The valley of Arcana

Chapter I

TRIED outlanders though they were, Dr. Inman Shonto and Andy Jerome were hopelessly lost. Afoot, horseback, and by motor car the pair had covered thousands of square miles of desert and forest land in Southern California. But it was differ¬ ent up here in the mountainous region of the northern part of the state, where they found themselves sur¬ rounded by heavy timber vaster than they had dreamed could have been left standing by the ensanguined hand of the lumberman. And, besides, thin fingers of fog were reaching in from the sea, about eighteen miles to the west of them.

For hours they had been following wooded ridges, which here and there offered a view of the seemingly illimitable sweep of redwood forests below them. Spruce, fir, several varieties of oak, and madrones crowned these ridges — trees of a height and girth that they could understand. But down below them towered the monarchs of the vegetable kingdom, straight as the path of righteousness, solemn, aloof — impossible trees — whose height would bring their tops on a level with the clock of the Metropolitan Building, whose boles occupied a space greater than a good-sized living room.

They awed the southerners immeasurably, for this was their first trip into the northern part of their state. They were silent as they hurried on, sliding down steep slopes, clambering up rocky, timbered inclines, always hoping for some familiar object that would show them they were on the campward trail.

Each carried a .25--35 rifle, for they had left camp early that morning to hunt deer — and both had enter¬ tained fond hopes that a wandering bear or a panther might cross their path. The doctor had wounded a big six-pointer close to noon, and following the bloody trail which the cripple left had led the pair astray.

Now night was close at hand, and, for all they knew, they were still many miles from camp. The trail had inveigled them down into the mysteries of the dark forest below them, and there they had lost all sense of direction. With the approach of night they had abandoned the bloody trail and climbed to the ridges once more, in the hope of relocating themselves. But an hour had passed, and they still were lost.

“This is a little serious, Andy,” remarked the doc¬ tor. “I’m afraid we haven’t much of an idea as to the vast scope of this forest. Of course we’ll make it back some time, and I guess we’re old enough hands at the game to take care of ourselves until we do; but meanwhile we’re going to be up against a little inconvenience, to put it mildly.”

“It’s going to be mighty cold to-night,” was the only answer that the younger man vouchsafed.

He was about twenty-four, this companion of the doctor — a good-looking youth with light curly hair and a friendly blue eye. He was of medium height, well knit, wiry. His step was light and his muscles sure, and more than once the older man eyed him admiringly as they hurried on into the coming dusk.

Dr. Inman Shonto was one of those men who command attention wherever they go. He was tall and lean and broad-shouldered, and his outing clothes had been fitted to his remarkable body with precision. He was an ugly man as masculine comeliness goes, but, for all that, women found him intensely inter¬ esting. His nose was monstrous, and lightly pitted from bridge to tip. His mouth was big, and the lips were thick, puckered, and firm. His hair was thin and neutral in colour — somewhere between a dark brown and a light. His ears were rather large and a trifle outstanding. His eyes were grey and very intense in their manner of observing others.

It was the strong face of a strong man. One knew instinctively that great will power was this man’s heri¬ tage. One believed, after a glance into that homely face, that this man took what he wanted from life, and that his wants were by no means puny. Even in hunting clothes Dr. Inman Shonto was fastidious. And his walk was fastidious, even here in the wilder¬ ness. The realization that he and his young companion were lost in the wilds did not serve to ruffle the doc¬ tor’s calm exterior. He was nothing if not self-con¬ trolled on all occasions.

Despite his homeliness, his smile was engaging as he turned and looked back at Andy after topping a little bald rise toward which the two had been travelling, hoping on its summit to gain a better view of the surrounding country.

“Andy,” he said, “I smell smoke. Sound encourag¬ ing?”

The young man reached his side, and the two stood looking in every direction and sniffing speculatively.

“I get it, too, Doctor,” Andy told the other finally. “It seems to be over in that direction.”

Andy pointed west, and the doctor nodded silently.

“There’s a ranch or a camp pretty close,” he decided. “Now let’s locate that smoke definitely and make a bee-line for it. I don’t just fancy a night in this cold, unfriendly forest.”

