CHAPTER XX
TRAPPED IN A CANYON
Once the little party started toward the opening, they made rapidprogress. The turmoil was at their backs, for one thing. Then, again,each time the noise broke forth it seemed so much worse than before,that every one felt anxious to get beyond the portal of the cave beforethe climax came.
And when finally this opened before them, Bob drew a long sigh ofrelief.
"Glory!" he burst out. "Maybe I'm not glad we've arrived! But Ireckon your pet, Nero, has skipped, Mr. Smith, or he would have comeout when you and the little Lopez passed. Sorry for you; but perhapsit's just as well for the rest of us; because you see the fellow mighthave had it in for us."
So they passed into the outer air.
"Seems pretty much the same as when we left," remarked Bob, as hestared up at the dark sky against which they could see the rocky crownof Thunder Mountain dimly outlined.
"Why, what did you expect?" asked Frank.
"I didn't know but what some of that thunder might be the genuinearticle, and we'd find the rain coming down to beat the band. Glad itisn't, because we want to get down from this to where our horses are."
"Little Lopez has our burro and bronco quartered in a small ravinewhere they can't escape," remarked the old miner, as he handed Frankthe lantern he had been carrying, the girl taking the other.
"But would they be in danger in case of a storm-burst?" asked Bob.
"We counted on that when we arranged the exit by piling up stones,"came the ready reply. "There is little danger, for the ravine has highbanks, where they are able to go in case of hard luck. But now we havea tough job ahead, boys. Mind your steps all the time. A slip mightcost you dear."
"Reckon I know that, Mr. Smith," remarked Bob. "I've had experience,you see. And only for the helping hand of my trusty chum here, I'mafraid I wouldn't be alive right now. Oh! I'll be careful, I give youmy word."
And he was, seldom putting a foot forward without first making certainhow the land lay below, and that the stone he expected to step upon wasfirmly planted.
They were making fair progress when the old miner called out:
"We've reached the parting of the ways, boys. Little Lopez and me haveto turn to the left here, so as to hit the place whar our animals arecached. You keep right on. Wish you the best of luck, Frank. Hope tosee you some time at my shack. And I tell ye, son, thar's agoin' to bea ranch soon, with hosses for the gal, an' an ottermobile for the oldcouple. I struck it rich in this here lode and pocket. So-long, boys!"
He shook hands with each of them, as did also the girl, whoseastonishing nerve, when facing that terrible grizzly, Bob would neverforget. Then they separated. And a minute afterward there cameanother of those fearful shocks that seemed to make the very rocks ofthe mountain quiver, as the pent-up force of that great geyser beatagainst its prison walls.
"We must be getting down somewhere near the canyon, aren't we, Frank?"asked Bob, after they had been a long while descending the side of therough mountain.
"That's right, we are," replied his chum. "And I've been wonderingwhether we ought to take the chances of going along that _barranca_just now."
"It's the shortest way to where we left our horses, I reckon," remarkedBob.
"And the only way we happen to know of," Frank went on; "but if thatflood just happened to break loose while we were between those highwalls we'd have an experience that would be fierce, let me tell you!"
"But then, it may not come for hours yet?" remonstrated the Kentuckyboy, who was anxious to be once again in the saddle, and leaving thehaunted mountain well in the rear.
"Oh! for that matter, it may not come at all," Frank went on."Although Smith did say he really believed that this was going tofinish the old geyser, which he believed empties into one of thosequeer underground rivers we know are to be found all through theSouthwest. And Smith ought to know something about it, for he's beenwatching this business a whole year now, from close quarters."
"I'm willing to take the chances, if you are," declared Bob.
Frank was not at all surprised when he heard his chum say this. Heknew that the Kentucky boy was apt to be rash; and that meant morecaution on his part, in order to counteract this spirit, that mightborder on recklessness.
A quick decision had to be made, for delay could do them no good. Hecast one last look up at the dark heavens, as though questioning howlong they might remain mute.
"All right, we'll risk it, Bob," he declared, suddenly; for even if theworst came Frank believed he knew how to avoid a calamity.
