Lost in the Canon Part 26

This sight brought to Sam a sense of great relief, and its effect on Ike was decidedly exhilarating.

Standing up in the front of the raft he waved his arms like a windmill and shouted out:

"Bress de Lor! we'z safe! we'z safe!"

Escape from the awful dangers they had just come through so miraculously made Ike forget, for the moment, his hunger and the fact that there could be no safety to people floating on a shaky raft, down a river whose course seemed through the very heart of sterile, towering mountains.

Ah, well, this only goes to show that, no matter how desperate the situation we always have something to be thankful for; and that no matter how bad things are, so long as life, health and hope remain, they might be worse.

Another thing very unusual in this experience was the fact that the canon walls, instead of rising straight up from the water, stood back, leaving on either side a strip on which, amid great ma.s.ses of detached sandstone there grew a number of stunted mezquite and cedar trees.

They were all as wet as they well could be, but they had grown so accustomed to this that Sam made up his mind not to go ash.o.r.e to dry their clothes, but to keep right on, when a shout from Ike caused him to change his purpose.

"I see a wolf or a deer; way dar to de right!" and Ike pointed down to where the bushes hid the rocks.

"Lat no deel," said Wah Shin, as he bent forward and shaded his eyes.

"Mebbe yeh ken tell us wat it is," said Ike, with a touch of sarcasm, for having discovered the animal he felt that he had a right to say what it was.

"Lat's yalla doggee," said Wah Shin.

And Wah Shin was right, for at that instant the animal sprang into view and began a vigorous barking, and a frisking back and forth.

"It's Maj! It's Maj!" cried Ike.

Maj it certainly was, and the joy of the faithful creature at seeing his friends was touching.

Sam at once guided the raft to the sh.o.r.e, but while it was yet many yards away, the dog swam out, was pulled on board and at once jumped on Sam, who if he had not been wet before certainly would have been now.

"Dat ar dog looks to me ez if he had been habin' a big feed some place,"

said Ike, when they got on sh.o.r.e, and he could examine Maj's rounded form, which his dripping coat made more conspicuous.

"Mebbe him full of watel," suggested Wah Shin.

"No," said Ike, as he pressed the dog's sides, "it's grub; good solid grub." Then, addressing Maj, he said, in tones intended to be very seductive: "See har, ole feller, don't go foh to tell me dat yer hungry, like we is. You'se been eatin' meat, don't say 'no' foh I won't stan'

it; but, like a good dorg, show me de place whar yeh found it, an' if ebber I gits out ob dis yeh fix, I'll buy yeh a bra.s.s collar, wif yeh name on de outside in great big letters."

As if he understood this and was anxious to earn the reward so generously offered him, Maj started off with a short, sharp bark, but before he had gone very far he turned and came slowly back again, as if he had changed his mind.

Meanwhile, Wah Shin got together a pile of dry wood, and, as the matches in Sam's water-proof case escaped the water, they soon had a roaring fire, before which their cargo and their clothes-the latter well tattered-were placed to dry.

At first Sam, who was now very hungry, was inclined to think that it was a whim of Ike's that led him to see anything suggestive of food in the dog's appearance, but when he came to look carefully at the animal and study his contented manner, he was satisfied that he had found something to eat since being washed from the raft.

With nearly all his clothes drying before the fire, Sam, followed by Ike, started off to examine the sh.o.r.e further down.

He had not gone far when he noticed great clefts in the walls of the canon, as if the mighty ma.s.s had been cracked by some tremendous power.

These fissures ran up and back for thousands of feet, but the largest one visible was not of sufficient width to admit of their getting up in that way, neither were these openings on the side of the canon which they must ascend in order to reach Hurley's Gulch.

An examination of the point where one of the fissures came down to the sh.o.r.e convinced Sam that some creatures had used this pa.s.sage-way recently as an avenue for ascending to the upper world, or coming down to this profound and silent valley.

He had just communicated this opinion to Ike, and was about to turn away when his attention was attracted to the dog, now standing with his right paw raised, his tail extended and his whole form as rigid as if it had been cut in marble.

"See!" shouted Ike, "Maj is on de p'int! Whar, whar's de game?"

The words had scarcely pa.s.sed his lips when there was a squeak and a rushing noise, and a score, or more, long-eared rabbits dashed by within twenty feet of the party.

"Hooraw! Rabbits! rabbits!" cried Ike. "Let us git our guns! Rabbits makes bully grub!"

Sam had not his gun with him, but he at once started back to the fire and examined his rifle, which had come through without being damaged.

The water had not affected the metallic cartridges, of which he had a good supply left. Filling his belt with these he started off, Ike keeping by his side with his remarkable old shot-gun on his shoulder, though its utter uselessness had been emphasized by its recent heavy rusting.

Ike was useful, however, in holding back the dog, who had evidently been feeding on rabbit since his landing at this place.

Sam was an excellent rifleman, having had much practice, and being possessed of nerves as true and steady as steel, without which the weapon can never be mastered.

He crept ahead, and about three hundred yards below the camp he came within sight of a little cove, or pocket, in the canon wall that seemed literally to swarm with long-eared rabbits.

He fired with judgment, and kept firing while the creatures remained in sight and he was sure of his shots.

The result was that within five minutes he had killed thirteen rabbits.

Everyone that was struck was taken, and to the true hunter, who never inflicts an unnecessary wound on the animals he hunts, this is always a great satisfaction.

Ike was disappointed that he had not been permitted to try "her," as he called his old shot-gun, on the game; but, as he picked up the goodly load of rabbits and carried it back to camp, it would be difficult to imagine a more delighted fellow.

It is said that "it never rains but it pours," and this seemed to be the case with the sudden turn in the tide of good luck that had set in toward our unfortunate friends.

When they got back to camp, they found that Wah Shin had been testing the fish lines and flies, which they had scarcely thought of up to this time, and with such unexpectedly good luck that he had landed two fine trout and was in the act of pulling in the third when Ike came to sight laden down with game.

The least ray of light is cheering to those who have been long in darkness; and the briefest cessation from pain is like Heaven to those groaning in agony! so the prospect of food-a prospect made all the more delightful by the gnawing hunger each felt so keenly-made them forget for the time all the trials they had pa.s.sed and the uncertain future that lay before them.

Even the fire blazed up cheerily as if in sympathy with their feelings, and Maj lay down like a faithful scout, who has guided the famished into a land-of rabbits.

In almost as short a time as it takes to tell it, the rabbits and the fish were cooking.

We shall not attempt to describe that feast, for there are some things impossible to even our expressive English tongue.

Suffice it to say, each ate all he could, with a result that "made away"

with one half the supply on hand.

They had just finished their most enjoyable meal, when Wah Shin, who chanced to be looking toward the river, uttered a cry of alarm.

The others quickly turned in that direction, and, to their amazement, they saw the spectral figure of a dark man rising from the water.