The Scalp Hunters Part 53

There were drops of blood struggling down the silvery strands as they shook, and across them, near the middle, was a broad red band. It was the track of the trapper's knife where he had wiped it!

CHAPTER FORTY.

THE FIGHT IN THE Pa.s.s.

We entered the woods, and followed the Indian trail up stream. We hurried forward as fast as the atajo could be driven. A scramble of five miles brought us to the eastern end of the valley. Here the sierras impinged upon the river, forming a canon. It was a grim gap, similar to that we had pa.s.sed on entering from the west, but still more fearful in its features. Unlike the former, there was no road over the mountains on either side. The valley was headed in by precipitous cliffs, and the trail lay through the canon, up the bed of the stream.

The latter was shallow. During freshets it became a torrent; and then the valley was inaccessible from the east, but that was a rare occurrence in these rainless regions.

We entered the canon without halting, and galloped over the detritus, and round huge boulders that lay in its bed. Far above us rose the frowning cliffs, thousands of feet overhead. Great rocks scarped out, ab.u.t.ting over the stream; s.h.a.ggy pines hung top downward, clinging in their seams; shapeless bunches of cacti and mezcals crawled along the cliffs, their picturesque but gloomy foliage adding to the wildness of the scene.

It was dark within the pa.s.s, from the shadow of the jutting ma.s.ses; but now darker than usual, for black storm-clouds were swathing the cliffs overhead. Through these, at short intervals, the lightning forked and flashed, glancing in the water at our feet. The thunder, in quick, sharp percussions, broke over the ravine; but as yet it rained not.

We plunged hurriedly through the shallow stream, following the guide.

There were places not without danger, where the water swept around angles of the cliff with an impetuosity that almost lifted our horses from their feet; but we had no choice, and we scrambled on, urging our animals with voice and spur.

After riding for a distance of several hundred yards, we reached the head of the canon and climbed out on the bank.

"Now, cap'n," cried the guide, reining up, and pointing to the entrance, "hyur's yur place to make stand. We kin keep them back till thur sick i' the guts; that's what we kin do."

"You are sure there is no pa.s.s that leads out but this one?"

"Ne'er a crack that a cat kud get out at; that ur, 'ceptin' they go back by the other eend; an' that'll take them a round-about o' two days, I reckin."

"We will defend this, then. Dismount, men! Throw yourselves behind the rocks!"

"If 'ee take my advice, cap, I'd let the mules and weemen keep for'ard, with a lot o' the men to look arter 'em; them that's ridin' the meanest critters. It'll be nose an' tail when we do go; and if they starts now, yur see wa kin easy catch up with 'em t'other side o' the parairar."

"You are right, Rube! We cannot stay long here. Our provisions will give out. They must move ahead. Is that mountain near the line of our course, think you?"

As Seguin spoke, he pointed to a snow-crowned peak that towered over the plain, far off to the eastward.

"The trail we oughter take for the ole mine pa.s.ses clost by it, cap'n.

To the south'art o' yon snowy, thur's a pa.s.s; it's the way I got clur myself."

"Very well; the party can take the mountain for their guide. I will despatch them at once."

About twenty men, who rode the poorest horses, were selected from the band. These, guarding the atajo and captives, immediately set out and rode off in the direction of the snowy mountain. El Sol went with this party, in charge of Dacoma and the daughter of our chief. The rest of us prepared to defend the pa.s.s.

Our horses were tied in a defile; and we took our stands where we could command the embouchure of the canon with our rifles.

We waited in silence for the approaching foe. As yet no war-whoop had reached us; but we knew that our pursuers could not be far off; and we knelt behind the rocks, straining our eyes down the dark ravine.

It is difficult to give an idea of our position by the pen. The ground we had selected as the point of defence was unique in its formation, and not easily described; yet it is necessary you should know something of its peculiar character in order to comprehend what followed.

The stream, after meandering over a shallow, shingly channel, entered the canon through a vast gate-like gap, between two giant portals. One of these was the abrupt ending of the granite ridge, the other a detached ma.s.s of stratified rock. Below this gate the channel widened for a hundred yards or so, where its bed was covered with loose boulders and logs of drift timber. Still farther down, the cliffs approached each other, so near that only two hors.e.m.e.n could ride between them abreast; and beyond this the channel again widened, and the bed of the stream was filled with rocks, huge fragments that had fallen from the mountain.