"Good for you, Frank!" exclaimed the other; but Bob understood thenature of the risk they were taking, and he was not quite so buoyant asusual.
The canyon was just below them now, and fortunately there seemed anarrow bit of slope down which they might make their way. This theydid with considerable difficulty. Indeed, Bob was secretly sorry,after they had started, that he had urged his companion to take thisstep; but there could be no going back now.
Finally, after several slips, and more or less excitement, they managedto gain the bottom of the canyon.
"Say, I don't remember this place any, Frank!" declared Bob, as hestared about him as well as he could by the flickering light of thelantern which his companion still carried, and which had served themwell through all their descent.
"For a mighty good reason," replied Frank. "We were never here before."
"But this is the same old turtle crawl, isn't it; the _barranca_ wefollowed up to the time we climbed the slope with our horses?" Bobasked.
"It sure is, only a lot farther along, Bob. Notice how the walls towerupon each side. I knew something about this, and that was why I heldback when you wanted to come down here. But let's hurry. We've got tomake that slope as soon as we can."
"Supposing the thing broke loose before we could find any place toclimb out?" suggested Bob, looking up again with awe, as he stumbledalong after his chum, who was already hurrying down the canyon.
"We might try to outrun it first," Frank replied, over his shoulder.
"And if that didn't work, what then?" the other continued.
"Nothing left but to climb the walls, Bob."
"Whew! then perhaps I'd better be keeping an eye out as we go along,and see how the land lies?" suggested the boy from Kentucky.
"A good idea, Bob. Just notice where the chances look half-way decentfor a climb. And remember, at the same time, that the wave may be allof thirty feet deep when it sweeps through here."
"You don't say? That would mean some hustling then to get up out ofreach, Frank."
"I reckon it would. Look out for that nasty rock; it nearly trippedme, Bob."
"What was that flash, Frank? Don't tell me it was lightning, reallightning, and that the long delayed storm is going to break right now,when it's got us cooped up in this hole?"
"It was lightning, all right. There, that proves it!"
Frank's words were drowned in a crash of genuine thunder that made thefoundations of the mountain shake just as much as the mad efforts ofthe imprisoned geyser had ever done.
"No mistake about that sort of thing," cried Bob, as he stumbled alongafter his chum. "There it comes again, Frank. I guess I'd better bepicking out a good way up the wall somewhere, for it looks like we'dhave to climb!"
Frank was doubtless sizing up the situation in his mind. He was alsolistening for some sound which he expected to hear, but which was goingto prove a very unwelcome one.
"No use going any further, Bob, if so be you've seen anything thatlooks promising here," he declared, when the reverberations of thethunder had ceased to echo through the canyon.
"Then you think we're going to get caught here, Frank?" questioned theother.
"I'm afraid to take the chances of keeping on any further. It may be along run to the next broken wall, that offers us a chance to climb.Some places the sides go up as smooth as glass. Have you see anopening here, Bob?"
"Yes, y
es, right on the left, Frank!" exclaimed Bob, eagerly. "Icouldn't see so very far up, but it looks good to me."
Frank turned his gaze up to where his comrade pointed.
"I think it's rough as far as that ledge," he said; "and let us hopethat will be out of the reach of the water. Come on, Bob; let's seehow you can climb; but be careful, boy, be mighty careful!"
"Frank, that roaring sound didn't seem like the others we've beenhearing; d'ye think it means anything has happened?" Bob called, as hestarted to clamber up the rough face of the wall, taking advantage ofevery jutting rock, and showing a nimbleness a mountain goat mightalmost have envied.
"I reckon it does, Bob," replied the other. "Get along as fast as youcan with all caution."
"Has the cloudburst arrived?" demanded Bob, who was already ten feetfrom the floor of the canyon.
"Either that, or else with that last shock the geyser burst its bonds,and the flood Smith expected is rushing out from all the passages intothis same channel! Perhaps both things have happened at the sametime," Frank replied.
"Wow! then we'd better be climbing some, I reckon, if that's the case!"cried the Kentucky boy, as he increased his efforts to ascend to theledge.