The heart of Uncle Terry

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Chapter I

" /^ O that's'Unde Terry's cabin, is it ? " queried ^^ a stalwart young man in grey corduroy, ^'— ' as he stepped out of tlie canoe, stretched Iiimself, and glanced across a half-acre of greensward to a large, square log cabin with rustic piazza, almost hidden by scarlet and brown vines. " And so the old fellow lit out after two years' hermit life, did he ? "

" Yes, 'n' took his wife with him," responded Levi, Vance Harper's guide, beginning to unload the canoe.

" Well, you wouldn't expect he'd leave her behind," laughed Vance, then looking down the long narrow lake, added, " Where's Pro and Jean ? They are not in sight."

" Oh, I guess they've hooked onto a big trout that* s givin' 'em a fight," answered Levi. " They'll be 'long soon. You mighf s well follow this brook 9 lo THE HEART OF UNCLE TERRY

up through the ravine while Fm gittin* supper started. You'll be 'most sartin to git a few birds." With that Vance picked up his gun, slipped two shells in, and taking another survey of the cabin, with its open plot of greensward in front and its neighboring mountains to the northward, strode up to the ravine at the foot of its westward slope. He had scarce entered when, as is usual with the tame breed of Maine partridges, he heard a " Peep, peep," and two of them walked slowly up the narrow path ahead of him. It wasn't a sportsman's act, but time was short, and without a moment's hesitation, Vance fired, killing one, and as the other rose he let fly the other barrel, to see it pitch into a shallow canyon or rock-filled gully, some four rods up the mountain-side. To find that second partridge was his next thought, so dropping his gun beside the dead bird, he scrambled up to where he had seen the other drop. A feather or two, together with rotten leaves and mould scratched out from beneath a flat rock bridging a gravel-filled crevasse, showed where his wounded bird had hidden, and reaching in, Vance soon secured his game. And just then, while he still knelt, a single ray from the sinking sun found its way through the spruce growth to flash a sparkling glint from an oblong bit of

•••

THE HEART OF UNCLE TERRY ii

vivid green close beside one knee I On the insiant, Vance picked it up to find a two-inch-long, hexagonal prism, each face of which flashed the sun's rays like a well-cut emerald 1 So curious now that he almost forgot both birds and further shooting, he began digging into the bed of mould* covered gravel, unearthing five more of the curious gems, two of darker green, two of delicate purple, and one of amethystine shade. Each was translucent as the finest glass ; and each flashed the sun's rays with wondrous beauty. For a full ten minutes he kept turning first one, then another of the gems in his rift of sunlight. Then as it vanished, he thought of the time, picked up his second bird, halted at the foot of the litde canyon to stuff the other into his shooting-jacket and picked up his gun. And then, so compelling is curiosity, and with the setting sun now shining full upon him, Vance took the six gems from his pocket and held them up one by one to see them flash.

Not two rods away, and from behind a bush-hidden boulder, two black, sinister eyes also watched the flashing gems I

When Vance returned to the cabin he found the Professor holding aloft a monster square-tail trout suspended from a small pocket-scale.

" Just five pounds, four ounces," he announced

12 ri/B HEART OF UNCLE TERRY

gleefully as Vance came up. " Who says I can't catch big fish ? "

" Not I," rejoined Vance, smiling and tossing his brace of birds on the cabin piazza. '^ You are certainly high-line so far on this trip, and we will have him broiled for supper." He also noticed that the two guides had cleaned out and swept the cabin and pitched a tent in front on the greensward, and that a fire had been started in the cabin's fireplace, and a pail of potatoes hung from the crane above the flames.

" Let's clean your fish," Vance next suggested, " while our guides are away cutting boughs, I presume, or else after wood. It will help supper along just so much, and I'm hungry. Besides, I've got something to show you."

And then, self-helpful as always, and never disdaining such work, Vance seized the big fish by its tail and hastened away to the lake shore, followed by his comrade. When quite hidden from the cabin, he dropped the trout and drew from his pocket the sparkling crystals. "What are those, old boy ? " he demanded.

The Professor, whose lifelong hobby had been the study of rocks and minerals, snatched the big green one from the outstretched hand of Vance and held it up to the setting sun.

" A tourmaline," he exclaimed with an ecstatic look, " and one of the finest 1 ever saw I Why, that gem Is worth a hundred dollars when cut." Then, as he held the rest up one by one to the sunset light, ejaculations followed fast

" But where did you find them ? " he queried finally. " In the bed of the brook you followed up?"

" No," rejoined Vance more calmly, and half disbelieving what the Professor had asserted. " 1 found 'em in a pocket of sand and gravel up in a gully." Then he explained the circumstances.

