CHAPTER XI THE SKELETON STAGE COACH
Mary, slender, light of foot, sprang like a gazelle from step to stepfeeling safe, since Jerry towered in front of her. The firm clasp of hisbig hand on her small white one made her feel protected and cared for andshe was really enjoying the adventure.
Dora, athletic of build and sure-footed, refused Dick's proffered aid,depending on the scraggly growths in the crevices for support until theyreached a spot where only prickly-pear cactus grew.
"Now, Miss Independent," Dick laughingly called up to her, "you wouldbetter put one hand on my shoulder and let me be your human staff."
This plan proved successful until, in the descent, they came to a spotwhere the ledge below was farther than the girls could step. Jerry heldup his arms and lifted Mary down. That was not a difficult feat since shewas but a featherweight. Dora, broad shouldered for a girl and heavilybuilt, was more of a problem. The boys finally made steps for her, Jerryoffering his shoulders and Dick his bent back.
Dora, flushed, excited, glanced at the ledge above as she exclaimed,"Getting up again will be even more difficult."
"We won't cross bridges until we get to them," Dick began, then added,"or climb mountains either. Going down at present requires our entireattention."
But the narrow ledge-steps continued to be accommodatingly close forabout fifteen feet; then another sheer descent was covered by repeatingtheir former tactics.
"There, now we're on the wide ledge," Mary said, "and we can't see asingle thing that's beneath us." Then she cried out as a sudden alarmingthought came to her. "Oh, Jerry, _what_ if our weight should cause arock-slide, or whatever it's called, and we all were plunged--"
"Pull in on fancy's rein, Little Sister!" the cowboy begged. "You may besure I examined the formation of this ledge before I lifted you down uponit." Then, turning to Dora, he said, "I reckon you and Mary'd better stayclose to the mountain while Dick and I worm ourselves, Indian fashion, tothe very edge where we can see what's down below."
"Righto!" Dora slipped an arm about Mary and together they stood andwatched the boys lying face downward and wriggling their long bodies overthe flat, stone ledge.
Dora noticed how slim and frail Dick's form looked and how sinewy andstrong was Jerry.
The edge reached, the boys gazed down, but almost instantly Jerry hadwhirled to an upright position and the watching girls could not tellwhether his expression was more of terror than of exultation. Surelythere was a mingling of both.
Dick, who had backed several feet before sitting upright, was franklyshocked by what he had seen.
For a moment neither of them spoke. "Boys!" Dora cried. "The stage coachis down there, isn't it? But since you expected to find it, _why_ are youso startled?"
Jerry was the first to reply. "Well, it's pretty awful to see what's leftof a tragedy like that. I reckon you girls would better not look."
"I won't, if you don't want me to," Mary agreed, "but _do_ tell us aboutit. After all these years, what _can_ there be left?"
Jerry glanced at Dick, who, always pale, was actually white.
"I'll confess it rather got me, just at first," the Eastern boyacknowledged.
Dora, impatient at the slowness of the revelation, and eager to see forherself what shocking thing was over the ledge, started to walk towardthe edge, but Dick, realizing her intention, sprang up and caught herarm. "Let us tell you first what we saw, Dora," he pleaded, "and then, ifyou still want to see it, we won't prevent you. It won't be so much of ashock when you are prepared."
"Well?" Dora stood waiting.
The boys were on their feet. Jerry began. "When the horses reared andplunged off the road, they must have rolled with the stage over andover."
"That's right," Dick excitedly took up the tale, "and when the coachstruck this wide ledge, it bounded, I should say, off into space and wascaught in a wide crevice about twenty-five feet straight down belowhere."
"Oh, Jerry," Mary cried, "is the driver or the horses--"
The cowboy nodded vehemently. "That's just it. That's the terriblygruesome part. The skeletons of the horses are hanging in the harness andthat poor driver--his skeleton, I mean, still sits in his seat--"
"The uncanny thing about it," Dick rushed in, "is that his leather suitis still on his skeleton, and his fur cap, though bedraggled from theweather, is still on his bony head."
"But his eyes are the worst!" Jerry shuddered, although seeing skeletonswas no new thing to him. "Those gaping sockets are looking right uptoward this ledge as though he had died gazing up toward the road hopinghelp would come to him."
Suddenly Mary threw her arms about Dora and began to sob. Jerry, againself-rebuking, cried in alarm, "Oh, Little Sister, I reckon I'm a bruteto shock you that-a-way."
Dora had noticed that in times of excitement Jerry fell into the lingo ofthe cowboy.
Mary straightened and smiled through her tears. "Oh, I'm so sorry forthat poor man, but I must remember that it all happened years ago andthat _now_ we are really bent on a mission of charity." Then, smiling upat Jerry, she held out a hand to him as she said, "_That's_ the big thingfor us to remember, isn't it? First of all, we want, if possible, to findout if poor Little Bodil is alive and if we're sure, oh, just _ever_ sosure, that she is dead, we want to get the gold and turquoise from Mr.Pedersen's rock house for the Dooleys."
Her listeners were sure that Mary was talking about their good purposethat she might quiet her nerves. It evidently had the desired effect,for, quite naturally, she asked, "If there is nothing beneath this ledgebut space, how can you boys get down to the stage coach to search forclues? That's what you planned doing, wasn't it?"
Jerry nodded and gazed thoughtfully into the sweet face uplifted to his,though hardly seeing it. He was thinking what would be best for them todo.
"Dick," he said finally, "you stay here with the girls. I'm going back upto the car to get my rope. I reckon if you three will hold one end of it,I can slide down on it to that crevice and--"
"Oh no, no, Jerry, don't, _please don't_!" Mary caught his khaki-coveredarm wildly. "You would never get over the shock of being so close to thatghastly skeleton and if the rope should slip--" she covered her eyes withher hands. Then, as she heard the boys speaking together in low tones,she looked at them. "Jerry," she said contritely, "I'm sorry I go topieces so easily today. Of course I know you would not suggest going ifyou weren't sure that it would be absolutely safe. Get the rope if youwant to. I'm going to try hard to be as brave as Dora is." Then she addedwistfully, "Maybe if you weren't my Big Brother, I wouldn't care somuch."
Sudden joy leaped to Jerry's eyes. How he had hoped that Mary cared alittle, oh, even a _very_ little, for him, but usually she treated him inthe same frank, friendly way that she did Dick.
Dora, watching, thought, "That settles it. Jerry will not go. The Dooleysand Little Bodil are nothing to him compared to one second's anxiety forhis Sister Mary."
And it did seem for a long moment that Jerry was going to give up theentire plan. Dick, realizing this, plunged in with, "I say, old man, Iknow how to go down a rope. That used to be one of my favorite pastimeswhen I was a youngster and lived near a fire station. The good-naturedfiremen would let us kids slide down their slippery pole but we had to dosome tall scurrying when the alarm sounded."
Jerry looked at his friend for several thoughtful seconds before hespoke. What he said was, "I reckon you're right, Dick, but my reason isthis. I'm strong-armed and you're not. Throwing the rope and pullingcantankerous steers around, gives a fellow an iron muscle. And you'relighter too, a lot, so I reckon I'd better be on the end that has to beheld. Now that's settled, you stay here with the girls while I go up tothe car and get my rope."