The trail, as has been stated, was
broad and comparatively level. The slope of the
mountain to the right was so moderate that it could
be climbed by a horse almost as readily as by a man.
Its face was covered with a growth of cedars, continuing
half way to the summit, when it terminated, only bleak
masses of rock, sprinkled with snow, whose volume
increased with the elevation, being visible above and
beyond.
When the four pursuers came together,
their faces showed that they comprehended the serious
business before them. It was seen that Captain
Dawson was slightly pale, but those who had been with
him in battle had observed the same peculiarity.
Accompanied, as it was in this instance, by a peculiar
steely glitter of his eyes, it meant that he was in
a dangerous mood and the man who crossed his path did
so at his peril.
It was evident that he and Vose Adams
had reached an understanding during the few minutes
that they were riding in advance. The words of
Vose Adams were spoken for the benefit of Ruggles and
the parson.
“You’ll wait here till I take a look at
things.”
“What do you mean to do?” asked Brush.
“I’m going up the slope on foot to find
out how the land lays.”
“And when you find that out, what next?”
“He is to come back and report to me,”
interposed the captain.
There was a world of meaning in these
words. It showed that the captain allowed Adams
to lead only when acting as a guide. In all other
matters, the retired officer assumed control.
The opportunity of Vose to pick off the offending
lieutenant promised to be better than that of any
one else, since he would first see him, but he had
been given to understand that he must immediately
return and let the captain know the situation.
Adams had promised this and he knew Dawson too well
to dare to thwart him.
Brush and Ruggles could make no objection,
keen though their disappointment was. They watched
Adams, as he slipped off his mule, not deeming it
worth while to utter the warning both had had in mind.
It was the parson who said:
“I suppose we have nothing to
do except to wait here till you come back?”
“It looks that way, but you must ask the captain.”
“You won’t be gone long?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Be careful, but there’s no need of waiting,”
said the captain.
The three watched the guide until
he disappeared from sight among the cedars, when the
captain added:
“Vose told me that it was possible
that camp fire had been started by Indians, but it
seems to me there is little likelihood of that.”
“Why?”
“Those people are so skilled
in woodcraft that they would have been on the alert
against our approach, for a brief survey of the trail
for the last half hour would have revealed us to them.”
“It may be,” suggested
the parson, “that with every reason to believe
there is no danger of anything of the kind, for it
must be rare that a white man passes along this trail,
they did not keep a lookout.”
The captain shook his head.
“From what I know of the American race, it is
unlike them.”
“What knowledge have we that
they have not maintained such a lookout and discovered
us as soon as we noticed the camp fire itself?
They may have formed an ambuscade at some point further
along the trail.”
“It is a disturbing possibility
and I would be alarmed, but for my confidence in Vose.
He has been through this region so often and knows
these wild people so thoroughly that he could not commit
a blunder like that. It seems to me,” added
the captain a few minutes, later, “that he is
absent a long time.”
“It’s tough,” remarked
Ruggles, “that things are fixed so we won’t
have a chance to take any hand in this bus’ness.”
The captain looked inquiringly at him and he explained:
“You and Vose have set it up atween you.”
“I have told you that if your
help is needed, it will be welcome; I can add nothing
to that.”
“The captain is right,”
interposed the parson, “but at the same time,
he can see what a disappointment it is for us.”
“I admit that, but we are not out of the woods
yet.”
Before he could make clear the meaning
of this remark, Vose Adams emerged from the cedars,
and the three breathlessly awaited his coming.
He broke into a trot and quickly descended the slope
to where they stood. The expression of his face
showed before he spoke that he brought unwelcome news.
“Confound it!” he exclaimed
with a shake of his head, “they’re not
there!”
“Then they have gone on up the
trail,” said the captain inquiringly.
“No; they haven’t been there; it isn’t
their camp.”
“Whose is it?”
“Injins; there are five of ’em;
they’ve just had their breakfast and are gettin’
ready to make a start.”
“Didn’t they see you?”
“That isn’t the way I
do bus’ness,” replied Vose rather loftily;
“it’s more’n likely, howsumever,
they seen us all awhile ago when we was further down
the trail. They’re traveling eastward.”
