The Golden Quest

CHAPTER IX. AT THE CHALICE MINE

TWENTY-FOUR hours had elapsed. New sunset streaked the western sky beyond Lake Chalice.

Harry Vincent and Rex Brodford were smoking pipes on the verandah of the lodge when Cortland Laspar joined them. The magnate had come back from a visit to the lumber camp.

“Well, gentlemen,” observed Laspar, “it looks as though your first step should be a visit to the Chalice mine.”

“No information at the lumber camp?” inquired Rex.

“None at all,” replied Laspar. “I quizzed the surveyors again. They have no idea where the Quest shaft could be located. They told me about the shack that they used when in the hills. It will be easy enough to locate. A blazed trail starts from the gully.”

“Then we could find our way there by night as well as by day?”

“Yes. The shack is about two miles in from the lake. It has cots and mattresses that the surveyors left there. Also canned goods. All you will need is bedding.”

“We can go over there tonight, then, Vincent,” observed Rex, turning to Harry. “That will put us right on the terrain at daybreak.”

“Good,” agreed Harry.

“You seem anxious to lose no time,” remarked Laspar to Rex. “Well, I do not blame you, even though I doubt that your search for the mine shaft will be successful. But before you start along the blazed trail, pay that visit to the Chalice mine. You might learn something.”

“About the Quest mine?”

“Possibly. At least, you could gain some news regarding Old Absalom. He has not been around the lumber camp for weeks. That means that he has probably been visiting the Chalice mine. He has to go one place or the other to buy provisions.”

“A good idea,” decided Rex. “How is the best way to get to the Chalice mine?”

“Ordinarily,” declared Laspar, “I would suggest that you cut across the point and pick up one of the canoes. There are several of them beached there; it is only a short paddle from that side of the point.

“But since you intend to go to the shack on the Quest property, you would have to come back around the point afterward. So you will do better to take the motorboat. It is down at the dock, here in front of the lodge.”

“We’ll be gone all night, at least,” reminded Rex. “Maybe we will stay over at the shack for several days.”

“Quite all right,” stated Laspar. “I have no present need for the motorboat. Keep it as long as you want.”

“Thanks,” returned Rex. “All right, Harry. Let’s get ready. We’ll head for the Chalice mine first.”

THE young men went inside. Cortland Laspar remained on the verandah, smoking a cigar. Suddenly, the lumber magnate’s eyes became fixed upon the edge of the porch. There, beside a post, a shadowy streak of blackness was detaching itself and moving slowly away.

It was nearly twilight and the long line of darkness shifted uncannily beneath the afterglow. Laspar arose and strode to the edge of the porch. As he arrived there, the streak faded from view.

Laspar looked up and noticed moving clouds near the horizon. He decided that some odd freak of sunset had caused the phenomenon.

What Laspar did not see was the shape that had actually caused the shadow. Merging with the edge of the house, rounding a corner of the lodge to escape Laspar’s view, was a living form cloaked in blackness.

The Shadow, close by the verandah, had overheard the conversation that had followed Laspar’s return from the lumber camp. The Shadow, like Harry and Rex, had made prompt plans. Silently his figure shifted away among the trees. The Shadow was cutting across the point to find the canoes.

TEN minutes later, Harry and Rex returned with their equipment. They went down to the dock, accompanied by Laspar. There they boarded the small motorboat and took their luggage with them.

They started the motor and shook hands with Laspar.

“Keep well away from the point,” warned Laspar. “The lake is very shallow there. A sand bar extends across to the opposite shore.”

The motorboat chugged away. Following Laspar’s advice, Rex guided it almost to the opposite side of the lake; then swung in beside the gully that marked the boundary line between the Quest mine and the Chalice mine.

He pointed out the spot where the trail probably began; and Harry, also noticing the shore, called Rex’s attention to a battered, flat-bottomed rowboat that lay upside down among the trees.

“I guess the surveyors must have used it,” remarked Rex. “Well, here we are, rounding the point. I’m going to hug this curving shore until we strike the landing spot at the Chalice mine.”

The surface of the lake had become quite dark; but as the boat chugged along, both men could notice the blackness of the trees. The shore guided them for more than a mile. Then they spotted the whiteness of a little wharf, with a clearing beyond it. Rex headed the boat for the wharf; Harry turned off the motor.

They coasted to a landing and moored the boat to the white dock. As they stepped to the planks, they looked back and saw Laspar’s point extending like a long black finger out into the lake. They had almost completely rounded it.

“What’s that?” inquired Rex, suddenly. “Listen!”

Harry, complying, heard nothing. Rex laughed.

“Like the swish of a paddle,” said Rex. “It must have been a fish jumping. I only caught one splash.”

He turned on an electric lantern. With Harry following, Rex led the way toward the clearing. They followed a twisting path among some trees, then came suddenly upon a flattened space beside a slope, where hanging lanterns greeted them.

SEVERAL men were seated on rough benches in front of three small cabins. Hard-faced fellows, unshaven, they looked up as the visitors arrived.

Beyond the cabins, Harry spied a pair of heavy, slanted doors in the side of the slope.