“Do you know, Dr. Shonto,” said Andy, “that I don’t exactly think of the forest as unfriendly. Time and again, when you and I have been together in the outlands, you’ve thought nature unkind — bleak — un¬ friendly. Nature never strikes me that way.”

“That’s your inheritance from your Alps-climbing Swiss ancestors, I imagine,” replied the doctor. “But, if you’ll pardon me, Andrew, I’m more interested right now in locating a welcoming curl of blue smoke over the treetops than I am in a discussion of the attitude of Mother Nature toward two of her misplaced atoms. Look over there to the west. (I suppose that’s west.) Don’t you imagine you see a thin stream of smoke going up over there — just above that massive bull pine on the brow of that hill? Confound this infernal fog!”

‘‘Yes, I believe you’re right,” Andy agreed after looking a long time in the direction the doctor had indicated. And after another pause — “Yes, smoke, all right. And if it weren’t for the fog it would spread, and we’d never have seen it. Now what, Doctor?”

Dr. Shonto gave the surrounding country careful study.

“It seems to me,” he decided, “that, if we head straight for that tall fir on the brow of the hill beyond the next one, we ought to see what’s causing the smoke. But we’ve got to go down and up, down and up; and we’ll pass through heavy timber between here and there. We must keep our wits about us and not swerve from a straight line. And that’s hard to do, with the fog rolling in on us. Anyway, it’s up to us to try it. Let’s go!”

With each of them picking his own way, they rat¬ tled down steep slopes and came upon tiny creeks, cold, brown from the dye of fallen autumn leaves. They clambered up slopes that seemed far steeper because of the extra strain they put upon their hearts and muscles. Dense growths of chaparral occasionally confronted them and made them make detours, despite their firm resolve to keep to the straight and narrow way. But in half an hour after sighting the thin stream of smoke they came out in an open space on a hillside and saw the tall fir which was their goal.

They crossed to it on level land, to look down a more precipitous slope than they had before encountered. And down there far below them they saw the misty gleam of cabin lights as they struggled with the night and the increasing obstinacy of the fog that marched in from the sea.

“Here’s a sort of trail, Doctor,” announced An¬ drew Jerome. “And it looks to be leading straight toward those lights. Shall we try it?”

“Sure,” replied the doctor. “By all means. You’re the better mountaineer, Andy — take the lead. We can get a shakedown on the floor of the man who made those lights, I guess, and get set on the right trail to¬ morrow morning.”

It was dark now, and the insweeping fog added to the density of the surrounding gloom. Far to their left coyotes lifted their mocking, plaintive yodel to the Goddess of Darkness, their patron saint, who shielded their stealthy deviltry from the eyes of men. But the blurred lights beckoned the wanderers down¬ ward, and they obeyed the signal, slipping over rounded stones, staggering into prickly bushes, sliding over abrupt ledges.

Andrew Jerome followed the trail by instinct, and Dr. Shonto was glad to follow Andy. The youth’s aptitude in the mountains was ever a source of wonder for the doctor, and often he had told the boy that he attributed it to heredity. For on his mother’s side of the family Andy’s ancestors had been of Alpine Swiss stock, by name Zanini. Dr. Inman Shonto was a firm believer in heredity, anyway, and his young friend’s dexterous mountaineering presented a sound basis for his theorizing.

They came out eventually on level land, heavily tim¬ bered with pines. Straight through the pines the trail led them, and soon they were confronted by a set of bars. Beyond the bars the fog-screened lights still invited them, so the doctor lifted his voice and called.

There came no answer from the gloom. No dog rushed around an invisible cabin to challenge them.

“Let’s take a chance, Andy,” said the doctor. “If a pack of hounds leaps out at us, we can retreat as gracefully as possible. We’ve got to get closer to make ourselves heard.”

They crawled between the bars and struck out along a beaten path. Still no outraged canine came catapult¬ ing toward them. Still the house remained invisible. Only the smeared lights stared at them through the fog.

Dr. Shonto came to a halt, and Andy stopped beside him.

