CHAPTER XVI--THE ARRIVAL AT EMBUDO
"Embudo! Embudo!"
A brakeman shouted the name at the open door of a passenger carnorthward bound on the Denver and Rio Grande. The train was stopping ata small station in Northern New Mexico, some fifty miles north of SantaFe.
"Embudo! Embudo!"
Another brakeman shouted the name at the open door at the other end ofthe car.
"Embudo! Hurrah!"
Several healthy young voices uttered the cry, and there was a generalbustling within that car.
"Here's where we leave the railroad and civilization behind, Inza,"laughed Frank, who had been chatting with Inza Burrage, who occupied aseat with a stern, hard-faced woman.
"Hurrah!" cried the girl, enthusiastically. "We're off to the land ofthe Aborigines! What a jolly adventure it's bound to be!"
"Goodness!" said the hard-faced woman, reprovingly. "Any one would thinkyou a boy to hear you cheer like that, Inza. Don't do it again! It isn'tproper."
"Oh, what's the use to be so awfully proper all the time, Aunt Abby!"laughed the girl, with a little pout. "How can a person help beingenthusiastic with the prospect of such adventures ahead! You'll seethings you never saw before, aunt."
"And goodness knows we shall all be scalped! I suppose I'm foolish toaccompany you on such a foolish expedition."
"Oh, Frank says there is not the least danger of anything like scalping,and St. Geronimo Day is the great holiday with the Pueblo Indians. Iwouldn't miss it for anything."
"I assure you, Miss Gale, there is no danger of being scalped ortroubled at all by the Indians," said Frank, who with his friends werebound for the Pueblo of Taos, where they were going to witness theIndian celebration which takes place there each year on St. GeronimoDay.
Inza had communicated with her maiden aunt, who lived in Sacramento,after arriving in Santa Barbara, and Miss Gale had been so wrought up bythe girl's letter, which told how her father had tried to force her intoa marriage with a "horrid English reprobate," that she had packed atrunk and hastened to Santa Barbara.
She found Inza had already "shaken" the Englishman, but Bernard Burragewas such a physical wreck that the good-hearted spinster determined toaccompany Inza on the trip East and look out for her.
Mr. Burrage had stopped at Santa Fe, hoping the climate might agree withhim.
Frank had heard much about the affair at the Pueblo of Taos on St.Geronimo Day, and he took a vote of the Yale Combine about attending.
The club was unanimously in favor of it, and thus we find them leavingthe train at Embudo, the nearest railway station to the Pueblo.
Frank had worked hard to make a favorable impression on Miss AbigailGale, and had succeeded very well, so he had induced her to take Inza towitness the Indian celebration.
No one but Frank could have succeeded in this, for the spinster detestedand feared redskins, but Merry seemed to have some hypnotic influenceover her.
Hodge assisted Inza from the train, while Frank aided Miss Abigail toalight, doing so with as much gallantry and grace as if she were a girlof sixteen.
Indeed, her hard face seldom relaxed at all save when she looked atFrank, and then, at times, an expression of positive gentleness wouldsoften her features somewhat.
Frank had not won her good will by aid of a flattering tongue. Hebelieved actions spoke louder than words, and he had taken pains tostudy her peculiarities that he might know what to do to please her. Inthis manner he had been remarkably successful with her, although it wasMiss Abagail's firm belief that the entire male sex "didn't amount tonothing nohow."
"Look at Frankie, b'ys!" chuckled Barney, giving Ephraim and Hans each anudge. "It's a shlick lad he is. If it wasn't fer him, Inza'd nivver gitanywhere at all, at all; but he makes th' ould hen think she's a p'ach,an' she'll be afther doin' onnything he loikes fer her to do."
"By gum! he's slick," grinned the boy from Vermont. "I ain't never seenno female gal ur woman that he wasn't able to chop ice with when he sotout."
"Yaw," nodded Hans, gravely; "he peen aple to chop ices mit der girlsven I lets 'em alone. Uf course he don'd stood no show mit me against."
"Nivver a bit!" agreed Barney. "It's yersilf thot's a great masher.Ye're a perfict Apollo."
"You pet my poots!" said the Dutch boy proudly. "I don'd bother Vrankiemit pecause he vos a coot feller, und his feelings I don'd vant tohurt."
"Go on!" snorted Ephraim, in disgust. "Ye make me sick! Whut sort of afool noshun hev yeou got inter your fat head? Do you think yeou couldcut Frank Merriwell aout with any girl?"
"Say, you peen careful how you talks to me!" said Hans, menacingly. "Ufyou don'd, I may be sorry for it! I know vot I can do mit der girls."
"Thot's roight, Ephraim," put in Barney, with a sly wink at the Yankeeboy; "he knows phwat he can do. Av he says he can cut Frankie out it'shimsilf thot can do th' same."
"Yaw; sometimes I done id shust to shown you."
Ephraim took his cue, having tumbled when Barney winked.
"Wal, darn my punkins!" he growled. "Yeou make me sick! Mebbe yeoureally do think yeou could cut Frank aout?"
