While discussing what had better be done, they unstrapped their knapsacks and ate the noonday meal, for the morning had passed. This done, the captain said that he would keep on some distance in the general direction they had followed since leaving the river, and while he was gone the others could explore the mound region more thoroughly.
It was four o’clock when they met again, weary and discouraged, for not one had seen aught that led him to believe they had located the mine.
“I thought I had the rock in sight once, boys, but it turned out to be a tree with white blossoms,” said the captain.
As the shades were lengthening in the woods, the explorers turned back to the river, and once arrived at the white rock on the bank, they decided to camp there for the night and not walk to Fort Pincushion. So they pitched the shelter-tent, built a fire and cooked some game which they had killed on the return trip. Then, after arranging for the watch, those who could “turn in” went to sleep immediately, for their brains were fatigued by the disappointment, even as their bodies were by the physical exertion.
Harvey was called at two o’clock in the morning, and he posted himself as sentinel under a small tree that grew near the shelter-tent. He had become somewhat accustomed to being rudely awakened and to being alone while the others slept, and now that an attack by Indians was improbable, and it was no longer necessary to strain his sense of hearing that he might note the slightest sound, the novelty of the situation appealed to him.
This night the moon in its third quarter shone from out a cloudless sky, and at the altitude of the great intermontane valley in which they rested, the rays were brighter than at points nearer the sea level, so the river bank and the open country were visible with nearly the distinctness of day.
As the boy walked a few times back and forth, a rifle on his shoulder, then paused for a short rest under the tree, he puzzled his brain to account for their not having found the second white rock. He believed implicitly in the truth of all that Huayno had said, and was confident that not far from where he stood great riches were stored in the ground.
But could they ever locate the mine? It would be a task of years to demolish all those mounds and ascertain which hid the entrance to the old workings; and should it be attempted, others must learn what they were doing on the banks of the Marañon, others would flock to the place with picks and shovels, and among these others some one or two might first find the store of yellow metal.