" Good, good," the Professor kept exclaiming, as the story was told. "Ifs just such pockets where tourmalines are always found in any quantity. One pocket may mean a dozen in this gully. I suppose you didn't notice the character of the rocks alongside ? If it is lapidolite, grey and purple predominating, with less of feldspar mixed with mica, your fortune is found." And then, interrupting this sudden vision of wealth, came a " Hello " from Levi. It brought the two dreamers back to earth and the trout prone upon the gravel at their feet. That was speedily prepared for broiling by Vance's hunting-knife, and ten minutes later, these two dazed men were watching it

.citv;!, wuai a least was enj our hungry men at a banquet boa planks, with two camp candles to that big trout, split, larded with

broiled to a turn, was first to vai Iways in camp, came the cob pipes d his mate enjojnng them beside

and Levi and Jean smoking as 1 id wiped the dishes, ^tion, with the usual camp stoi that evening, for both Vance and

with minds on their marvelous « nd not daring even to hint of it es, did not even half listen to what L sll. Finally, Vance, anxious to be al( ^rofessor, thought of a ruse, take a stroll down to our canoes, F >me fresh air before turning in," he st scaped, noon, low in the west, outlined a nan

ll down thp lalro A I '

the low mountain. But neither this crisp September evening, the call of the wild birds, nor the eerie moonlight in emulation of the camp firelight at their back was now noticed by these fortune-excited comrades, even when seated beside and leaning against an overturned canoe.

'' Suppose we do find a tourmaline mine," Vance began, when seated, " it won't do us much good so far as I can see. This Uncle Terry still owns the mountain, or if not, a more grasping man may. If we come upon a few hundred gems to-morrow as I hope, we are still liable to the law if found out We could, of course, play shady and sell them, but then again that would waken keen curiosity and comment All in all, secrets of that kind are hard to keep."

"Why not buy this quarter-section, including the mountain, on as easy terms as possible?" suggested the Professor. " That is, if we find what we hope to-morrow."

" Well," replied Vance, smiling, " if it is worth to-day what I guess, I could just about buy this cabin and open plot in front, and that's all. I've about five hundred in a savings bank. A motor-boat I could possibly sell for a thousand and the two-thousand annuity left me by father, as you know, which is paid in monthly instalments by a trustee who wouldn't advance me a penny at the muzzle of a gun I And there you are I "

" But if our search to-morrow is convincing to me, I will gladly loan you five hundred more, so that will give you two thousand."

" But you are in it with me," rejoined Vance, firmly. " Whatever we find or whatever we do, it's share and share alike.''

"That is generous of you, more than that," came the soft answer. " But it is your find, and it belongs to you."

"We will say *us' in the future, so let that settle it You and Myra have been Pa and Ma to me now for two years, and yours is the only home I have, and it shall be ' us ' in this, as I say."

And then the tall young man and short greybearded one watched the moon's rippled path in silence for a full five minutes.

"We must play a foxy game to-morrow," Vance finally asserted, " for while Levi has always been a feiithful guide, he has a little Indian in him and we absolutely must not be found out by him. The only plan to fool him that I can think of is for you (a professor of geology, as he knows) to devote the day to an exploring trip over this mountain with me along to pop over stray birds that come our way. We can take a light lunch and let both our guides go fishing."

Both guides were lazily stretched on blankets in front of the open fire and still smoking, when Vance and the Professor joined them and drew up to the cheerful flames. They also filled and lit corn-cobs and then Vance, in mildly curious tone, addressed Levi. " How much do you suppose Unde Terry paid for this quarter-section to try a hermit's life in ? " he asked. " And what is it worth to-day ? "

" Wal," answered Levi slowly and after two or three meditative puffs, " I should guess he got it fer 'bout two thousand, fer ten years ago these pulp-mill folks hadn't begun to bid up on timber lands. But now it's wuth all o' ten times that. Why, the standin' timber, a good half-mile on't 'longside the lake shore 'n' back 'o the mountain, 'ud fetch that alone."

"And does he still own it, do you know?" Vance next queried in the same indifferent tone. " If so, he's got a melon sure."