“How can you know that?” asked the parson.
“The Injin that took his dive
off the trail ’bout the time the captain fired
off his revolver, was going that way. He b’longed
to the party and was sorter leading ’em; he
was a chief or something of the kind.”
“Where are their ponies?”
“They haven’t any, leastways
he was the only one that had, which is why I said
he was some kind of a chief. We shall hear from
’em agin.”
“Why?”
“I mean after they find out about that little
row.”
“Why need they find out about it?”
“They can’t help it; they’ll
miss their chief; they’ll run across that horse
of his and that’ll give ’em the clue.”
This unexpected discovery put a new
face on matters. Five mountain Indians, the bravest
and most implacable of their race, were almost within
stone’s throw of the party. But for the
occurrence of a brief while before, they probably
would have permitted the white men to continue their
journey unmolested, since the strength of the two
bands, all things considered, was about equal, but
when the hostiles learned of the death of their
leader, they would bend every effort toward securing
revenge. They would dog the miners, watchful,
alert and tireless in their attempts to cut them off
from the possibility of ever repeating the deed.
“But that chief, as you seem
to think he was,” said Captain Dawson, “is
gone as utterly as if the ground had opened and swallowed
him. They will never have the chance to officiate
at his funeral, so how are they to learn of the manner
of his taking off?”
“It won’t take ’em
long,” replied Adams; “his pony will hunt
them out, now that he is left to himself; that’ll
tell ’em that something is up and they’ll
start an investigatin’ committee. The footprints
of our horses, the marks on the rocks, which you and
me wouldn’t notice, the fact that we met the
chief on that narrer ledge and that he’s
turned up missing will soon lay bare the whole story,
and as I remarked aforesaid, we shall hear from ’em
agin.”
“It looks like a case of the
hunter hunting the tiger,” said the parson,
“and then awaking to the fact that the tiger
is engaged in hunting him; it is plain to see that
there’s going to be a complication of matters,
but I don’t feel that it need make any difference
to us.”
“It won’t!” replied
the captain decisively; “we haven’t put
our hands to the plough with any intention of looking
back. What’s the next thing to do, Vose?”
“We’ve got to look after our animals.”
“But there’s no grass here for them.”
“A little further and we’ll
strike a stream of water where we’ll find some
grass, though not much, but it’s better than
nothing.”
Vaulting into the saddle, the guide
after some pounding of his heels against the iron
ribs of Hercules, forced him into a gallop, which the
others imitated. The trail continued comparatively
smooth, and, being slightly descending, the animals
were not crowded as hard as it would seem. A
mile of this brought them to the water, where they
were turned loose. The stream gushed from the
mountain side, and, flowing across the trail, was
lost among the rocks to the left. The moisture
thus diffused produced a moderate growth of tough,
coarse grass, which the animals began plucking as
soon as the bits were removed from their mouths.
They secured little nutriment, but as the guide remarked,
it was an improvement upon nothing. The men bathed
their faces in the cold, clear water, took a refreshing
draught, and then ate the lunch provided for them
by the thoughtful Adams. Though they ate heartily,
sufficient was kept to answer for another meal or two,
if it should be thought wise to put themselves on
an allowance.
They had just lighted their pipes,
when Wade Ruggles uttered an exclamation. Without
explaining the cause, he bounded to his feet and ran
several rods to the westward, where he was seen to
stoop and pick something from the ground. He
examined it closely and then, as he turned about and
came back more slowly it was perceived that he held
a white handkerchief in his hand. His action
caused the others to rise to his feet.
“What have you there?”
asked Captain Dawson, suspecting its identity.
“I guess you have seen it before,”
replied Wade, handing the piece of fine, bordered
linen to him. He turned it over with strange emotions,
for he was quick to recognize it.
“Yes,” he said, compressing
his lips; “it is hers; she dropped it there how
long ago, Vose?”
The latter examined the handkerchief,
as if looking for the answer to the question in its
folds, but shook his head.
“Even a mountain Injin could not tell that.”
