CHAPTER VII.
CHEROKEE BILL RECRUITING.
Still upon the young Englishman were the rags which had been taken fromthe dead Indian for the need of warmth. These he was glad to cast off,donning in their stead, as a shade less repulsive, the outer garmentsof the senseless scout.
He dragged him out of the way. He mounted the horse and, filled withhis idea of separating the two remaining bandits so as to have asingle-handed battle in the end for the young lady, he returned towardsthe friends awaiting Garrod's report. They had come to a halt halfwaydown the abrupt slope. As soon as he beheld them, Ranald waved Sol'scap to beckon them to come on. The distance between, the gloom in thedefile, and the well-remembered garments and horse, sufficed to destroysuspicion in any but Cormick.
"Thar you are," said Pete, laughing in relief, though he could notdescry the features of the horseman; "thar's Sol beckoning us on--hehasn't been no time scouting the channel."
"He's been much too quick," objected Cormick, sulkily.
"Well, aren't you coming on? What's the matter? Does your _cayuse_ kickat so little an added load as the young gal? 'Tell 'ee what, I'll beproud to have the charge of her!"
The old ranger shook his head dubiously.
"Are you sure that's Sol?"
"Am I sure of my being in my boots? What new 'skeeter's bit you?"
"'Seems to this old man that Garrod bulks up larger in the saddle."
"So he will after the breakfast we are all sp'iling for. Let out yourpony--don't you see he is waving his hand that all's clear?"
"Why don't he come back all the way, then?"
"Because he's no such ass as to want double trouble. You'd tire out aSalt Lake Saint, Cormick, you would! Car'fulness is the first thingto put in your bag when you come out on the plains, but you don'twant to have car'fulness as pepper _and_ salt _and_ sugar in all yourmesses, morn, noon and night; _and_ Thanksgiving, _and_ New Year's,_and_ Independence Day! Why, old father, you're getting skeered o' yourshadder--which it ar' no beauty on the snow, by thunder! Here, I've hadmy full measure of this hanging back from breakfast, and if you freezethar, I foller the thaw and let Sol carry me into camp."
"Go on, then!" replied Cormick. "I tell 'ee thar's some devilment awakeafore us this morning! And that's not Sol Garrod drawing us into atrap. He's a bad egg, but he wasn't made to throw at a pardner's head.You'll see, you'll see!"
"Eggs or no eggs, I am going on! Follow at your own pace! But mind! Ifyou gallop off with the young gal, in whose ransom I have my share asthe fellow finder, I'll report you to Captain Kidd--and you'll not besafe this side o' the Jordan."
In very open order they resumed the march. The cavalier moved on awayas they started, stride for stride.
"Look at that!" cried Cormick, triumphantly; "See him ride away."
"Why should he not ride on in front of us, and keep the way clear? Heknow's the picket's duty--a dragoon deserter, anyhow, he'd ought to."
Still wrangling, they penetrated the defile, where Niobraska Petetaunted his elder to press on. At a third of the course, nothingjustified Cormick's apprehensions.
"Sol has got out of the way altogether now, though," he remonstrated.
"Pooh! He has darted on to tell cook to dish up, that's all."
"Well, I shan't be satisfied till I have had the first mouthful down,"said the old man, with a still uneasy look around.
Presently he pulled up his horse, saying that he was in a good spotfor defence; the rising ground over a bulging root of a large cedarcrossing the narrowing path.
"You go on and give the call if all goes well and it is no bogus Sol,"said he. "Here I stay till the way is safe to my belief."
"He's stubborn as a mule," muttered Pete. "A stamp crusher would notshake him. Old man," he said, angrily, "I _shall_ git on, and tell thecaptain you are up to some trick as regards the young lady. Don't youfear, though, miss, the captain will stew him like a fish in the kettleif he plays any tricks on the fair prize of the band represented by itsthree scouters in company."
With that he disappeared in the forest cleft, and the snowy crustceased to crackle under his horse's hoofs.