" I dunno who owns it now," answered Levi, glancing at the impassive face of Vance. " But I could find out at Milton Mills when we go out. I know Job Ross, who owns a full section east o' this, 'n' the richest timber owner in these parts.

with a big sawmill at Fort Kent on the St Francis, stood ready to buy this quarter-section 'n' give ten thousand five years ago. Now it bein' 'longside the lake, 'n' includin' 'bout fifty rods above the lake 'n' 'long the opposite shore to jest across firom the brook whar we landed, makes it more valuable. Ye see, it's a right o' way to the upper half o' the lake. Ye hain't any 'tention o' buyin' it ? " he added, after lighting his pipe. "It 'ud be a good investment to buy 'n' hold if ye wanted one, fer from the way pulp-mills are eatin' into timber lands, even scrub stufi, why, this comer lot'U be wuth a small fortin five years from now. I'd buy this myself right now if I had the money."

" How much would be needed in cash to do it ? " questioned Vance with more interest

"'Bout five thousand, I callate; with six per cent, on mortgage, 'n' taxes."

" Well, if I owned a pulp-mill I might consider it," rejoined Vance, after thus obtaining all the information he wanted and a good deal more. Then he filled and lit his pipe to try to cheer himself up, for the fact was that Levi's story of the timber-land situation had put a very wet blanket over his hopes. Both the Professor and himself, combining all their means, were now helpless.

" Oh, if only my good father were alive," Vance thought with a sudden heart-pang, '' what might we not dol" Then his mind reverted to the smooth-tongued, designing widow who had "landed" his easy-going and unworldly father five years before, and, worse still, persuaded him to will all his ample fortune to her, excepting only an annuity of two thousand for the son. Barely enough to exist upon. How bitter Vance had felt when the family lawyer had read the will I How he had longed to smite that pompous man when congratulated upon his good fortune in the annuity. How he had " said things " with teeth in them to his stepmother that evening, while she shed a few crocodile tears. A week later he had packed his belongings and, quitting the " house of theft," as he now called his home, had easily persuaded his good friend and old tutor. Professor Moss, to take him as a boarder. Each recollection returned now with added bitterness. Also the consciousness that close beside this wildwood cabin stood a low mountain which might contain a vast fortune, yet was almost as much beyond his reach as one of the diamond mines of Kimberly I

The fire burned lower until only a glow of embers was left The chill of a September evening

^^.^yjL vaiice moLirnfullv, unrolliiu )-blanket while his companion did t /Veil, maybe aiid maybe not/' came ant whisper. " If only this Uncle \ the place and is the sort of man '^ I still see a way out of the com will see what we can find to-morrow.

Chapter II

AT breakfast the next morning, while enjoying broiled partridges, bacon and eggs, coffee, and Levi's most excellent hot corn-bread, Vance assured Levi that the Professor, whose hobby was volcanic rocks of earlier or later upheaval, would spend the day in exploring the mountain close by, while he himself would go along to bring back a string of birds. Also that he and Jean could gather moss enough for two of the cabin bunks, cut and split some dry fuel, and then go fishing if they chose. A plausible tale which he felt sure would give the Professor and himself a long day of freedom. He had also that morning found a hatchet minus a handle, a chisel, and, most valuable of all, a pickaxe. Into the hatchet he had inserted a crude handle, well stayed by nails, and while both guides had been busy cooking, had hastily carried and hidden his tools in the ravine. With breakfast over and an ample lunch in his hunting-coat pocket, Vance shouldered his gun. The Professor, with small hammer in hand and leather specimen pouch on his shoulder, joined him, and both with hearts unduly throbbing, started in quest of fortune.

Never before in the lives of either had come one moment so tingling, so thrilling, and so momentous as this.

The tools secured, Vance, not even hearing a partridge that rose from the path ahead, almost leaped up the rock-tangled gully to the crevasse, now the apex of their hopes. It was perhaps five feet long by two feet wide, with both ends beginning and ending under flat rocks. As but one could work in it at a time, Vance began scraping away mould, each minute finding one to five of the precious crystals, mostly of a green shade, and tossing them to the Professor, who sat close by. Next, after the entire pocket had been gone over, Vance took his chisel and began digging. Each thrust disclosed one or more of the coveted gems. In fact, that narrow bed of hard g^vel with a little sand was feiirly peppered with tourmalines and nearly all green ! For two hours, or until the rising sun glanced down the mountain-side, Vance dug and pawed oblivious of all else. His hands grew black, bloody, and filth-coated, yet he knew it not The sweat gathered on his face and trickled from his chin in spite of the cool September mom, imtil every muscle of his body was in sore revolt and he finally gave up to rest Then, like good miners, who spread their nuggets to fondle and weigh them, so did these two empty the Professor's specimen-pouch upon a flat rock to count and guess the value of its contents. Over two quarts of gems had been secured, numbering more than four hundred.

" How much ? " queried Vance eagerly after the Professor had spread their find in rows according to size upon this broad flat stone. The little man did a short example in multiplication.

