A Waif of the Mountains Part 21

"Humph! I would rather chance it on a good beginning."

Ruggles was the first to wheel and strike his horse into a gallop, which he did with the remark that he knew where the right pa.s.sage was located. His companions were almost beside him. The canon was of that peculiar conformation that, while it terminated directly in front, it contained an abrupt angle between where the party had halted and the mining settlement. At that point it was so wide that the little stream, which might have served for a guide, was lost sight of. Had they followed the brook, they would not have gone astray. The only inconvenience was the slight delay, which in their restless mood tried their spirits to the utmost. Captain Dawson muttered to himself and urged his horse so angrily that he again placed himself in advance.

His mood was no more savage than that of his companions, but he chafed at everything which caused delay, no matter how trifling, in the pursuit.

Fearing that he might go wrong, Ruggles spurred up beside him. The distance pa.s.sed was less than any one expected it to be, when Ruggles called out:

"Here we are!"

The exclamation was caused by the hoofs of their horses plashing in the water. They seemed to share the impatience of their riders; "all we have to do now is to keep to the stream; obsarve its turn."

Its course was almost at right angles to that which they had been following. The animals were cantering easily, when suddenly a deeper gloom than usual overspread the valley like a pall. This came from a heavy bank of clouds sweeping before the moon. The steeds were drawn down to a walk, but the obscurity was not dense enough to shut out the chasm-like opening, where the mountains seemed to part, riven by some terrific convulsion ages before. The enormous walls drew back the door as if to invite them to enter and press the pursuit of the couple that were fleeing from a just and righteous wrath.

The width of the canon had now dwindled to a few yards, and the stream expanding and shallow, occupied so much of the s.p.a.ce that the horses were continually splashing through it, but the rise and fall of the trail was so slight that the gallop might have continued with little danger of mishap.

The formation of the party was in "Indian file," with Captain Dawson leading, Ruggles next and Brush bringing up the rear. All three animals were walking, for the light of the moon was variable and often faint, while the danger of a mis-step was ever present, and was likely to bring a fatal ending of the pursuit almost before it had fairly begun. Occasionally the gloom in the narrow gorge was so deep that they distinguished one another's figures indistinctly, but the animals were left mostly to themselves. They seemed to know what was expected of them and showed no hesitation. It was impossible for them to go wrong, for it was much the same as if crossing a bridge, with its protecting barrier on either hand. The horse of the captain showed his self-confidence once or twice by a faint whinney and a break from the walk into a trot, but his rider checked him.

"Not yet; heaven knows that I am as anxious to push on as you, but we have already made one blunder and we can't afford another; when the time comes that it is safe to trot you shall do so and perhaps run."

"Hush!" called Brush from the rear; "I hear a curious sound."

"What does it seem to be?"

"It is impossible to tell; let's stop for a moment."

As the three animals stood motionless, the strange noise was audible.

It was a deep, hollow roar rapidly increasing in volume and intensity, and resembled the warning of a tornado or cyclone advancing through the forest. The animals, as is the case at such times, were nervous and frightened. They elevated their heads, p.r.i.c.ked their ears, snuffed the air and the animal of the parson trembled with terror.

The three believed that something in the nature of a cyclone was approaching, or it might be a cloudburst several miles away, whose deluge had swollen the stream into a rushing torrent that would overwhelm them where they stood, caught inextricably in a trap.

The terrifying roar, however, was neither in front nor at the rear, but above them,--over their heads! From the first warning to the end was but a few seconds. The sound increased with appalling power and every eye was instinctively turned upward.

In the dim obscurity they saw a dark ma.s.s of rock, weighing hundreds of tons, descending like a prodigious meteor, hurled from the heavens.

It had been loosened on the mountain crest a half mile above, and was plunging downward with inconceivable momentum. Striking some obstruction, it rebounded like a rubber ball against the opposite side of the gorge, then recoiled, still diving downward, oscillating like a pendulum from wall to wall, whirling with increasing speed until it crashed to the bottom of the gorge with a shock so terrific that the earth and mountain trembled.

Landing in the stream, the water was flung like bird shot right and left, stinging the faces of the men fifty feet distant. They sat awed and silent until Ruggles spoke:

"Now if that stone had hit one of us on the head it would have hurt."

"Probably it would," replied the captain, who had difficulty in quieting his horse; "at any rate, I hope no more of them will fall till we are out of the way."

"I wonder whether that could have been done on purpose," remarked the parson.

"No," said Ruggles; "the leftenant couldn't know anything about our being purty near the right spot to catch it."

"I alluded to Indians,--not to him."