The stillness became oppressive, broken only by the swishing of thebranches suddenly relieved of snowy burdens by the effect of thesunbeams and springing up gaily. All the beasts were hibernating orasleep; all the birds gone south except the Arctic robins and thesedately soaring eagles, whose white heads seemed frosted and presentedto the sun to be freed of the chill.
Expectation weighed as poignantly upon the unfortunate girl as on theold border ruffian. Insensibly yielding to the desire to battle anxietywith even futile action, he was slowly pushing on his horse when apeculiar sound at last in advance caused him to check it. Within a fewseconds, the horse of Niobraska Pete came back to its companion, withno thought but refuge from some startling horror. Pete had not raisedan alarm; consequently that smear of blood on the mane denoted thathe had been unhorsed by a deathblow. Nor did Sol, nor his mysteriouspersonator appear, and Cormick felt assured that he was left alone, andthat foes were planted between him and the camp, of which he almostinhaled the savory fumes. The situation was maddening.
"You are bad luck," he snarled at the girl, with the superstition ofthe low sort of white men, who soon equal the reds in such fancies. "Ithas cost two good men's lives just to have met you."
He waited a while longer, but there was no fresh alarm.
"Hark ye," said he, roughly. "I am going to put you on that horse, andwe must circle round out of this accursed glade. If you try to 'partco.' I shall shoot you with my first shot. It strikes me, from theway that we have been beset, it is because of you, and hence you areworth as much money as I had concluded from your story; but thar's nocalculating on what anybody says nowadays."
As he drew the riderless steed towards him, and tried to make it sidleup flank to flank, its ears were moved in affright. It sniffed somealarming taint on the air, and set up so furious a kicking that theheadgear was detached, and left in the astonished bandit's grasp. Then,emitting a scream like a maimed warhorse on the battle field, it dashedinto the first opening, and crashed on out of all perception.
"It smells the war paint, by all that's cruel! Injins!" mutteredCormick. "But why did I hear no whoops when they made their 'coups' onSol and Pete?"
At the same instant, as if to warrant his reflection, a vibrating yellof triumph burst forth so clearly as to seem at their elbows--a warwhoop of which Cormick had never heard the like. It was so provocatoryin tone that, irresistibly, at least a hundred savage cries answered itinquiringly from all parts of the ravine traversed by the bandits.
"Why, it's a nest of them," groaned the old scoundrel, aghast, and onlymechanically restraining his plunging steed.
In the lull which followed--painful by contrast with that hideousclamour--a horseman dashed into the glen and faced the paralysedscout. The clothes were of Sol Garrod; but at the cry of "Oh, Mr.Dearborn! You! Help, help!" from his saddle companion, Cormick wasrelieved of any doubt as to his previous surmise of a deception.
"Ah, ah," grunted he, "now I know why he never came back."
With one man, and a young white only before him, he recovered fullsway of his homicidal acquirements, and his gun and that Ranald hadsnatched from the burial place were levelled at each other.
"Don't fire!" appealed Ulla, though not in fear for herself, and "Don'tfire!" cried a louder and manly voice, as an additional personage forthe group leaped down from a rock and fell beside the restless horse.
How it reared at this unannounced apparition! That rearing disturbedCormick's aim, and whilst his shot passed above Dearborn's head, thatof the latter buried itself in his groin, after scarring the horse'sneck. The newcomer seized the bridle, and shook off the wounded man,whilst Ranald gladly received the half-swooning lady.
"What the thunder did you fire for?" demanded he, angrily.
The young people stared at him in surprise. He spoke perfect English,but, we know, Cherokee Bill as p
erfectly resembled a full-bloodedIndian when animated with ferocity. Besides, his buffalo robe wastucked up into his belt to leave his legs free, and a ruddy scalpdangled in a tuck of it.
"A dog of a Crow!" he explained, seeing that it caught their eyes."He'll beg no more powder and ball at the Agency to shoot the twolegged buffalo in 'store' clothes, that the wise style a _fresh_ fromthe States."
