CHAPTER XVII--THE COMING OF RAT
The man to whom Reuben was to deliver his message was not to be foundat the mission. However, the tired young traveller was warmly welcomed,and soon after he had eaten his supper he was soundly sleeping.
The following morning his message was delivered to Captain White, whowas in command of a schooner which had sailed from New York around CapeHorn. The captain read the letter which Reuben had brought, and thenlooking keenly into the face of the lad, he said: "How many skins havethey?"
"There are a good many," replied Reuben, "but I don't know just howmany."
"Do you think they have got enough to fill the hold of the _CharmingNancy_?"
"I've never seen the _Charming Nancy_!"
The captain, who was a large, good-natured man, laughed noisily at theresponse and then said: "I guess you're a Yankee?"
"I am not a Yankee," retorted Reuben. "I come from Pain Court."
"Whew!" whistled the captain. "You're a youngster to be so far awayfrom home. How old are you?"
"I'll be sixteen my next birthday."
"Is that so? You'll be quite an old gentleman soon if you don't lookout. I guess you had better go back and tell your boss that we canstrike up some kind of a deal, if he doesn't want too much for hisfurs."
"Shall I take that message?"
"Yes."
"Aren't you going to write a letter?"
"I hadn't thought anything about it. Can you write?"
"Yes," answered Reuben.
"Well, then, you write the letter. I'll tell you what to say."
Suspecting that the handwriting of the captain was perhaps not of thebest, Reuben obtained a quill pen and some paper and ink and soon hadwritten a letter at the dictation of the man. Just why he should beasked to do this he did not understand, inasmuch as it would be as easyfor him to report what was said as it was to write out the directmessage of Captain White. However, he discreetly held his peace, andthe following day, with the letter in his pocket, set forth on hisreturn to camp.
In spite of his determination to be brave, Reuben's heart was beatingrapidly when once more he rode into the ravine where the mountain lionhad threatened to attack him. It was speedily manifest also that thepony had vivid recollections of his experiences in the narrow valleyand was eager to be beyond its confines.
Without any reluctance Reuben gave the hardy little beast free rein andat a rapid pace rode through the place of peril without any mishap. Hemaintained a keen outlook on both sides of the gorge, but did notdiscover any signs of the presence of the enemy which had so nearlyattacked him two days before. Nor was Reuben molested in the remainderof his journey back to the camp.
When he arrived he at once delivered his message and explained to KitCarson and others the questions which Captain White had asked him.
"We can fix this all right," said Kit Carson quickly. "I think we haveskins enough to fill the hold of the _Charming Nancy_ so that neitherCaptain White nor her owners will have any reason to complain."
Several days elapsed, however, before the bargain was completed. Inthis time the scout himself went to San Gabriel and had two or threepersonal interviews with the jovial sea captain.
When Kit Carson returned, Reuben was particularly interested in thedescription he gave of an attack which had been made upon him by themountain lion.
"Where did you find him?" inquired Reuben.
"Why, it was among the foothills about seven or eight miles this sideof San Gabriel."
"That's exactly where I met one. Did you kill it?"
"I think so," replied Kit Carson quietly. "The beast crept up behind meand I had all I could do to keep my pony from running away with me."
"That's exactly what happened to me. I don't see how you shot him."
"I think it must have been pure luck. I got the pony quiet for a minuteand turned around and fired at the beast when it was not more than tenor twelve feet away. A blind man couldn't have missed it."
Reuben had his own thoughts as to the truthfulness of the modestdeclaration, but he did not give expression to them. In response to thequestions of the scout, he modestly related the incident which hadbefallen him in his own journey in the same region.
"You were a lucky lad," said Kit Carson warmly. "And you couldn't haveacted better if you had been sixty-one instead of sixteen. You neverhad seen one before, had you?"
"No."
"I don't understand yet why it was that you didn't put your pony into arun and try to escape. It was lucky for you that you didn't, for if youhad tried it the beast would have got you as sure as fate."
"I had heard Jean tell about the lions, and all that he had saidflashed into my mind in a minute. And I saw a man at San Gabriel thatlooked so much like Jean that I was almost sure that it was he."
"Are you sure that he wasn't?"
"No, and that's what puzzles me most of all. You see I left him theother side of the Rocky Mountains. It can't be possible that he madehis way all alone through the Rockies, and across the plains and overthe Sierras into San Gabriel. Besides, this man looks as if he waseither crazy or a fool. There's something the matter with him anyway.He stared at me as if I was like air and he could look straight throughme."
"I never met a man like that," said Kit Carson quietly, smiling as hespoke. "I guess it will turn out all right, and, besides, you may haveseveral chances to see him again in the next few days. We're going toload up our ponies with the furs we have taken, or at least with a partof them, and send them down to Captain White."
