely affected by their weight
and was so buoyant, dry and steady that the
boys shouted with delight.
The Indians seemed vastly
amused at all this enthusiasm. To them
the balsa was nothing
extraordinary, for similar boats had been used by Peruvian Indians for
thousands of years. Having loaded the
supplies and armed themselves with
poles cut from a hillside thicket of
poplars, they clambered aboard and
pushed off.
 |
| This is something like! |
"This is something like!" declared Pancho, as the buoyant craft moved toward the center of the
lake. "Wish we could travel this way all the
time!"
"You bet!" agreed
Bob heartily. "But look there!
Ever see so many ducks and geese and—say, what are those two big white ones
with the black necks? Try a shot. They
ought to be fine eating."
As Pancho threw a shell into the chamber of his rifle the
Indians grasped his intention and slowly guided the
balsa toward the unsuspecting
waterfowl. Not until he was within easy range did Pancho risk a shot. Then he
brought down one of the big black-necked
swans. As the flock of birds rose
with a terrified squawking and a roar of beating wings, he fired twice more and
three ducks fell splashing to the
water.
"Great!" cried Bob.
"That was swell shooting—three ducks in two shots and on the wing!"
Pancho grinned. "Swell
nothing," he declared. "I couldn't help hitting them, they
were so close together. But— Well,
what do you think of that?" Kespi, not to be outdone by the white boy, had jerked a woven woolen sling from his girdle, had hastily fitted a round stone from a wallet at his side, and whirling it about his
head had sent the stone whizzing
after the birds. As Pancho spoke,
one of the flock plunged headlong to
the water.
"Guess you aren't such a
crack shot after all," laughed Bob, as he saw Pancho staring in surprise.
"If an Indian can knock one of those fellows over with a stone from a sling you ought to get three of them with two rifle bullets."
Gathering
up their game, the party continued on their
way, following the winding sheet of
water for mile after mile between the
hills. Not until they had reached the head of the
lake did the Indians pole the balsa into shoal water and draw it up on the shore.
They dined royally that night
on roast duck, and afterwards the
boys slept like logs. It was broad daylight when Pancho awoke. Rubbing his eyes
he sat up, glanced about to see if the
Indians were cooking breakfast, and then
suddenly wide awake, he leaped to his feet shouting excitedly to Bob.
The Indians were nowhere in
sight!
"Wha-what's the matter?" asked Bob sleepily, yawning as he
sat up. "Why all the
shouting?"
"The Indians!"
cried Pancho. "Tonak, Kespi, Kenko—they're
not here!"
"What?" exclaimed
Bob getting to his feet and staring about, blinking in the
bright light. "Not here? Well, what of it? Most likely they've gone for a swim."
"I hadn't thought of
that," Pancho admitted. As he spoke he hurried toward the spot where they
had beached the balsa. Neither the
Indians nor the craft were anywhere
to be seen.
"They're not at the lake!" cried Pancho. "And the boat's gone too!"
"Well, they've left everything behind them—if they
really have gone," Bob informed him. "The gold and jewels they were carrying are here. I guess they're somewhere
near. Why should they run off,
anyway? You don't think they'd
desert us, do you?"
"I can't believe they would," declared Pancho. "But just the same, it's mighty queer—the
way they've gone off without saying
anything, and they've taken the boat. I admit I'm scared. We can never find our
way alone!"
"If they've taken the
boat," Bob said, "that explains it. They've gone fishing."
"I'll soon find
out," declared Pancho. "I can see all around from
the top of that hill."
Without waiting for Bob, he
hurried off toward the crest. As he
reached the summit and glanced
about, he stood staring, open-mouthed,
incredulous. Within a quarter mile of where he stood, a stream flowed around the base of the
hill, its banks fringed with aspens. And there,
in plain sight beneath the trees,
were tents, tethered horses and
mules, men! For a brief moment
Pancho gazed at the seeming
apparition, too amazed to utter a sound. Then he let out a yell like a Comanche. “Whoop-eee! White men, Bob! Come on!"
Bob gave one glance at the camp among the
aspens, and with a yell that outdid Pancho's, dashed after his comrade.
At sound of the wild shouts, the
men camped beside the stream turned
with one accord and reached for their
weapons. They had thought there were
no human beings except themselves
within a hundred miles. Who could these
two be?
"Hey, who in time are
you?" demanded a tall, rawboned fellow. "What's chasin’ you?"
Before Pancho or Bob could
gasp out an explanation, a man emerged from
the door of a tent nearby.
"What's up, Haskins?" he asked.
Bob wheeled at the sound of the
voice. His eyes grew round, his jaw gaped. Then—"Dad!" he shouted,
and fairly threw himself upon the
astounded figure before the tent.