Perplexed by this singular speech, so unlike either an Indian's or awhite man's, the young people had immediately turned their offendedeyes aloof. Ulla must have believed she was saved on ascertaining thatDearborn had never relaxed his endeavours to come up with her and hercaptors. She laughed and sobbed hysterically like one aroused from anightmare and excessively delighted; it was but a play of fancy. Alas!There was to be another waking, and that not long delayed.
Suddenly the Cherokee's hand was laid upon the Englishman's shoulder,and he said:
"Rouse, sir! That horse must have cantered into the gold seekers'camp--they are already in the ravine."
"Gold seekers?"
"Robbers, thieves, and all that!" explained Bill Williams, hastily."There is no safety for you that way. On the other hand, there are theCrows--four score at least. I have been counting their noses, so nearthat I could have killed more than that one decently."
"Oh, what must we do?" ejaculated Miss Maclan.
"The lady asks you what'll we best do?" repeated the half-breedsarcastically, eyeing the young man as if to "value him up."
"Cut our way through them!"
"That's good to say, but how can it be done? The gold seekers numbertwo hundred, and perhaps half of them are crowding in off the plainnow. You and I may trust these horses as far as horses can travel, butencumbered with the lady, that one will run double risk as a biggermark of an arrow and bullet."
"I dare!" said Ulla simply.
But Dearborn shuddered at the idea.
"Take her, man! I will trust you," said he, "stranger though you are,in all senses of the word; and leave me to detain them from an instantpursuit."
"Oh, they have their own roasting pieces to spit," said Bill.
"What is your advice, sir? Your tone is that of a commander here," saidUlla, regarding the Cherokee steadily as he bore himself nobly erectand unaffected, though, better than either, he estimated the dangers ofthe situation aright.
"I say, in the hands of these robbers you will run no risk for thepresent, whilst I guarantee this man's safety if we but reach a certainpoint on these horses."
"I flee, and abandon the lady into the power of disreputable men? Nosuch coward, sir!"
"Coward, when I want you to run the double gauntlet of Indians anddesperadoes! I don't see what she could despise you for. Hark! Theycome on both sides--stealthily, but I hear them! The young woman cannotaccompany me where I must lead--are we all to be uselessly crumpled up,or all to be saved?"
"Go!" said Ulla; "Who will save me if you are slain?" in a voice meantfor Dearborn's ear alone.
But the Cherokee overheard her, and instantly subjoined:
"You're the queen trump! I have offered to help you in this straitbecause you are white, and your enemies are dogs! But now, on the soulof my fathers! Supposed to be chasing the phantom buffalo in the aerialrealm which those mountaintops support--I swear to save you from thishellish crew, or my bones shall swing in the hangman's loop!"
"I hear you, believe you, and I thank you!" exclaimed Miss Maclan,forcing a smile through tears. "But _our_ enemies come! Hasten away,in Heaven's name! Dearborn, we shall meet again under that heaven, orwithin its golden gates!"
She threw him a kiss with a pretence of playfulness, and bounded awayin the direction of the plain, crying:
"Do not shoot! It is only a woman! I surrender!"
At the same time Cherokee Bill leaped on the free horse over the tailup, _a l'Indienne_, and catching the other reins, plunged into thethicket, bidding the Englishman bend low to elude thorns and missiles,and heedless of his reproaches. In their rapid course, it seemed to thelatter that he saw groups and pairs of grappling men plying clubs andknives, but no reports of firearms cracked the icicles off the boughs.Each contesting party showed a respectful dislike to bringing on aregular engagement.
"What's your horse good for still?" queried the half-breed in a whisper.
"Five or six minutes more at this headlong pace."
"We are nearing an ambush, through which we must cleave our way. Do noless than I do, and we shall be safe!"
"With heaven my aid, I shall do more!"
The half-breed found a broad way by a miracle of knowledge andfaultless application.