The place we occupied was among the rocks and drift, within the canon, and below the great gap which formed its mouth. We had chosen the position from necessity, at at this point the bank shelved out and offered a way to the open country, by which our pursuers could outflank us, should we allow them to get so far up. It was necessary, therefore, to prevent this; and we placed ourselves to defend the lower or second narrowing of the channel. We knew that below that point beetling cliffs walled in the stream on both sides, so that it would be impossible for them to ascend out of its bed. If we could restrain them from making a rush at the shelving bank, we would have them penned up from any farther advance. They could only flank our position by returning to the valley, and going about by the western end, a distance of fifty miles at the least. At all events, we should hold them in check until the atajo had got a long start; and then, trusting to our horses, we intended to follow it in the night. We knew that in the end we should have to abandon the defence, as the want of provisions would not allow us to hold out for any length of time.

At the command of our leader we had thrown ourselves among the rocks.

The thunder was now pealing over our heads, and reverberating through the canon. Black clouds rolled along the cliffs, split and torn by brilliant jets. Big drops, still falling thinly, slapped down upon the stones.

As Seguin had told me, rain, thunder, and lightning are rare phenomena in these regions; but when they do occur, it is with that violence which characterises the storms of the tropics. The elements, escaping from their wonted continence, rage in fiercer war. The long-gathering electricity, suddenly displaced from its equilibrium, seems to revel in havoc, rending asunder the harmonies of nature.

The eye of the geognosist, in scanning the features of this plateau land, could not be mistaken in the character of its atmosphere. The dread canons, the deep barrancas, the broken banks of streams, and the clay-cut channels of the arroyos, all testified that we were in a land of sudden floods.

Away to the east, towards the head waters of the river, we could see that the storm was raging in its full fury. The mountains in that direction were no longer visible. Thick rain-clouds were descending upon them, and we could hear the sough of the falling water. We knew that it would soon be upon us.

"What's keepin' them anyhow?" inquired a voice.

Our pursuers had time to have been up. The delay was unexpected.

"The Lord only knows!" answered another. "I s'pose thar puttin' on a fresh coat o' paint at the town."

"They'll get their paint washed off, I reckin. Look to yer primin', hosses! that's my advice."

"By gosh! it's a-goin' to come down in spouts."

"That's the game, boyees! hooray for that!" cried old Rube.

"Why? Do you want to git soaked, old case?"

"That's adzactly what this child wants."

"Well, it's more 'n I do. I'd like to know what ye want to git wet for.

Do ye wish to put your old carca.s.s into an agey?"

"If it rains two hours, do 'ee see," continued Rube, without paying attention to the last interrogatory, "we needn't stay hyur, do 'ee see?"

"Why not, Rube?" inquired Seguin, with interest.

"Why, cap," replied the guide, "I've seed a skift o' a shower make this hyur crick that 'ee wudn't care to wade it. Hooray! it ur a-comin', sure enuf! Hooray!"

As the trapper uttered these exclamations, a vast black cloud came rolling down from the east, until its giant winds canopied the defile.

It was filled with rumbling thunder, breaking at intervals into louder percussions, as the red bolts pa.s.sed hissing through it. From this cloud the rain fell, not in drops, but, as the hunter had predicted, in "spouts."

The men, hastily throwing the skirts of their hunting shirts over their gun-locks, remained silent under the pelting of the storm.

Another sound, heard between the peals, now called our attention. It resembled the continuous noise of a train of waggons pa.s.sing along a gravelly road. It was the sound of hoof-strokes on the shingly bed of the canon. It was the horse-tread of the approaching Navajoes!

Suddenly it ceased. They had halted. For what purpose? Perhaps to reconnoitre.

This conjecture proved to be correct; for in a few moments a small red object appeared over a distant rock. It was the forehead of an Indian with its vermilion paint. It was too distant for the range of a rifle, and the hunters watched it without moving.

Soon another appeared, and another, and then a number of dark forms were seen lurking from rock to rock, as they advanced up the canon. Our pursuers had dismounted, and were approaching us on foot.

Our faces were concealed by the "wrack" that covered the stones; and the Indians had not yet discovered us. They were evidently in doubt as to whether we had gone on, and this was their vanguard making the necessary reconnaissance.