“In the cabin there !” called Shonto. “Cabin ahoy !”

Several silent moments followed, and then, between the window lights that had lured them there, a new streak of muddy brilliancy grew to a rectangle, and a woman’s figure stood framed by a door.

“Hello!” shouted the doctor. “We’re lost in the woods and hunting shelter for the night. Our camp is far from here, and we can’t find it. Can you help us out? There are two of us — two men! We’ll gladly pay you for your inconvenience.”

They saw the figure of the woman turn. She was speaking with somebody within the cabin, and her profile was toward them. It vanished as she once more turned her face their way.

“Come on in !” came her invitation. “She says she’ll do the best she can for you.”

“She,” muttered the doctor. “I once knew a man that never called his wife anything but ‘she.’ Come on — I smell baking powder biscuits, or my name’s not Shonto. Here’s the backwoods for you.”

And then, as if to give the lie to his words, he stepped upon a broad stone doorstep and was faced by a radiant girl in a sky-blue evening gown, with precious stones in her dark hair, and gilded, highheeled slippers on her feet.

“Good evening,” she greeted them easily. “Wel¬ come to El Trono de Tolerancia. There are baking powder biscuits, venison, and chocolate for supper, and we’ve an extra bed.”

Chapter II

DR. INMAN SHONTO was not easily moved to a display of surprise, but for at least once in his life he found himself unequal to the oc¬ casion.

The girl in the doorway was galvanically pretty. Her features were of that striking, contrasty quality that is the result of an artistic makeup — but she was not made up. She was dark, red-lipped, large-eyed, and her figure brought a quick flush of masculine ap¬ preciation in the doctor’s face. Physically, it seemed to him, he had never before seen so gloriously all-right a girl. But the desirable physical characteristics which she displayed were not what had caused the cat to get the physician’s tongue. It was the low-neck, sleeveless gown, the sparkling hair ornaments, the gilded slippers and the creaseless silk stockings — all of which had for their background the coal-oil-lighted interior of a log cabin lost in the wilderness — that had wrecked his cus¬ tomary poise.

Her ringing laugh served in a measure to readjust his scattered wits. She had interpreted the meaning of his surprise.

“It’s my birthday!” was the girlish announcement that followed her fun-provoking laugh. “It’s my

IO birthday — and I’m twenty-two — and my name is Charmian Reemy. Mrs. Charmian Reemy, I suppose it is my duty to inform you. Aren’t you coming in, Dr. Shonto?”

At last the doctor’s hat was in his hand, and Andy Jerome, standing just behind him and equally amazed, removed his too.

Shonto was mumbling something about the unex¬ pected pleasure of meeting a girl in the wilderness who knew his name while Andy followed him inside. The girl hurried on before them and was arranging com¬ fortable thong-bottom chairs before a huge stone fire¬ place. Skins and bright-coloured Navajo rugs half covered the puncheon floor. Dainty, inexpensive cur¬ tains hung at the windows. Deer antlers and enlarged photographs of wildwood scenes broke the solemnity of the dark log walls.

Before the fireplace another woman bent and cooked in a Dutch oven on red coals raked one side from the roaring fire of fir wood.

“This is Mary Temple, my companion, nurse, cook, and adviser in all matters pertaining to my general welfare,” announced the girl. “I love her companion¬ ship, appreciate her nursing, rave over her cooking, and ignore her advice entirely. Mary Temple, this is Dr. Inman Shonto, lost in the woods with a friend whom I have not given Jjipi. time to introduce.”

Once more the bombarded doctor stood by his guns, bowed gravely to middle-aged Mary Temple — who smiled over her lean shoulder but continued to hover her Dutch oven — then turned to Andy.

rr

“Mrs. Reemy, permit me,” he said. “My friend, Andrew Jerome.”

“Mr. Jerome,” laughed the girl, extending her hand, “I am happy to welcome you to my birthday party.” Then, with one of her amazingly swift movements, she swung about to the physician. “And you, Dr. Shonto, are to be the guest of honour — and you are going to tell us all about glands and things like that.”