"Uf I vant to tried him."
"Wall, I'll bet a 'hole barril of yaller-eye beans that yeou can't donorthin' of the kind, b'gosh! Yeou take me up, if you darst!"
"Betther be careful, Ephraim," said Barney, in a manner of mock warning."Ye won't have inny b'anes to ate nixt winther. Ye see Frankie is payin'all his attintion to Miss Abigail noo, an' it's ounly himself as coulddo innything wid th' loikes av her--onliss it is Hans."
"I'll stan' to my bet," said Gallup. "Hans never could do a dinged thingwith Miss Abigail."
"Vos dot vot I thought, eh?" excitedly exclaimed the Dutch lad. "Veil, Iproff him to you! I shown you britty queek alretty vot I done dotdirections in. I vos a hustler ven I started out, und don'd you forgethim!"
"All right," grinned Ephraim. "If yeou can cut Frank aout with MissAbigail darned if I don't deliver them beans!"
Then the Vermonter and the Irish lad chuckled and nudged each other,anticipating no end of sport, for they knew Hans was in earnest andwould make an attempt to win the attention of the spinster.
Embudo is down on the railroad time tables, and that is about as near asit comes to being on earth.
When the party reached the station platform they looked around for thetown. To their astonishment all they could see was the little redstation house and a lonely water tank. On both sides were toweringcliffs of lava, that looked as if they had been scorched and melted bythe fiercest of heats, and the boys found it difficult to believe thatthe sickly creek in sight was the Rio Grande River. The little streammade a great fuss as it dashed over a bed that was paved with blocks ofblack basalt, as if seeking to call attention to itself and itsimportance.
"Well!" exclaimed Harry, astonished; "jay I be miggered--I mean may I bejiggered!"
"Golly sakes to goodness!" gasped Toots. "Where am we, chilluns?"
Bruce Browning groaned.
"Sold again!" he muttered, in despair. "Why, this is the next stop tothe infernal regions!"
"Where's the town?" asked Diamond.
A man who wore a silk hat on the back of his head and carried his handsin the pockets of his striped trousers, which--marvel of marvels!--boretraces of a crease, came forward and said:
"The town, gents, is right across the river there. It is not quite aslarge as Santa Fe, but it serves as a stopping place all right, if youare on your way to Taos, which I reckon you are."
He eyed them closely, as if sizing them up. His eyes were piercing, andhis mustache was coal-black. There was that in his appearance thatpronounced him a gambler.
The boys thanked him and looked for the town.
They discovered a long, low adobe building, and that constituted theentire town. It was the post office, hotel and general store, and waskept by a Mexican, who was on hand at the station to get the mail.
A number of passengers beside Frank and his friends left the train.
Frank went ahead toward the baggage car to look out for the luggage.
The station agent was a beardless youth, to whom the arrival of a trainwas a most welcome break of the lonely monotony of the place. He washurrying about and showing his importance.
About the station were several loungers, Mexicans and Indians.
Barely had Frank gone forward when he was startled to hear a loudscream, which he recognized as the voice of Inza.
That scream told him something of a startling nature had happened, andlike a flash he whirled about.
He was astonished to see Inza struggling in the the arms of a blanketedIndian, who seemed attempting to lift her and carry her off bodily.
With a pantherlike bound, Merry sprang to the rescue.
Quick as he was, another person was on hand ahead of him.
A tall, swarthy young man, dressed in plain clothes, which seemed to fithis magnificent form very well, leaped at the Indian and the girl, torethem apart, and knocked the redskin down with a singlestraight-from-the-shoulder blow.
It was all over in a second, and the rescuer was saying something toreassure the frightened girl.
All over?
Not quite!
As the Indian who had been knocked down started up in a dazed way,lifting himself with one hand, the man who wore the silk hat whipped outa long-barreled revolver, coolly observing:
"Here is where I assist Uncle Sam in settling the Indian question."
In another moment he would have shot the Indian, but Frank was in timeto grasp his wrist and turn the revolver skyward.
The weapon spoke, and the bullet flattened against the face of the lavacliff above.
The man turned his dark eyes on Frank, and the boy saw a blazing devilin their depths. His face turned crimson, but his voice was still quitecool, as he addressed Merriwell:
"My dear young man, do you know it is very dangerous to chip into a gamelike that?"
"I saved you from committing murder, sir," said Frank, equally as cool.
The man's teeth seemed to gleam through that black mustache.
"Murder!" he said, scornfully. "You kept me from shooting a dog, that'sall. If you will take your hand off my wrist, I'll do the job now."
"No, you must not!"
Never had Frank seen a more dangerous look on the face of a living man.He felt that wrist tremble beneath his fingers.
"You are a tenderfoot," said the owner of the silk hat. "If you wereanything else----Well, this would mean your funeral! I am ashamed toshoot you, but I may forget myself if you do not withdraw from thegame."
"If you will promise to put up that gun and let this drunken Indian go,I will withdraw."
"Did you ever hear of Dan Carver?"
"Yes."
"I am Carver."