" Oh, forty thousand dollars for a guess," he said and then Vance gave a long, low whistle.

" Do you know. Pro," he exclaimed, " I can feel all sense of honesty leaving me right now ! Think of it ! Twenty thousand apiece ! And no one the wiser I And both of us almost like church-mice."

"Well," rejoined the Professor, now scraping the gems by handfuls back into his pouch, " it is my turn to work. Lef s dig and scoop ev^ry bit of gravel out of that crevasse, spread it upon this rock, and go over it carefully. I know you have missed dozens of stones in your haste while pawing and digging the gravel back and forth." And without another word he pulled off his cap, jumped into the narrow crevasse, and began to fill that and pass it up to Vance to empty. How long it took to dear out the little pit neither knew. Only that Vance, rapidly sorting or going over the gravel carefully, found a full quart more of gems, mostly of small size.

The Professor then discovered that although the gravel-bed ended a little under the edge of the flat stone above, it extended below the lower one. How far he could not tell. Only that by thrusting his chisel down the two-inch space, he found it entered gravel.

" Pry up or blast away that flat cap-rock," he said, pointing to it, "and you will find more gems." And then, true to his hobby, now that the gem-digging was over, he began to examine the rocks alongside, and above and below the empty crevasse.

" All the signs," he kept exclaiming gleefully. " Lapidolite, albite, feldspar, and mica quartz. Some day, maybe a few hundred centuries ago, this mountain had an upheaval, splitting it open right here and maybe elsewhere. Tourmalines were once gases, my son," he added, returning to where Vance sat beside the precious pouch, now full of them.

" Just organic gases caught and held in pockets while the earth's crust was cooling. These gases also cooled or condensed, forming crystals as you see them, and became mixed with gas-formed gravel and sand. Probably it was ice during the glacial period that split the flat rock in the gully where you found your gems. I have no doubt that if this gully were cleared of all loose boulders, many more tourmaline pockets would be exposed. And now," concluded the Professor, " it is up to us to decide what chances to take."

'' Tm feeling like the little fellow who scooted as soon as he'd stowed all the pilfered nuts and candy he could inside his shirt." Then Vance patted the bag of gems tenderly.

" But you won't run away," rejoined the Professor, who knew Vance as he was. " What you can do and retain self-respect is to keep still about our find until we know where we are with the owner of this mountain. I think the courts would allow us half value for salvage. And, to the best of my judgment, that bag holds forty thousand dollars' worth of gems ! " Then, glancing at his watch, he added, " Do you know it's two o'clock and I'm some hungry? Let's go down to the brook, wash, and eat."

This accomplished, both returned to the empty pocket, hid the tools under a flat rock farther up the gully, and then kept on to the top of the mountain and sat down to rest From here they could look down over cabin and lake, and far up at its head they saw their two guides in a canoe. " All's well so far," remarked Vance, " but now what shall we do with our bag of gems until we break camp, which I think we would better do soon ? "

" Why, it is either hide them away from camp, or in the cabin, and of the two, I think right about here is safest No sportsman would be apt to dimb up here."

An opening beneath a flat rock, almost hidden by scrub-spruce and vines and a few rods below the eastern apex of the mountain, was the selection ; and the precious pouch was tucked well out of sight of possible passers.

" I should feel a littie safer," Vance then declared, " if we pitched that gravel back to place in the pocket," and that was next done. Naturally, also, the two gem-hunters now returned to the brook and up the ravine, Vance to pot a few birds and the Professor to find another promising gully. Luck came to Vance first and frequently in the shape of a dozen of those stupidly tame partridges, while the Professor, following, watched for outcropping rocks akin to those in the gully. The sun was well down ere he, too, was rewarded by a " Hello " from Vance and hastening on, found him at the foot of another rock-filled gully extending up the north side of the mountain.

'' Looks promising, I thought," he said, squatting on a flat rock and filling his pipe. Then the little man, glancing at the rocks glittering with feldspar and mica, moss-coated on top, pushed up this narrow scrub-filled gorge as fast as the tangle would permit. Ten rods up he gave a hilarious, " Come here, son ; I've found something ! " Vance, following, came to the Professor kneeling and closely examining a black excrescence the size of a filbert and protruding from a narrow strip of flat, grey and purple bed-rock, just below the upright feice of the solid mountain, fully twenty feet high.

"Fve found a sentinel, boy, a never-failing sign," he almost shouted as Vance came up, pointing to what looked like a bit of black-brown coal, half embedded in the rock. " There may be another," he added gleefully, scraping away the moss along the base of the upright rock, " but whether there is or not, just below our sentinel, or not far away, is a pocket of tourmalines, sure as the sun rises." Then he arose, slapped Vance on the back, and both shook hands.