“It is absolutely impossible,” Dr. Shonto returned gallantly, “that I could have met you and forgotten you, Mrs. Reemy.”

“Very well spoken, Doctor,” she retorted, with a smile that twisted up a trifle at one corner of her mouth. “But I have heard that before. One would expect Dr. Inman Shonto, renowned gland specialist, to say something more original. There — I’m being impolite again! (Beat you to it that time, didn’t I, Mary Temple !) But you are pardoned for a common¬ place speech, Doctor. It must have stunned you not a little to come upon a dolled-up flapper out here inthe forest. I’ll relieve your mind instantly. We have never met before. But I have read about you for years. And this morning, when I was down at Lovejoy’s for my mail — and incidentally a big piece of venison which I hadn’t expected to be given me — I saw you and Mr. Jerome walking up the road with your guns. I inquired about you, and was told that the emi¬ nent Dr. Shonto and his friend Mr. Jerome, of Los Angeles, were in our midst. And, though I saw only your backs this morning, those shoulders of yours, Doctor, are as wide when seen from the front as from the rear. And when I saw them threatening to push to right and left the uprights of my door frame, I thought Samson was about to bring the house down on us two Philistines. For that’s what we are, gentle¬ men — outlawed Philistines. And this is the house called El Trono de Tolerancia — which in Spanish is equivalent to The Throne of Tolerance. All right, Mary Temple — I see your shoulders quivering! I’ll stop right now and let somebody else get in a word. But since I already know the doctor and his friend — and a great deal about the doctor that he doesn’t sus¬ pect — doesn’t it stand to reason that they ought to hear about us before sitting down to my birthday din¬ ner ?”

“You oughtn’t to’ve called yourself a flapper,” said the kneeling Mary Temple, showing one fire-crimsoned cheek.

With her ready laughter, which was hearty and whole-souled without a suggestion of boisterousness, Mrs. Charmian Reemy seated herself. Then Andy and Doctor Shonto found seats one on either side of her.

“This is certainly a refreshing experience, Mrs. Reemy,” were the younger man’s first words since ac¬ knowledging his introduction to her.

“I’m glad you think so,” she replied. “I dearly love to make life refreshing for folks. For myself as well. I thought it would be refreshing fun to dress to-night, with only Mary Temple and me ’way out here in the woods. It was just a freakish whim of mine. I get ’em frequently. Don’t I, Mary Temple?”

The firelight showed red through one of Mary Ternpie’s thin ears as she half turned her head, doubtless to administer a reproof, and executed “eyes front” again when she changed her mind.

“I had no idea at the time, though, that two dis¬ tressed gentlemen were to come to my party and ad¬ mire me and my table decorations.”

She swept a white arm in the direction of a table at one side of the large room, on which were a spotless cloth, china and silver, and an earth-sweet centerpiece of ferns and California holly berries.

“Now I’ll tell you who I am, so that you will be better able to celebrate properly with me — and then for the glands. I’m dying to learn all about glands. Could you rejuvenate me, Doctor Shonto? Now’s your chance for that pretty birthday speech !”

“I think,” said Shonto, with his grave smile, “that you, Mrs. Reemy, are a far more successful rejuvenator right now than I shall ever be. I’ve sloughed off five years since entering your door.”

“Better! That was extremely well done. And now let’s get down to business :

“I am Charmian Reemy, aged twenty-two to-day. I was born in San Francisco, and live there now. When I was seventeen I was married to Walter J. Reemy, a mining man from Alaska. To be absolutely frank, that marriage was the result of a plot by my father and mother to marry me off to a wealthy man. And I Was too young and pliable to put up a decent fight.

“I went to Alaska with my husband, where we lived two years. He was killed in a gambling game, and his will left everything to me. I sold out his Alaska mining.

property and returned to the United States, where I lived with my parents in San Francisco until both were taken away in the recent flu epidemic.

“Since then I have been alone except for Mary Tem¬ ple, who was with me in Alaska. She had returned to San Francisco with me after Walter’s death. So when I was left entirely alone again I hunted her up, and she has been my companion and housekeeper ever since.

