CHAPTER XV.
MR. MUDD TURNS UP AGAIN.
“Now, that’s all right!” exclaimed Dick. “Until you were ready to give up, Clara, I didn’t want to say a word, but I think I can pilot the way to the camp.”
“How, when you have never been there?” asked Clara. “Oh, I feel so ashamed of myself. I thought I could lead you straight back to it. Don’t be angry with me, Dick.”
“As though I could be,” exclaimed Dick. “You have done your best and now if you give it up let me have my try.”
“What do you mean to do?” asked Charley. “Upon my word, I’m all turned around myself.”
“I’ll show you,” replied Dick. “First we want to get back where we started out. It’s easy enough to do that.”
“I couldn’t do it,” said Clara. “I’ll own up that’s what I’ve been trying to do for the last half hour, but I just seemed to lead you round and round in a circle.”
“I’ll fix it,” said Dick, confidently. “Come this way.”
He started off in directly the opposite direction to that which they had been following.
“Oh, I see!” cried Clara. “I understand now. You are going toward the light.”
“Exactly,” replied Dick. “The light comes down through that hole in the roof and the underground river and the lake are right there and that’s where we have got to look for the trail.”
“I saw no trail,” said Charley. “I looked for that when we started out.”
“It’s there and we’ll find it. Doctor Dan has given me some good pointers on trails. Trust an Indian for that. He’ll find a footprint where a white man could see nothing. We shall soon be back at the lake and then I’ll show you how well I’ve learned my lesson.”
In a short time Dick brought up at the lake and soon found the spot where he had encountered Clara.
“Now there you are!” he exclaimed, after bending down and examining the sand, which was pretty hard to be sure, but still the faint imprint of Clara’s footsteps could be seen.
“I’m afraid if you expect to follow my course you will have a hard time of it,” said Clara. “I was wandering about a long time before I met you, Dick.”
“I’m not going to,” replied Dick. “I think I can do it without the trail. Tell me, was this camp against the wall of the cave?”
“There were big rocks right back of where we were, if that is what you mean,” replied Clara.
“That’s it. How about the lake?”
“Oh, I saw nothing of the lake until I had been walking around for some time.”
“Would you know the place when you first struck it?”
“I think I should. There was a black rock sticking up out of the water.”
“Very good! Then we’ll go to the black rock. That’s easy found.”
“I thought that I could strike right over to the place,” remarked Clara, as they walked along. “I never had the faintest idea that I was going to get lost.”
“We’ll strike off from the black rock,” said Dick. “When we were following you we kept going around in a circle, but I think I can strike a straight line to the wall; after that it will be dead easy, for all we have got to do is to follow the wall around.”
They soon reached the black rock and Dick again showed them the trail.
Still he did not attempt to follow it, but started off rapidly in the direction which he considered the wall ought to be, and hit it so accurately that within ten minutes they came up against the rocks.
“Why, you are a splendid guide!” exclaimed Clara. “Now, what is to be done?”
“Which way do you think the camp lies?” asked Dick.
Clara pointed to the left and Dick promptly started off to the right.
“I suppose you wonder what I’m doing this for?” he said, “but I happen to know that you are wrong.”
“I’m sure I’m right,” said Clara. “How can you know that I am not?”
“Listen!” replied Dick.
“I hear something like the pawing of a horse,” said Charley.
“That’s exactly it. I heard the sound before we came to the wall. It’s the camp, of course, and what’s more, Martin Mudd or one of his men has returned.”
“For mercy’s sake, don’t expose yourself, Dick,” said Clara. “Tell me what your plan is. I hate to even think of what might happen if you fell into the hands of Mudd.”
“Then don’t think of it, for he is already in the hands of Mudd!” spoke a sneering voice right ahead of them.
Clara screamed and Dick and Charley hastily drew their revolvers, for at the same instant two men armed with rifles sprang out from behind a turn in the rocks, and the foremost man was Mudd.