CHAPTER XIII SURPRISE
 |
| At the sound of the boys' shouts |
MR. STILLWELL was too
surprised to utter a word. He had known nothing of the
boys' disappearance, he had thought them
safe at La Raya, and here they were
dropping out of a clear sky as if by magic. "Good heavens, what are you
doing here, Bob?" he gasped when he found his voice. "Why aren't you
at La Raya?"
"Gosh, Dad, but it's
good to see you!" cried Bob. "But what are you doing here?
Searching for us?"
"No, son, why should I
be searching for you? I'm on my way back to La Raya. Been examining prospects
for the past month and more. How did
you know where to find me?"
"It's a long, long
story, Dad, and we haven't had breakfast yet. Our Indians ran off and left us.
We'll tell you all about it while we eat. But didn't you know we were
lost?"
Mr. Stillwell shook his head.
It was hopeless to make any headway until he could get a connected account of the mystery. "All right," he agreed.
"You arrived just in time for breakfast—never knew you to miss a meal
yet—so come along and eat, and let's
see what sort of fairy tale you can think up to explain why Pancho and you are
here."
"Well, first thing that
happened," mumbled Bob as he helped himself to an immense flapjack, "the car skidded and was wrecked and the chauffeur was killed. Then Pancho and I decided
to walk to Palitos and—"
"Lost your way of
course," his father
interrupted. "Well, go on."
As they
ate, the boys described their adventures while Mr. Stillwell and Haskins
listened attentively. When they
reached the point where they told of having saved Tonak's life and of living
in his village, Bob's father again interrupted.
"Never mind about all the details," he said. "I can guess that
part. I suppose eventually the
Indians guided you out for La Raya, and if I'm not mistaken you said they deserted you. When was that?"
"Last night," said
Pancho.
"Say, wasn't that a
wonderful coincidence, Dad?" cried Bob. "There we were, camping
almost within sight of each other
and never dreaming of it, and then the Indians happening to go off just at that particular
time."
"Coincidence
nothin'!" growled Haskins. "Them Injuns knew we was camped here. They
figgered it out to leave you flat soon's ever they
brung you within sight of us. But I'd like to know why they
done it. Injuns don't do nothin' without a reason. I—"
"And they left their
packs, too," exclaimed Bob. "And—galloping catfish! I'd forgotten all
about it." He jumped up, his mouth full of food. "Say, we'd better go
back before some one finds all that
gold and stuff over there at our
camp!"
"Gold!" cried Mr. Stillwell. "What gold? What
are you talking about, Bob?"
"Why, the gold they
gave us. Gee whiz, we haven't told you about that yet. You see—"
The men scarcely heard his
words. They were gazing at the
gleaming objects Pancho had nonchalantly placed on the
table before them. "We got these, too," he announced. "Are they worth very much?"
"Jumping Jupiter! Am I
seein' things?" gasped Haskins. "Worth very much? Oh, my everlastin' sainted
aunt!"
"Where on earth did you
get those?" asked Bob's father
in awed tones as he picked up one of the
flashing gems. "This—why don't you know, don't you realize this is an
emerald—a jewel? It must be of great value!"
"Yea, verily!"
declared Haskins, leaning forward and peering at the
stone with burning eyes. "If it didn't have that there
hole into it I'd say 'twas worth all of ten thousand!"
"Ten thousand
dollars!" cried the boys.
HASKINS sank limply into his
camp chair, threw up his hands and groaned.
"While we're skinnin' these darned hills an' a-walkin' our feet off
lookin' for some outcrop of pay dirt
these two human horseshoes are a
pickin' up jools like they were
daisies!" he exclaimed.
"Gee, I wish we'd
brought more of 'em," lamented Bob. "There was a whole chest full
of—"
"Hold on, son!"
cried his father. "Let's have
this straight. Where did you find these?
What about the chest? You didn't
mention it when you were telling your adventures."
"Well, you didn't let
me," Bob reminded him. "You said never mind about what happened after
we got to the village. But there's a lot more to tell. We found a temple—"
"With mummies and an old
fellow in armor and a gold sun—" put in Pancho. "And Tonak told us
he'd make us 'great chiefs' in our own country and gave us these and the
gold. Showed us a large treasure they'd
been guarding for hundreds of years in a big pyramid. Tons of gold and silver
and a chest full of these stones.
And—"
"He told us to take all
we wanted, but we couldn't carry very much," added Bob. "Just the gold the
Indians could tote and what we put in our pockets. But Tonak said we were welcome to go back and get more whenever we wanted
to."
