Page:Allan Dunn--Dead Man's Gold.djvu/154

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
140
DEAD MAN'S GOLD

great lurking fish. The hue of the water coloured them to a deep blue, the angle at which they were forced to gaze prevented the fair view that might have been obtained from the cliff, lifting perpendicularly above them, impossible of access from the trail. The two figures lay with composed limbs, stripped of all clothing. There was the suggestion of a beard on one of them that indicated the impossibility of the body being that of an Indian. Shadow lay half across the bowl and they within its influence. Undeniably the outlines were those of humanity. Undeniably they were coated or subtly impregnated with lime that had defied decomposition. Apparently they had fallen, or had been tossed, from the very edge of the mesa itself, two hundred feet above the pool. They might have been there for ten years or a hundred. They might stay there for a thousand, if undisturbed.

"They ought to be given Christian burial," said Harvey. "Some day I'm comin' back here with ropes and git them out of thar. Scelped, both on 'em.'

"You've got better eyes than I have to make that out, Harvey," said Stone.

"Take a look. You can't see any hair atop of their heads, kin ye? An' one's got a beard thet shows plain enough. Men of the plains an' deserts used to wear their ha'r long them days. Didn't thet young chief say these was here when he was a kid? The ha'r 'ud show. They might both on 'em be bald, but I doubt it. Scelped an' chucked inter the