These barriers were metal-sheathed and padlocked. They marked the entrance to the closed shaft of the Chalice Gold Mine, the property that was at present in charge of this skeleton crew.

A big fellow arose to greet them. His eyes showed suspicion in the lantern light. Harry advanced while Rex extinguished the electric lantern, that was no longer needed.

“We’re from over at Laspar’s,” stated Harry. “My name is Vincent. This chap is named Brodford. A friend of Laspar’s.”

“Glad to meet you,” growled the big man, extending a thick paw. “My name’s Luke Trebold. Supervisor here. This is private property, you know, and we’re not keen about having strangers come around. But since you’re friends of Laspar’s, it’s all right, I guess.”

Despite the greeting, Harry sensed that it was not all right. He had seen Trebold shift his hand to his hip, where a revolver was hanging in a holster. He noted that the other men were armed, and they looked ready to follow any order that Trebold might give.

Mention of Laspar’s name had apparently mollified the tough supervisor; but while Rex was shaking hands with Trebold, Harry discovered another reason for the disgruntled welcome. A tall, long-jawed man strolled over from the front of a shack; with an air of authority, he also came up to greet the visitors.

“I’m Sheriff Hawlings,” announced this worthy. Harry noted that he was better clad than the other men.

“Just happened to be here looking things over. I may have to put an attachment on this property, so I’m watching to see that it’s kept closed.”

“That’s right,” growled Trebold. “Give us a bad name, sheriff! Tell these folks that the Chalice mine is on the rocks.”

“They probably know it anyway!” retorted the sheriff. “If they don’t, they’ll find out. Glad to meet you, gentlemen. Friends of Cortland Laspar’s, eh? Well, that makes you friends of mine.”

“We just came over here to make friends,” said Rex to Trebold, who was glaring grouchily. “We’re not interested in the Chalice mine. I’m just as badly sunk as the fellows who have invested in this property. I have stock in the old Quest mine.”

“That’s why you’re up here?” queried Trebold.

“Yes,” replied Rex, “and I’ve taken on a tough job. Looking for that lost shaft. You’ve heard about it, haven’t you.”

“Sure have,” rejoined Trebold. “But I’ve got no idea where it’s located. We don’t go trespassing on that other property.”

Another man had come over to join the sheriff. This fellow looked like a deputy. The sheriff made no introduction. He was too interested in what Rex had said.

“LOOKS like you’ve got a tough job, all right,” observed the sheriff. “Nobody hereabouts knows anything about that Quest mine shaft.”

“Not even Old Absalom?” inquired Rex.

“That’s an idea,” responded the sheriff, suddenly. “What do you think about it, Trebold? Old Absalom’s been over here, hasn’t he?”

“Yeah,” growled Trebold, “but that old cuckoo don’t do much talking. Comes in with a little cash, grunts around about buying tobacco and bacon. Sometimes he wants to swap fish.”

“Do you ever chat with him?” asked Rex.

“You can’t,” snorted Trebold. “He talks sign language, that guy! He hasn’t been around here for a week. Sticks close to his island when the fishing is good. And he’s got plenty of tobacco. We loaded him up with a lot of plug when he was here.”

“Old Absalom lives on an island, you know,” began the sheriff. “It’s down at the other end of the lake.”

“And it’s a good place to stay away from,” put in Trebold. “They say he shot a couple of guys who went down there. I’ve told my men to stay away from there.”

“He did kill a man once, I believe,” admitted the sheriff. “Some years ago, before I was hereabouts. Of course it’s his property—”

“And if any of my men went there,” interrupted Trebold, savagely, “and Old Absalom loaded them with lead, you couldn’t do a thing about it, could you, sheriff?”

“Not if they knew they were supposed to stay away from there,” replied Hawlings. “Old Absalom has his signs up. He lives alone, and they say he has money in his cabin. He has a right to protect it.”

“If somebody blundered in there by mistake, there might be a case against Old Absalom if he made trouble. But if you or your men went there, knowing the situation as you do, I’d have to stick up for the hermit if he made trouble.”

“Does that apply to Vincent and myself?” queried Rex.

“It does,” acknowledged the sheriff. “From now on. You know the island is taboo. We’ve just told you.”

“Then if we went to see Old Absalom—”

“You’d better hail him while he’s out fishing on the lake, or catch him when he’s here or at the lumber camp.”

Conversation lulled. Rex turned to Harry.

“Well,” decided Rex, “I guess we’d better be on our way. Glad to have met you, Mr. Trebold; and you also, sheriff. Thanks for the information.”

Rex turned about and clicked the electric lantern. He swung it toward the path; as he did, Harry noted an odd blackness between two trees. It seemed as though the light was blocked by some solid obstacle.

Then the lantern, swinging, reached the path. The odd sight was ended. Harry alone had spotted it. He was thinking of that blackness as he and Rex made their way back toward the dock.

Only a fleeting glimpse of solid inkiness.

Yet that token was significant to Harry Vincent. It told him that although he and Rex Brodford were departing, The Shadow was present and remaining by the Chalice mine.