But Ruggles and the captain did not deem such a thing credible. A whole tribe of red men could not have loosened so enormous a ma.s.s of stone, while, if poised as delicately as it must have been, they would have known nothing of the fact. Sometimes an immense oak, sound and apparently as firm as any in the forest around it, suddenly plunges downward and crashes to the earth, from no imaginable cause. So, vast ma.s.ses of rock on the mountain side which have held their places for centuries, seem to leap from their foundations and tear their way with resistless force into the valley below. This was probably one of those accidental displacements, liable to occur at any hour of the day or night, which had come so startlingly near crushing the three men to death.

Captain Dawson drew a match from his pocket and sc.r.a.ping it along his thigh, held it to the face of his watch.

"Just midnight and we are not more than half a dozen miles from home."

"And how far do you suppose _they_ are?" asked the parson.

"Probably five times as much, if not more."

"But they will not travel at night, and by sunrise we ought to be considerably nearer to them than now."

"You can't be certain about that. Lieutenant Russell knows me too well to loiter on the road; he has a good horse and the pony of Nellie is a tough animal; both will be urged to the utmost; for they must be sure the pursuit will be a hard one."

The discomforting fact in the situation was that if the fugitives, as they may be considered, pushed their flight with vigor, there was no reason why they should not prevent any lessening of the distance between them and their pursuers, and since they would naturally fear pursuit, it was to be expected that they would use all haste. The hope was that on account of Nellie, the animals would not keep up the flight for so many hours out of the twenty-four, as the pursuers would maintain it.

The trail steadily ascended and became so rough and uneven that the horses frequently stumbled. This made their progress slow and compelled the three men, despite themselves, to feel the prudence of resting until daylight, but not one of them wished to do so, since the night pursuit was the only phase of the business which brought with it the belief that they were really lessening the distance separating them from the two in advance.

Eager as the couple were to get through the mountains and reach Sacramento, where for the first time they could feel safe from their pursuers, the young officer was too wise to incur the risk of breaking down their horses, for such a mishap would be a most serious one indeed, and fraught with fatal consequences.

There was little fear of the pursuers going astray. Captain Dawson had an extraordinary memory for places, as he repeatedly proved by recalling some landmark that he had noticed on his previous trip.

Furthermore, the gorge was so narrow that in a certain sense, it may be said, they were fenced in, and would have found it hard to wander to the right or left, had they made the effort.

After an hour of steady climbing they reached an alt.i.tude which brought with it a sharp change of temperature. The air became so chilly that Ruggles and Brush flung their blankets about their shoulders and found the protection added to their comfort. The horses, too, began to show the effects of their severe exertion. Their long rest had rendered them somewhat "soft," though the hardening would be rapid. After a few days' work they would not mind such exertion as that to which they were now forced.

When a sort of amphitheatre was reached, it was decided to draw rein for a brief while, out of sympathy for their panting animals.

"I thought if we failed to find our horses," remarked the parson, "we wouldn't find it hard to keep up the pursuit on foot; I have changed my mind."

He looked back over the sloping trail, which speedily vanished in the gloom and the eyes of the other two were turned in the same direction.

At the moment of doing so, the animals again became frightened, so that, despite their fatigue, it was hard to restrain them.

"There's something down there," remarked the captain slipping from his saddle; "Wade, you are the nearest, can you see anything?"

Ruggles was out of the saddle in an instant, Winchester in hand.

"I catched sight of something," he said in an undertone; "look after my horse, while I find out what it is."

"Have a care," cautioned the parson; "it may be an Indian."

"That's what I think it is," replied Ruggles, who instantly started down the trail rifle in hand, his posture a crouching one and his senses strung to the highest point.

He pa.s.sed from view almost on the instant, and his companions listened with intense anxiety for what was to follow. Suddenly the sharp crack of their friend's rifle rang out in the solemn stillness, the report echoing again and again through the gorge, with an effect that was startling even to such experienced men. It was the only sound that came to them, and, while they were wondering what it meant, Ruggles reappeared among them with the noiselessness of a shadow.

"It was a bear," he explained; "I think he scented the animals and was follering on the lookout for a chance at 'em."

"Did you kill him?"

"Don't think I did; he must have heard me comin' and was scared; he went down the trail faster than I could; when I seen that I couldn't catch him, I let fly without taking much aim. Maybe I hit him; leastways, he traveled so much faster that I give it up and come back."

The party lingered for half an hour more, but as the horses showed no further fear, they concluded that bruin had taken to heart the lesson he received and would bother them no further.

The mountains still towered on every hand. The stream had long since disappeared among the rocks and the gorge had become narrower.