"To the right--wheel to the right!" vociferated he abruptly, as half adozen arrows and a light spear or two whizzed under the noses of thesuddenly turned horses.
"Ride them down! Now! Hurrah!"
"Hurrah!" cried Dearborn, firing a shot and hurling his gun in hisfrenzy at the row of dark faces that grinned with flaming eyes like awall before him.
Few men, except with a long spear, can steadily receive cavalry. Onlyone Indian really awaited the English youth on his approach; his lancesnapped in in the horse's chest. It fell on him, enclosing him betweenthe forelegs. Dearborn was dismounted; but Bill was before him, on theground, steadied him as he rose, put a revolver in his hand, and badehim fire "low and fast." They had passed through the ambuscade at thecost of the two horses, and the ten shots they poured forth enabledthem to have a start in their retreat on foot. They were speedily in ahollow of the rocky bluffs, where no sane Indian would follow an armedfoe. The ground was sandy, now mingled with dry snow as hard, and atrandom rose needles of stone of varied dimensions, among which the halfIndian trapper serenely threaded his way. At the foot of a nearlyperpendicular mountain they were brought to a standstill. The faceseemed smooth as if polished at first glance, but there ran a ledge, orcornice, as Alpine climbers call it, along that level spread.
"I see now why a woman could not have accompanied us in our flight,"said Dearborn.
"No, you don't quite," replied Bill, drily, as he led the young manslowly upwards on this narrow footway. No quadruped could have mounted,for these men had to proceed with their backs to the wall, or face toit, in the case of the inexperienced Englishman. (He feared vertigo ifhe looked out or down on the abyss.) At last the ledge ended abruptly.But, about breast high, the granite was cracked horizontally, just wideenough for one's finger to be hid in it.
"Watch me," said Bill, calmly. "If you do not think you can follow mein such a spider's way, cling where you are till I bring a friend and alasso that we may swing you over here. It was necessary that we shouldleave no trail those dogs dare pursue," he added apologetically.
"Go on," said Ranald, who felt his blood boil with the determination toshow this strange hybrid that he had, at least the bravery of the whiterace, if not the athletic craft of the aborigines.
Thus adjured, the Cherokee inserted his hands in the prolonged crevice,let his body hang at the end of his arms with no other hold; andgradually worked himself along some twenty feet.
The watcher suffered more than he with the suspense. After a periodseeming immeasurable, the way was clear; the rock was untenantedsave by the young man, and he might have believed he was abandonedin this horrific site by a deluding demon. He looked up: a thousandfeet of granite seemed bowing out to fall and entomb him; he lookedoutward--miles of ether intervened betwixt him and the tops of gigantictrees; he looked down, just for an instant's fraction, and felt hisheart shrink; he was some three thousand feet over a cup of frozenwater--a lake diminished thus by the space.
"Come!" said the Cherokee's voice, designedly emotionless that he mightnot affect the young man in any way.
The latter breathed a prayer to live for the sake of the bereaveddaughter of his patron, and steadily swung himself over the chasm byhis eight fingers alone; the thumbs seemed useless; the cliff fell awayinsensibly beneath him, so that his feet failed to touch. It was thedream of a man-fly acted out.
Finally
, the end of the crack was attained. Here the climber without anassistant was a doomed man, unless he could retreat as he came--almostan impossibility. But, on this occasion, Cherokee Bill was waiting,with the loop of a counterbalanced rope in his hand, which he loweredover the young man and drew up so as to engirdle him. More than hispair of arms were not needed, considering the size of the boulder whichweighed the farther end of the cord; but, none the less, two othermen were hauling on it. In a few minutes the young man stood on thethreshold of the cavern of the Old Nick's Jump. This was the only otherway in.
With a cordial wave of the hand, Cherokee Bill presented his protege toJim the Yager and Mr. Filditch.
"A recruit," said he, laconically, "and _A one!_ We are going to havesome rare tussles, right soon and right here; but this friend o' ourswill keep up his end o' the board, and don't you forget who says so!"