" You see," the Professor next explained, *' when the earth's crust was in a semi-molten condition, pockets of organic gases like bubbles in a pot of boiling pudding were caught and held below the cooling surface. Just the same as gases are held within bars of molten iron, running out to form bars and called blow-holes. These tourmaline pockets are only monster blow-holes, made when the earth was bom and from certain gases quite rare. Later, in the continual upheaval of the slowly-cooling earth crust, volcanic action we call it, mountains of all heights were pushed up, often in long ranges, split apart by narrow, deep canyons. Parts of ranges also arose, separated by long valleys, while here and there, as in this State, a jumble of separated mountains of all sizes came up. And among these, only two that I recall have produced tourmalines. Now, this black excrescence, which looks like coal, but is almost as hard as a diamond, was a gaseous bubble that almost escaped the main pocket to harden from one to many feet above. And when finding them we call them sentinels, for almost invariably a pocket of tourmalines is found near by. Green is the prevailing color, and those are the hardest and most valuable."

"I guess it's time to hike for camp," Vance then interjected, consulting his watch. " It's almost six o'clock."

'' I am going clear around this little mountain tomorrow," responded the Professor in slightly vexed tone. " If I can find another sentinel, I will sell my shirt to get control of this mountain, for I am now convinced it contains a fortune."

" It wouldn't cost over a thousand to buy and tote in a small boiler and drilling-machine," rejoined Vance, planning far ahead as was his wont. ** I hope this Uncle Terry is still owner here ; for from Levi's statement he isn't one to drive hard bargains."

Arriving at the foot of the gully, from which they had picked so valuable a pouch of gems that day, and crossing the small brook a few rods above the open plot in front of the cabin, Vance, glancing down, saw a peculiar hole in the sand, round, about three inches deep, and nearly that in diameter. It was evidently freshly made, about a foot from the small rill from which a little water had percolated into the hole. So odd a sight was it, not made by any animal ; only a hole apparendy punched in by a round piece of wood, that Vance stooped to examine it, as did the Professor. Then, curious still, both hunted around for another. None appeared, and after one more look at it both headed for the cabin.

Small trout were frying in a big pan, potatoes boiling, a coffee pail hanging from the crane, and, best of all, biscuits baking in a small tin baker in front of the open fire.

" It's a sportsman's paradise right here," declared the Professor an hour later after they had again strolled down to the canoes for privacy. " The guides have fixed up the cabin so it's more than comfortable now. Also sweet and clean. Levi says he saw two deer up at the head of the lake this afternoon. You have shot more birds than we can eat for three days, we have a small fortune hidden away on the mountain, and I say let's stay and enjoy it until next Friday, then stop at Bristol for Sunday, on our way home. I want you to meet my old aunt now over ninety, also hear the young minister there, who my aunt says is preaching rank heresy. You know she believes the Bible literally. Ark, story of Jonah and the whale, and all the miracles. She'd enjoy discussing them with you."

" Excuse me from that," rejoined Vance. " But I'll keep you company and discuss what to do next To my mind, we are facing a big, big dilemma. We have a fortune in tourmalines that will certainly be claimed by their actual owner if he hears about them. Meantime, according to Levi, we couldn't buy more than the old cabin."

The young moon as usual twinkled its silver path adown the long lake. The brook, now a small rill, tinkled musically close by. An owl once more hooted twice from the mountain-side, while answering him from up the lake came the almost human " Halloo " of a loon.

" Do you know," continued Vance after a long interim, « that to-night seems a more eerie one than last night ? Somehow I wish we'd risked it and brought that bag of tourmalines to camp. What if some Indian hunter or trapper had spied upon us to-day ?

"And I can't get that queer track out of my mind I It wasn't a deer, I'm sure, but made by the end of a big round stick."

" Well, you make me feel creepy, you and the loon together," responded the Professor as that weird '' Halloo " came down the lake once more. " I never knew before what a human sound a loon's call has. As for a spy, why, even if one watched us, how could he find the pouch ? "

" Why, trail us ; that's easy to Indians or trappers. And we were so nearly insane while digging out those gems we never even looked around. I didn't, I know."

" Nor I," rejoined the Professor, catching Vance's vague surmises. " But, pshaw, it's only that blasted loon 1 "

" Let's go up and fetch the pouch to camp," responded Vance, rising and glancmg at the sinking moon.

" Too late/' returned the litde man, also rising and looking westward. '' Why, the moon will set before we could even climb the mountain."