Mr. Stillwell almost
collapsed as he listened to the
boys' amazing statements. "If these
stones weren't here before my eyes I wouldn't believe a single word of what
you've said," he declared. "What do you make of it, Haskins?"
The foreman sat up with a
jerk. "Make of it!" he cried. "Why, these
two boys have seen what folks have been huntin' for close onto four hundred
years—Atahualpa's treasure! They get plumb lost an' just by bull luck find the old cacique bein' chawed by a cussed tiger, an'
here they be with their pockets stuffed full of jools an' nobody knows
how much gold lyin' around loose over to their
camp. Oh my aunt!"
The boys started to disgorge the contents of their
pockets, but Mr. Stillwell stopped them.
"Don't!" he
exclaimed. "Not here, boys. I think my men are honest, but there's a limit to temptation for any native. Come into my tent—you, too, Haskins, and we'll see
what loot you've got and put it under lock and key."
When at last the boys had emptied their
pockets the two men sat gazing at
each other with wide eyes.
"I haven't the most remote idea what this is worth," said
Bob's father. "Have you, Haskins?"
The miner shook his head. “If
them stones wasn't so badly cut and
wasn't bored I'd guess they'd be
worth close to quarter of a million," he announced. "But as
'tis—"
"As it is,"
declared Mr. Stillwell, interrupting him, "in my opinion they may be worth fully as much or even more as
archeological specimens."
THE two boys scarcely could
believe their ears. A quarter of a
million! A fortune! And they had
taken but a fraction of the contents
of the chest!
"Whew!" whistled
Pancho. "Then there must be
billions in that place!"
Mr. Stillwell smiled.
"Scarcely that," he said. "It takes almost two tons of solid
gold to be worth a million—and a billion is one thousand millions or over two
thousand tons of gold, my boy."
"Well, it looked to me
as if there were thousands of tons there," declared Bob. "What was it old
Tonak said about all the llamas it
took to bring it there?"
"He said it required two
thousand yanaconas and forty llama trains to carry it," announced
Pancho. "What are yanaconas? I suppose they're
some kind of Indians."
"They be," Haskins
replied. "That's Quichua for porters. They carry about seventy-five to a
hundred pounds. Are you dead sure the
old boy said two thousand?"
"Well, he didn't say
exactly that," Pancho admitted. "He said, 'Yanacona-kuna Ishcaica
mitikuna huranga.'"
"That's right, by
hooky!" Haskins declared. "Twice ten hundred. And how many llama
trains?"
"Chusgo-Chunga,"
replied Pancho promptly.
"Forty all right,"
affirmed the miner. Then, after a moment's mental calculation: "Tie me down,
Stillwell!" he exclaimed. "If the
ol' Injun told the truth, more'n
seventy-five tons of gold were brung by them
there porters even if they only lugged seventy-five pounds apiece. And
close onto twenty ton more must 'a' been on them
llamas—forty trains is four hundred critters more or less. That's more'n a
hundred ton of gold, Stillwell, not countin' them
there stones—over fifty millions
lyin' in that there place a-waitin'
for us to walk in an' take it!"
Mr. Stillwell shook his head
and smiled. "Even if there are
one hundred tons of gold and countless gems in that remarkable treasure
vault," he said, "there
are a great many matters to be considered and not a few difficulties to be
overcome before we can 'walk in an'
take it.' "
"Well, what's the use of talking about that now?" demanded
Bob. "Let's go over and get that gold at our camp. First thing you know someone'll run off with it."
Half an hour later, the gold had been safely hidden away among Mr.
Stillwell's mineral samples without, apparently, arousing any suspicion among the muleteers and other
natives. Orders were given to break camp and before noon the
cavalcade was again in motion, wending its way slowly toward distant La Raya.
AS THE boys rode along they told of many incidents which they had not mentioned before, but their thoughts naturally centered on the treasure they
had seen and the small fortune they now possessed. They were greatly disappointed
when they found that Mr. Stillwell
could not at once go back with them
in search of the treasure. "It
would take weeks," he declared, "perhaps months to locate the spot, even if we ever found it. As a matter of
fact I don't believe you boys have the
remotest idea as to where it is."
They admitted that they did not.
"It may be in any
direction from here then," he continued. "I'm inclined to
think those Indians deliberately took you a roundabout route, and the only chance of finding it again would be by
airplane."
"I been wonder in' why them Injuns left you boys when they did," observed Haskins, "but I reckon
I know. That ol' cacique, to save a lot of travellin', brung you down to where
he savvied we'd be an' set you down where you couldn't miss findin' us. He's a
wise ol' bird an' wasn't takin' no risks of bein' trailed back to that there treasure house of hisn."