The parson asked the privilege of
examining the article. His heart was beating
fast, though no one else was aware of it, for it was
a present which he had made to Nellie Dawson on the
preceding Christmas, having been brought by Vose Adams,
with other articles, on his trip made several months
before the presentation. There was the girl’s
name, written by himself in indelible ink, and in
his neat, round hand. It was a bitter reflection
that it had been in her possession, when she was in
the company of the one whom she esteemed above all
others.
“It may have been,” reflected
the parson, carefully keeping his thoughts to himself,
“that, when she remembered from whom it came,
she flung it aside to please him. Captain,”
he added, “since this was once mine, I presume
you have no objection to my keeping it.”
“You are welcome to it; I don’t
care for it,” replied the parent.
“Thank you,” and the parson
carefully put it away to keep company with the letter
of Nellie Dawson which broke her father’s heart;
“I observe that it is quite dry, which makes
me believe it has not been exposed to the dew, and
therefore could not have lain long on the ground.”
“You can’t tell anything
by that,” commented Vose; “the air is so
dry up here, even with the snow and water around us,
that there’s no dew to amount to anything.”
All seemed to prefer not to discuss
the little incident that had produced so sombre an
effect upon the party. Wade Ruggles was disposed
to claim the handkerchief, inasmuch as it was he who
found it, but he respected the feelings of the parson
too much to make any protest.
The occurrence was of no special interest
to the guide. He had said they were in danger
from the Indians and he gave his thoughts to them.
While the others kept their seats on the ground, he
stood erect, and, shading his eyes with one hand,
peered long and attentively over the trail behind
them. The clump of cedars from amid which the
thin column of vapor was slowly climbing into the
sky and the narrow ledge which had been the scene
of their stirring adventure were in view, though its
winding course shut a portion from sight.
“I expected it!” suddenly exclaimed Vose.
The others followed the direction
of his gaze and saw what had caused his words.
The five Indians, whom Vose had discovered in camp,
were picking their way along the ledge, with their
faces turned from the white men, who were watching
them. Despite the chilly air, caused by the elevation,
not one of the warriors wore a blanket. Two had
bows and arrows, three rifles, carried in a trailing
fashion, and all were lithe, sinewy fellows, able
to give a good account of themselves in any sort of
fight.
A curious fact noted by all of our
friends was that while these warriors were thus moving
away, not one of them looked behind him. Their
long black hair hung loosely about their shoulders,
and in the clear air it was observable that three
wore stained feathers in the luxuriant growth on their
crowns.
“Is it possible that they have
no suspicion of us?” asked the parson; “their
action in not looking around would imply that.”
“Don’t fool yourself,”
was the reply of Adams; “they knowed of us afore
we knowed anything of them.”
“Why did they allow us to pass their camp undisturbed?”
“Things weren’t in the
right shape for ’em. There are only three
guns among ’em, though them kind of Injins are
as good with the bow as the rifle, and they made up
their minds that if we let them alone, they wouldn’t
bother us.”
“You said awhile ago that we
should have trouble from them.”
“And so we shall; when they
reasoned like I was sayin’, they didn’t
know anything about the little accident that happened
to their chief; it’s that which will make things
lively.”
“We can’t see the point
where that accident took place,” said Captain
Dawson.
“No; the trail curves too much,
but we can foller it most of the way; they’re
likely to go right on without ’specting anything,
but when they find the horse, it’ll set ’em
to looking round. After that, the band will begin
to play.”
While the party were watching the
five Indians, the leader was seen to pass from view
around the curve in the trail, followed by the next,
until finally the fifth disappeared. All this
time, not one of the warriors looked behind him.
It was a singular line of action, and because of its
singularity roused the suspicion of the spectators.
While three of the miners resumed
their seats on the boulders and ground, Vose Adams
kept his feet. Doubling each palm, so as to make
a funnel of it, he held one to either eye and continued
scrutinizing the point where he had last seen the
hostiles. He suspected it was not the last
of them. Instead of imitating him, his friends
studied his wrinkled countenance.
