Bob leaped around wild with joy. "Talk about a clue! Why, that's the
number of the cabin at Crazy Creek where this miner lived. Can't we go
right over and hunt for it, Dan? Do you suppose that the girls would care
if Gerald and I go? We aren't at all necessary to the birthday party. You
and Julie are."
"Of course, you may do as you wish," Dan acquiesced. "It's a long way to
the camp, though."
"Not if we can ride," Gerry put in. "You and Meg came down on the horses.
Where are they?"
"Back at the Heger cabin by this time," the older brother replied. "Meg
turned her pony's head up the mountain road and said, 'Go home, Pal,' and
the brown mare seemed to be quite content to follow. Perhaps you will
overtake them."
Bob caught hold of Gerald's hand as he said: "We'll have to hustle, old
man, if we get back before dark."
Gerry glanced at Julie to see if she were terribly disappointed, but the
small girl smiled, though a bit waveringly. Dan, noting this, spoke for
her: "Julie and I will stay at the cabin. It would hardly do for us all
to leave Jane on her birthday."
These two sauntered slowly along the brook, and before they reached the
cabin they saw Bob and Gerald, fully clothed, starting to run up the
mountain road.
Dan had little expectation that they would find the box of which the old
Indian had told Meg, but he knew that Bob would not be able to enjoy the
quiet party when be might be out following a clue.
The girls were seated on the rustic front porch when Dan and Julie
appeared. Jane smiled a greeting to them, then asked: "Do tell us what
has happened to Bob and Gerry. They dashed in and out again, nor would
they stop when we called to ask where they were going?"
"Boys will be boys," was Dan's evasive answer as he sank down on the
porch step and smiled up at Meg. Then he heard his questioning thought
asking: "Is it possible that Meg's real name is Giguette?"
The five who remained at the cabin that afternoon found it difficult to
converse idly, for the thoughts of each kept returning to a subject of
great interest to that individual. Meg's good friend Teacher Bellows had
told her that as soon as her examinations were completed he would
accompany her and Pa Heger to a distant valley in the mountains where he
had heard that the Ute tribe was then dwelling. They believed the finding
of the box to be impossible since all through the years the old Indian
had searched for it.
Merry, who had slipped her ring back into its case before any of her
friends, except Jane, had seen it, was wondering when would be the best
time to put it on her finger and announce to them all that she was to
become the wife of Jean's brother. She had wanted to wait until Jean
Willoughby should be with them, but when that would be, she could not
conjecture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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