"But why should he
object to taking us back there?"
asked Bob. "He said we could have all the
treasure ye wanted."
"Lord love ye!"
exclaimed Haskins with a laugh. "You weren't takin' what he said for what
he meant, were you? Injuns is like Spaniards that-a-way. If they like you or owe you somethin',
they'll say a lot more'n they mean jus' to be per-lite like. A Spaniard'll
tell you his house an' all in it's yourn. But jest try to take it!"
"Well, maybe you're
right," sighed Bob. "Anyway, we shouldn't really complain even if we never find the
place again. We're both pretty rich."
His father
smiled. "I'm afraid, son, you'll find you and Pancho are not as wealthy as
you imagine. Most of these gems are
antiquities and cannot legally be exported from
Peru.
Even if the gold were melted down
and the gems recut, and thus
destroyed as far as their
archeological value is concerned, you would still be liable to have one-half of
all the valuables seized by the government. It would be treasure-trove and
according to law Peru claims fifty
per cent."
"Then—but, Dad, that
isn't fair!" cried Bob. "Tonak gave the
things to us—we didn't find them."
"You'd have a mighty hard
job trying to make the officials
believe that," laughed his father.
"I advise you boys to be very careful of what you say—don't mention
treasure or Tonak's gift or, for that matter, anything about the hidden village, its people or the temple. The less said the
better."
"You're dead right,
Chief," exclaimed Haskins. "What folks don't know won't bother 'em, an' there
ain't no danger of their knowin'
nothin' less'n the boys spill the beans."
COMPARED to trudging on foot
over the punas and across the mountains, camping wherever night found them and depending on chance game and the coarse food of the
Indians, the boys found their present journey almost luxurious. They had
horses or mules to ride, they slept
on comfortable cots in tents, and they had an abundance of food. Although Mr. Stillwell
and Haskins were both accustomed to
hardships, they saw no reason in
being uncomfortable when it could be
avoided. This was a company
expedition, and neither money nor
equipment had been spared to render it as successful as possible. Because
considerable sampling had to be done, a gang of laborers had been taken along,
in charge of Haskins. In addition to these
ten fellows—all Slavs or Russians, there
were two "powder-men," Chilean "Rotos" of Spanish blood; a
Peruvian surveyor, Señor Laranaga; Mr. Stillwell's Chinese cook, a coal black
Jamaican, Tom, who cooked for the men; four Quichua Indian "arrieros"
or muleteers; and half a dozen Cholo roustabouts and servants, while
finally, there was a red-headed,
bow-legged Texan named Masden, universally known as "Red," who was in
charge of the live stock and
packing.
Although Mr. Stillwell
believed his men honest, he felt that his precautions in keeping the gems and gold out of sight were fully warranted.
The men were a far from
prepossessing looking lot, especially the
laborers who, as Pancho remarked to Haskins, looked "more like pirates
than miners."
Haskins, however, rated them differently. "Them!" he exclaimed.
"They haven't the nerve to do
nothin'. Now it's different with them
two Rotos, who are plumb p'izen no matter where they
be. Too danged ready with a knife an' short-tempered as a rattler. Just the same, them
two ain't lookin' for trouble. What's that? The Cholos? Lord love you, son, them an' the
Injuns is jus' about as dangerous as them
llamas. You could load 'em down with gold and tell 'em to lug it down to La
Raya alone an' they'd do it. But
what you boys worryin' over? They's three of us white men—me, the boss an' Red—an' say, you ought to see Red when
he get's het up!"
"Seems to me there are four white men," observed Bob.
"You didn't count Señor Laranaga."
"Shucks, he's a
Peruvian," replied Haskins. "Course I s'pose he is white, but we
wouldn't never count on a native if it came to any trouble—not that they's a mite of chance of it. Even Red don't savvy
what you two brung in."
"I wonder," mused
Pancho a little later when Haskins had ridden off with Bob's father to look at a crimson patch on a hillside that
indicated a lead-silver outcrop, "I wonder if Haskins really isn't
worrying some over all our stuff."
"Nonsense!"
declared Bob. "Why should he? No one knows about it. What put that idea
into your head?"
"Well, nothing very
much," replied Pancho thoughtfully. "Only I noticed that he's been
wearing a revolver. And last night I woke up and heard someone
moving about and peeked out and saw him."
Bob laughed. "Red
carries a revolver, too," he reminded Pancho. "And why shouldn't
Haskins be moving about at night? He's in charge of the
outfit, after Dad, you know. It's his business to see that everything's all
right."
"Well, maybe,"
admitted Pancho, "but he just said a few minutes ago that even Red didn't
know anything about—well, about our things—and yet I saw him whispering with
Red last night."