The air in that elevated region was
wonderfully clear, but it is hardly possible to believe
the declaration which the guide made some minutes
later. He insisted that, despite the great distance,
one of the Indians, after passing from view, returned
over his own trail and peeped around the bend in the
rocks, and that the guide saw his black hair and gleaming
snake-like eyes. The fact that Vose waited until
the savage had withdrawn from sight, before making
the astonishing declaration, threw some discredit
on it, for it would have required a good telescope
to do what he claimed to have done with the unassisted
eye alone.
“You see I was looking for something
of the kind,” he explained, “or mebbe
I wouldn’t have obsarved him.”
“Could you tell the color of
his eyes?” asked the doubting Ruggles.
“They were as black as coal.”
“It is safe to say that,”
remarked the parson, “inasmuch as I never met
an Indian who had eyes of any other color.”
“There are such,” said
Vose, “and I’ve seen ’em, though
I’ll own they’re mighty scarce and I never
knowed of any in this part of the world. Howsumever,
I won’t purtend that I could see the color of
a man’s eyes that fur, but I did see his hair,
forehead and a part of his ugly face. He knowed
we was behind him all the time, and this one wanted
to find out what we was doing. When he larned
that, they kept on along the ledge, but there’s
no saying how fur they’ll go afore they find
something’s gone wrong.”
Captain Dawson showed less interest
in this by-play than the others. He was not concerned
with what was behind them, so much as with what was
in front. The belief was so strong with him that
their persistent travel through the night had brought
them close to the fugitives that he begrudged the
time necessary for the animals to rest and eat.
Parson Brush felt that Adams was acting
wisely in giving attention to the rear. It would
be the height of folly to disregard these formidable
warriors when they meant trouble. Brush rose to
his feet and using his palms as did the guide, scanned
the country behind them.
He saw nothing of any warrior peering
around the rocks, but he did see something, which
escaped even the keen vision of Vose Adams himself.
Beyond the ledge and a little to the left, he observed
a riderless horse, with head high in air, and gazing
at something which the two white men could not see.
The parson directed the attention of Vose to the animal.
“By gracious! it’s the
chief’s horse,” he exclaimed; “do
you see that?”
The other two were now looking and
all plainly saw a warrior advance into view, approaching
the animal, which, instead of being frightened, seemed
to recognize his friends, and remained motionless until
the Indian came up and grasped the thong about his
neck. Then the two passed from sight.
The identical thing prophesied by
Vose Adams had occurred under the eyes of the four
pursuers. The steed of the dead chieftain had
been recovered, and it would not take the hostiles
long to penetrate the mystery of the matter.
Vose was wise in taking the course he did, and his
companions were now inclined to believe his astonishing
assertion that he saw one of the number when he peeped
around the curving ledge and watched their actions.
However, it would have been absurd
to wait where they were in order to learn every move
of their enemies, for that would have been a voluntary
abandonment of the advantage secured at the cost of
so much labor and danger. Captain Dawson insisted
that the pursuit should be pressed without any thought
of the red men, and Vose consented.
“But there’s one thing
we mustn’t forget, captain,” he said, “and
that is that it is daytime and not night.”
“I do not catch your meaning,”
replied the captain, pausing on the point of moving
off to secure his horse.
“It is this: them people
in front will keep as sharp an eye to the rear as
to the front; more’n likely it will be sharper,
and it will be a bad thing if they discover us when
we’re two or three miles off.”
“How shall we prevent it?”
“We can do it, if we’re
careful. You’ll remember that when you went
over this route last, you come upon places where you
could see for a mile or more, ’cause the trail
was straight and broad, while there are others where
you can’t see more’n a hundred yards.
Them that I’ve named last is where we must overhaul
’em.”
“That sounds well, Vose,”
said the captain, “but I am unable to see how
you are going to manage so as to bring that about.”
“While you’re getting
the animals ready, I’ll take a look ahead.”
This was not in the nature of an explanation,
but the three willingly did their part. Vose
disappeared almost instantly, and, though they took
but a few minutes to prepare their animals for the
resumption of travel, he was back among them, the
expression of his face showing that he brought news
of importance.
“They ain’t fur off,” he said.
“How far?” asked the captain.
“I can’t say anything
more than that we’re purty close to ’em.
Let’s push on!”