"What is he going to do with them?"
"Take them to New York for us. We shan't let him have all that we havetaken, but it will save a long hard ride if we let him have some ofthem here, and besides, I think now we shall trap much of the way backto Taos. By the time we get there we ought to have a load that willsatisfy every man, to say nothing of our horses."
In the three weeks that followed, all the ponies of the camp werebrought into service. They were heavily loaded with the skins that thetrappers had secured and then began their long journey to the _CharmingNancy_. A careful record was kept, and a division among the trappers ofthe amount received from the sales of furs was to be made later.
Soon afterward the men returned to their camp and for several days werebusily engaged in other tasks. Indeed, they were unusually successful,and the piles of beaver skins steadily mounted higher and higher.
At last when it was decided to break camp the trappers delayed a day inorder to make a _cache_. A long trench was made in an unusually drybank of earth not far from a stream on which the men had been trapping.A deep hole or excavation was made in this bank until a trench severalyards wide and many yards long had been fashioned. All the time the menmaintained guards and also took the utmost pains to hide every trace oftheir labours so that none of the prowling Indians would suspect eitherthe task in which they had been engaged or the place where the skinshad been hidden.
The turf was cut with great care and placed on one side of the hole.Much of the top soil then was placed on blankets or buffalo robes. Therest of the dirt which they dug while they were making the excavationwas carried in pails by the men to the middle of the stream and therepoured into the rushing waters.
At last when the hole was as large as they desired, twigs and drygrasses were cut and with these the trappers carefully lined the holewhich they had dug. After all this had been done the furs were tightlypacked and stored in the place. Last of all, grass and loose skins wereplaced over the bundles of furs and pounded with the top soil, whichhad been saved and had now been brought back from the place in which ithad been stored. Then all the ground was watered and the turf wasreplaced with utmost care. After the task had been accomplished, unlessa man had been informed of the work which had been done, it would havebeen almost impossible for him to discover any signs about the placethat the trappers had made a storehouse in which they had concealedtheir furs.
A little later, when the September days came, it was decided by thetra
ppers that they would start homeward. But it was also agreed thatthey would trap throughout their journey. They were to escape thehardest part of the ride across the desert because they now planned tofollow the Colorado River in its course until they came to the Gila.Then their course again was to be changed and they were to follow thatriver on their homeward way. In this manner they were confident thatthey would be able to trap as they journeyed and, if fortune shouldfavour them, they would add many skins to those which they already hadtaken.
The plan was speedily approved, and as the men sat about the camptalking of the return which they were now eager to make, theproceedings were interrupted by the approach of a stranger.
Instantly Reuben recognized him as Rat, the braggart whom he had lastseen when he was among the foothills of the Rockies.
Confidently, as if the man himself had been a member of the band for along time, the stranger approached and said: "I want to stop with youover night."
"You're welcome," replied Kit Carson, nevertheless gazing keenly at thestranger as he spoke.
"I have taken about fifteen hundred skins," said the visitor, laughingloudly as he spoke.
"Where are they?" inquired the scout.
"They are where I have hidden them so that neither you nor anybody elseever will find them, if I don't want you to. There isn't a man thisside of Pain Court that can make a _cache_ as good as the one I made."
"You're fortunate," said Kit Carson quietly. "You're lucky not only tohave the skins, but to be able to hide them so that no one will everfind them."
"That's where you're right," laughed the stranger. "What have you donewith all your skins?" he added as he looked about the camp.
"We have been lucky, too," said Kit Carson quietly. "Captain White ofthe _Charming Nancy_ has shipped a lot of our furs as a part of hiscargo."
"Maybe he'll take mine, too."
"It's too late. He has sailed before now."
"That's a pity," said Rat. "I'll have to tote mine clear across thedesert. I think I'll have one or two of your men go with me."
"That cannot be done."
"Oh, yes, it can!" roared the man.
"No," replied Kit Carson, still speaking in low tones. "There isn't anyone of us that wants to go with you."
"What do you mean by that?" roared Rat, leaping to his feet as hespoke. "Do you mean to say my company isn't desired?"
"That isn't what I said."
"Is that what you mean?"
"I usually mean what I say."
"Is that what you mean?" again thundered the angry giant, who acted nowmuch as if he had been striving to pick a quarrel with some one.
"I haven't anything more to say. If you want to pick a fight with someone you had better go on to some other place."
Rat now was angry and he took no pains to conceal his feelings. As yethe had not recognized Reuben, and the lad was too keenly excited bywhat was occurring in the camp to call the attention of the quarrelsomeman to himself.
"I don't have to go on. There isn't any American in this camp that Ican't switch."
A silence followed the speech of the boastful man and it was not brokenuntil Kit Carson said quietly: "It's plain you're not an American. Iam, and I demand that you take back what you said."