Marmaduke did not much like the associates of Richard in this business; still he knew them to be cunning and ready expedients; and as there was certainly something mysterious, not only in the connection between the old hunters and Edwards, but in what his cousin had just related, he began to revolve the subject in his own mind with more care.
On reflection, he remembered various circumstances that tended to corroborate these suspicions, and, as the whole business favored one of his infirmities, he yielded the more readily to their impression.
The mind of Judge Temple, at all times comprehensive, had received from his peculiar occupations a bias to look far into futurity, in his speculations on the improvements that posterity were to make in his lands.
To his eye, where others saw nothing but a wilderness, towns, manufactories, bridges, canals, mines, and all the other resources of an old country were constantly presenting themselves, though his good sense suppressed, in some degree, the exhibition of these expectations.
As the sheriff allowed his cousin full time to reflect on what he had heard, the probability of some pecuniary adventure being the connecting link in the chain that brought Oliver Edwards into the cabin of Leather-Stocking appeared to him each moment to be stronger.
But Marmaduke was too much in the habit of examining both sides of a subject not to perceive the objections, and he reasoned with himself aloud:
“It cannot be so, or the youth would not be driven so near the verge of poverty.”
“What so likely to make a man dig for money as being poor?” cried the sheriff.
“Besides, there is an elevation of character about Oliver that proceeds from education, which would forbid so clandestine a proceeding.”
“Could an ignorant fellow smelt?” continued Richard.
“Bess hints that he was reduced even to his last shilling when we took him into our dwelling.”
“He had been buying tools.
And would he spend his last sixpence for a shot at a turkey had he not known where to get more?”
“Can I have possibly been so long a dupe?
His manner has been rude to me at times, but I attributed it to his conceiving himself injured, and to his mistaking the forms of the world.”
“Haven’t you been a dupe all your life,
‘Duke, and an’t what you call ignorance of forms deep cunning, to conceal his real character?” “If he were bent on deception, he would have concealed his knowledge, and passed with us for an inferior man.”
“He cannot.
I could no more pass for a fool, myself, than I could fly.
Knowledge is not to be concealed, like a candle under a bushel.”
“Richard,” said the Judge, turning to his cousin, “there are many reasons against the truth of thy conjectures, but thou hast awakened suspicions which must be satisfied.
But why are we travelling here?”
“Jotham, who has been much in the mountain latterly, being kept there by me and Hiram, has made a discovery, which he will not explain, he says, for he is bound by an oath; but the amount is, that he knows where the ore lies, and he has this day begun to dig.
I would not consent to the thing, ‘Duke, without your knowledge, for the land is yours; and now you know the reason of our ride.
I call this a countermine, ha!”
“And where is the desirable spot?” asked the Judge with an air half comical, half serious.
“At hand; and when we have visited that, I will show you one of the places that we have found within a week, where our hunters have been amusing themselves for six months past.”
The gentlemen continued to discuss the matter, while their horses picked their way under the branches of the trees and over the uneven ground of the mountain.
They soon arrived at the end of their journey, where, in truth, they found Jotham already buried to his neck in a hole that he had been digging.
Marmaduke questioned the miner very closely as to his reasons for believing in the existence of the precious metals near that particular spot; but the fellow maintained an obstinate mystery in his answers.
He asserted that he had the best of reasons for what he did, and inquired of the judge what portion of the profits would fall to his own share, in the event of success, with an earnestness that proved his faith.
After spending an hour near the place, examining the stones, and searching for the usual indications of the proximity of ore, the Judge remounted and suffered his cousin to lead the way to the place where the mysterious trio had been making their excavation.
The spot chosen by Jotham was on the back of the mountain that overhung the hut of Leather-Stocking, and the place selected by Natty and his companions was on the other side of the same hill, but above the road, and, of course, in an opposite direction to the route taken by the ladies in their walk.
“We shall be safe in approaching the place now,” said Richard, while they dismounted and fastened their horses; “for I took a look with the glass, and saw John and Leather-Stocking in their canoe fishing before we left home, and Oliver is in the same pursuit; but these may be nothing but shams to blind our eye; so we will be expeditious, for it would not be pleasant to be caught here by them.”
“Not on my own land?” said Marmaduke sternly.
“If it be as you suspect, I will know their reasons for making this excavation.”
“Mum,” said Richard, laying a finger on his lip, and leading the way down a very difficult descent to a sort of natural cavern, which was found in the face of the rock, and was not unlike a fireplace in shape.
In front of this place lay a pile of earth, which had evidently been taken from the recess, and part of which was yet fresh.
An examination of the exterior of the cavern left the Judge in doubt whether it was one of Nature’s frolics that had thrown it into that shape, or whether it had been wrought by the hands of man, at some earlier period.
But there could be no doubt that the whole of the interior was of recent formation, and the marks of the pick were still visible where the soft, lead-colored rock had opposed itself to the progress of the miners.
The whole formed an excavation of about twenty feet in width, and nearly twice that distance in depth.
The height was much greater than was required for the ordinary purposes of experiment, but this was evidently the effect of chance, as the roof of the cavern was a natural stratum of rock that projected many feet beyond the base of the pile.
Immediately in front of the recess, or cave, was a little terrace, partly formed by nature, and partly by the earth that had been carelessly thrown aside by the laborers.
The mountain fell off precipitously in front of the terrace, and the approach by its sides, under the ridge of the rocks, was difficult and a little dangerous.
The whole was wild, rude, and apparently incomplete; for, while looking among the bushes, the sheriff found the very implements that had been used in the work.
When the sheriff thought that his cousin had examined the spot sufficiently, he asked solemnly:
“Judge Temple, are you satisfied?”
“Perfectly, that there is something mysterious and perplexing in this business.
It is a secret spot, and cunningly devised, Richard; yet I see no symptoms of ore.”
“Do you expect, sir, to find gold and silver lying like pebbles on the surface of the earth?—dollars and dimes ready coined to your hands?