Hal Kenyon Disappears Read online

  CHAPTER II

  SOMETHING ABOUT DR. BYRD

  It was well known how Mummy Canyon obtained its name. High up on the faceof a bluff was a large rock, almost human in shape, in wrappings like amummy. Mummy Canyon had not yet attracted the attention of sight-seers.No railroad ran near it, and only a rattling stage-coach line carriedvisitors between the nearest depot and the small settlement ofJamestown, or "Jimtown," as it was popularly called, near which Dr. Byrdhad located his boys' school.

  Dr. Byrd had served many years as a physician on English ships visitingthe Orient, and, by both inheritance and good fortune, had becomewealthy. When about fifty years old he found that the heat and dampnessof the tropical climate were undermining his health and that he mustheed the warnings of nature. So he returned home, but in London foundthat his throat still troubled him, and he decided that he most moveelsewhere.

  His children being grown and married, he and his wife sold part of theirpersonal effects and came to America. Then they traveled about a gooddeal, trying to find a climate that would promote better health for thedoctor, but every place they visited proved unsatisfactory until theyreached Colorado.

  The altitude of this state, second highest of all the states of theUnion, together with the atmospheric conditions, proved "just thething." But where should they make their home? Denver was delightful asto climate, but the doctor was not contented there. He loved nature, tobe out of doors; he had no patience with clanging street cars, smokingengines, and houses huddled together. So they began their search anew.

  One day they stopped at Lake City and took a stage-coach ride over theLa Garita Mountains. The vehicle was only a rattling two-seated openbuggy, drawn by four horses that might have pulled a plow over anyAmerican field, but it was dignified with the name stage-coach. Thedriver was a young man who had a contract with the government fortransporting mail to and from various mining points along the way, andhe added to his profits by carrying passengers and all manner of lightfreight.

  Along the foot of the mountains they rode for several miles, then up agrade and around a spur of a perpendicular hill, up, up, up, windinghere and there, overlooking deep gullies, dashing downgrade into aragged valley, with its noisy brook; then up again and on and aroundthey wound to where the pines stuck in the mountain sides liketoothpicks.

  In the course of this journey they passed through Mummy Canyon. But thisgorge had not yet received its name, and when the imaginative Dr. Byrdbeheld the "swathed form" on the face of a lofty bluff, he calledattention to it.

  "That's the mummy," said the driver in a matter-of-fact way.

  "It looks just like an Egyptian mummy," declared the doctor. "Doeseverybody call it that?"

  "Everybody around here does."

  "What's the name of this canyon?"

  "'Tain't got none. I s'pose it'll get a name one o'these days when morepeople settle 'round here."

  "It's going to have one right now," announced the doctor. "Its name isMummy Canyon. I call you two as witnesses of the christening."

  "You'll have to stay here a while and tell everybody or the name won'tstick," laughed Mrs. Byrd.

  "And that's just what I'm going to do," was the surprising answer. "I'mgoing to make my home right near here--with your permission, of course,my dear. This is just the country I want to live in. It's good for myhealth. It's good for my eyes; I like to look at it."

  That settled it. Mrs. Byrd was amiable and happy to live in any placewhere her husband's health could improve. Moreover, she, too, wasdelighted with the scenery and praised it almost as much as did thedoctor.

  But there were other features of special interest in the canyon. Thispart of the state had once been inhabited by the cliff-dwellers,prehistoric Pueblo Indians. Ruins of their early dwellings and defenseswere to be found here and there, although usually they were in suchdilapidated condition that it was difficult to make out their characterexcept at close range.

  The "mummy bluff" stood out high on the side of a most remarkablemountain, especially noticeable because of its shape. The sides lookedunscalable and the top appeared to have been cut off clean and levelwith a monster knife, a few hundred feet lower than the neighboringlofty peaks. Before leaving the canyon, Dr. Byrd gave a name also to thismountain. He called it Flathead.