“When I was little I was what is generally called a misunderstood child. Whether that was true or not I can’t say, but I know that, almost from my earliest remembrance, my home life was unpleasant. My par¬ ents were plodders in the footsteps of Tradition. At an early age I showed radical tendencies.

“I am a radical to-day. I am intolerant of all the intolerance of this generation of false prophets. I come up here to forget man’s stupidity. And I call my retreat in the big-timber country The Throne of Toler¬ ance. Wait until to-morrow morning. Then, if you can look from those west windows and be intolerant of anything or anybody, you don’t belong to my clan.

“I make pilgrimage to El Trono de Tolerancia whenever I begin to choke up down in San Francisco. Mary Temple and I live simply up here in the woods until the suffocation passes, then we return to the city — and boredom. I learned to love the outdoors up in Alaska. And sometime I’m going on a great adven¬ ture. I’m going to some far-off place where man never before has set his foot. And maybe I shan’t come back.

“That’s about all there is to be told about me. Ex-

t cept that I never intend to marry again. Oh, yes ! — and I always call Mary Temple Mary Temple. If I were to call her Mary it would sound disrespectful from one so much younger than she is. If I called her Miss Temple it would sound stiff and throw a wet blanket over our comradeship. And I’m too human, and I hope too genuine, to ape high society and call her Temple. So she’s Mary Temple to me, and every¬ thing seems to move smoothly. Now I’m through — positively through. Now tell me about the glands, Doctor Shonto.”

Shonto was smiling in quiet amusement. He could not quite make out this girl. Shonto was very much a radical himself, and he believed that she knew it. But he considered her too young to hold such a pessi¬ mistic outlook on life as she had hinted at. That she was ready to worship him because of his reputation as a specialist in gland secretions seemed apparent. The doctor had been fawned upon by many women intellectually inclined, and they had nauseated him im¬ measurably. He admired Charmian Reemy for her physical charm, her vivacity, and her good-fellowship ; but he was experienced and therefore wary.

But he was saved for the present from committing himself by Mary Temple, who had completed her ministrations over the Dutch oven, and had carried the result to the table.

“Dinner’s ready,” she announced unceremoniously.

Whereupon Charmian rose and seated her guests.

Dr. Shonto was not a little puzzled at the behaviour of his friend. Andy Jerome had spoken to Mrs. Reemy but once since their entrance into her home, aside from muttering her name when the doctor had introduced him. It was true that their hostess had done most of the talking herself, but Shonto had managed to get in a word edgewise now and then. While Andy had showed little or no inclination to talk at all.

For the most part he had sat and almost stared at her, as if never before had he seen a beautiful girl in an evening gown. The doctor knew that this was far from the case, and that Andy ordinarily was quick to respond to pretty women. He usually could hold his own with them, too. But it seemed that Charmian Reemy had fairly swept him off his feet. Shonto felt a slight twinge of regret. He found that he himself was rather impressed by this frank, free-spoken girl of the woods and the cities.

Mary Temple occupied the foot of the table, where she sat stiffly and with an austere mien, and attended to the greater part of the serving. They were no more than seated when Charmian Reemy again began beg¬ ging the gland specialist to initiate her into the mys¬ teries of his witchcraft. But Shonto, seeking an avenue of escape, hit upon a topic that at once changed her thoughts into another, though no less interesting, channel.

“You say, Mrs. Reemy,” he began, “that you are contemplating going off for a big adventure some day. If you haven’t anything definite in mind, I’d like to offer a suggestion. How would you like to make an attempt to explore a lost valley — a forgotten valley — in reality, an undiscovered valley?”

“What?” Her dark eyes were sparkling.

“Just that. Andy and I heard about it the other day. And on the way to this undiscovered valley you may hunt for opals. Of course, a fellow may hunt for opals anywhere he chooses. But in this case he may do so with reasonable hopes of success.”

“Do you mean that, Doctor Shonto?”

“Absolutely. But I have only the story of a couple of prospectors, one of whom has been an old-time opal, miner in Australia. They are both intelligent men,, and their story rang true.”