  The doctor was well pleased with "Jimtown." In fact, he was pleased witheverything now. The mining settlement was booming when he and Mrs. Byrdarrived. It was located close to the side of a mountain; a few of thehouses, in fact, stood a short distance up on the steep slope. The placewas so busy that nobody seemed to have time to notice the arrival of sohumble a pair as a London physician and his wife, and they selected asite and built a home without attracting any particular attention.

  The site was located near a pretty mountain-spring lake that fed atributary of the Rio Grande. It was about three miles from Mummy Canyon.The scenery of course was beautiful, as it is in all of mountainousColorado. The lake was clear and cold. It rested in a pocket more than ahundred feet above a delightful valley and behind it was a range oftall, steep, snow-capped mountains. The outlet was down several naturalterraces that converted the little river into a succession of dashingcascades before it reached the valley.

  This place was several miles from "Jimtown," the nearest settlement. Dr.Byrd engaged servants and began the cultivation of a considerable farm.The beauty of the spot and the personality of the settlers soonattracted attention, and several others moved there and began thecultivation of farms. Before long a post office branch was opened andthe stage-coach line ran two miles out of its way to deliver mail,groceries and general supplies.

  Meanwhile the doctor made acquaintances rapidly. He was a mostentertaining person to meet. He had traveled extensively and seemed toknow the world. He had an excellent library and a magnificent collectionof curios from many countries. Moreover, he had a delightfulpersonality, tall, straight, athletic figure, kindly intelligent face,and a shock of curly iron-gray hair that commanded the admiration of allwho saw it.

  But the doctor's best friends were boys. And there was a reason forthis. The boys whom he met always found in him a best friend. He knewall about them, their likes and dislikes, their sports and theirhardships. He had a vivid recollection of his own boyhood days, and hecould reel off yarns by the hour. Just put him into a company ofyoungsters and let him begin: "When I was a boy," and everybody was allattention in an instant. Of course there were not many boys living inthe neighborhood of the new mountain home, but there were a good many inJimtown, where the doctor soon became a familiar figure. And there wasalways company at "Lakefarm," as he had named the place, and the"company" always was urged to bring the boys along. Frequently theywould remain at Lakefarm after the grown-ups had departed, and everysummer the place became "a regular boy ranch," as one visitor called it.

  Finally the doctor got so interested in "boy-ology" that he resolved toopen a boys' school. Manual training had become quite the fashion in themaking of young men all over the country and this appealed to the ownerof Lakefarm. So he let his ideas become known and was astonished as wellas pleased at the indorsement they received.

  Five years after settling at Lakefarm Dr. Byrd built a schoolhouse and ashop and a dormitory on his farm, engaged instructors and servants, andthen announced that he was ready to receive pupils. It was surprisinghow rapidly the school was filled. In two weeks Dr. Byrd announced thathe could receive no more, and the registry list was closed.

  Most of the boys were of either wealthy or well-to-do parents. Naturallythis was an almost necessary condition, as the tuition and livingexpenses at an institution of this kind were not the lowest. But tooffset this, the doctor made arrangements for receiving a few pupils onnominal payments or free of charge. One of these poor boys was HalKenyon, whom Dr. Byrd found selling newspapers on a street corner inDenver. Hal proved to be such a bright lad that the owner of Lakefarmdecided at once to do something for him. Hal's parents were willin
g andhe went to school in the mountains.

  Three successful and happy years had passed since the opening of theschool on Lakefarm. Meanwhile the settlement around the school grewuntil the census enumerator reported fifty families. Previously the townhad been known as Byrd's Place, or just Byrd's, but now the subject of apermanent name arose and a meeting was called to settle the matter.

  Flathead was the name selected. After this the name of the school waschanged in the popular mind. Officially it bore the title of LakefarmInstitute, but soon it was spoken of frequently as Flathead School,while some humorously played on the idea suggested in the name andstyled it the "School for Level-headed Boys."

  This latter pleased Dr. Byrd very well, for it expressed his purpose ina few words, to develop in his pupils a liberal supply of common sense.