“Please let’s hear all about it!” begged Charmiam “An undiscovered valley ! How can it be undiscovered when these prospectors know about it? And opals! You’ve lured me away from glands for the present, Doctor. Give us the yarn!”

Chapter III

“TT TELL,” began Dr. Shonto reflectively, “Andy V y and I were in our camp on the North Fork of the Lizard, about two and a half miles from Lovejoy’s place. Two men came along with pack burros, bound up into the Catfish Country — if you know where that is.”

Charmian nodded eagerly.

“They stopped, and as lunch was about ready we invited them to eat with us.

“They called themselves Smith Morley and Omar Leach. They are both middle-aged men and seem to have had a great deal of experience at prospecting.

“Well, Andy and I are old-time ramblers ourselves. We spend a great deal of time together in the outlands, mostly just loafing around and enjoying camp life and the scenery. We were able to talk with the pair about many things of interest to both factions. One thing led to another, and finally Smith Morley men¬ tioned that he had hunted for opals with a camel train in Australia. We at once became interested and asked him all about the life. It is vastly entertaining, from his account.

“Then he told us of the California opals, but when Andy asked if he ever found any in this state he grew reticent. Finally, however, when he learned that both of us were men of some means, he told us about cer¬ tain opal claims that he and his partner had filed on this year, and which they would be obliged to lose because they were financially unable to get into the coun¬ try and do their assessment work.

“They offered to sell the claims to us, and to take us to them and establish us if we would defray the ex¬ penses. Morley showed us one of the handsomest opals I have ever seen. Its fire was simply wonderful — I’d never before seen anything to equal it.

“We weren’t greatly interested, however, until they mentioned the undiscovered valley. While Andy has nothing much to occupy his time, I have my investiga¬ tions to carry on and a great deal of laboratory work, though I am not practising medicine regularly. Any¬ way, we didn’t want to go into the opal-mining game. But, as I said, the undiscovered valley enticed us, and we wanted to know all about it.

“The opal claims are on the desert in what is called the Shinbone Country. It is very difficult to get to them, and the soft, deep sand makes automobiles a failure. One must use horses and pack burros, and at best the water supply is dangerously short. However, the undiscovered valley is something like thirty miles beyond the desert, in the mountains, at an elevation of perhaps eight thousand feet.

“From the description they gave us, those who know of its existence say that it is about thirteen miles long by seven or eight miles in width. It is surrounded by high peaks upon which the snow lies for almost the entire year. These peaks are said to be straight up and down, to use Morley’s phrase, and heavily tim¬ bered up to the snow-line. The valley is therefore like the crater of an extinct volcano, and many claim that it is just that. To reach the timbered section, one must cross miles and miles of country covered with the densest chaparral. He must either cut his way through it with a knife and an ax or crawl on all fours. This stretch is waterless, and exposed to the sunny side of steep mountains, where the heat beats down unmerci¬ fully.

“But assuming that a fellow gets through this chaparral country, he has yet to scale those grim peaks which Morley calls straight up and down. And if he reaches the summit, he then will be obliged to get down into the valley, perhaps several thousand feet in depth.

“The valley was discovered some years ago by a forest ranger. He had climbed to a high peak about sixteen miles distant from it, and assumed that, even then, he was on ground where no man of to-day, at least, had ever stood before. He suffered a great deal on that trip, but determination kept up his courage and he finally reached the goal for which he had set out. And from the summit of that peak he glimpsed the unexplored valley.

“It seems strange that, in this day and age, such a valley could remain unknown. But such seems to be the case. Andy and I have found in our travels over the state that there are vast stretches of forest land where a white man has probably never set his foot. But in almost every case, there was nothing to draw him. This instance is different.

“Fortunately the ranger had a telescope with him, and was able to see a portion of the valley between two of the peaks that surround it. He circulated the report that the valley is wooded, and that a fair-sized river flows down the centre of it. He saw great quan¬ tities of meadow land, and on it animals were grazing, but he could not determine what they were. Altogether the valley presented a pleasing outlook, and he made up his mind to explore it.