The Bells of San Juan
Page 8
CHAPTER VII
IN THE HOME OF CLIFF-DWELLERS
Those remaining ten minutes tried all that there was of endurance inVirginia Page. Often Norton, bidding her wait a moment, climbed on tosome narrow ledge above her and, drawing the rope steadily through hishands, gave her what aid he could; often, clinging with hand and footshe thought breathlessly of the steep fall of cliff which the darknesshid from her eyes, but which grew ever steeper in her mind as shestruggled on. He had said it would be easier in daylight; she wonderedif after all it would not have been more difficult could she have seenjust what were the chances she was taking at every moment. But moreand more she came to have utter faith in the quiet man going on beforeher, and in the piece of rope which stretched taut between them.
"And now," said Norton at last, when once more he had drawn her up tohim and they stood close together upon a narrow ledge, "we've got agood, safe trail under foot. Good news, eh?"
But as he moved on now he kept her hand locked tight in his own. Their"good, safe trail" was a rough ledge running almost horizontally alongthe cliffside, its trend scarcely perceptibly upward. Within twentysteps it led them into a wide, V-shaped fissure in the rocks. Thencame a sort of cup in a nest of rugged peaks, its bottom filled withimprisoned soil worn from the spires above. As Norton, relinquishingher hand, went forward swiftly she heard a man's voice saying weakly:
"That you, Rod?"
"I came as soon as I could, Brocky." Norton, standing close to a bigoutjutting boulder upon the far side of the cup, was bending over thecattleman. "How are you making out, old man?"
"I've sure been having one hell of a nice little party," grunted BrockyLane faintly. "A man's so damn close to heaven on these mountaintops. . . . Who's that?"
Virginia came forward quickly and went down on her knees at Lane's side.
"I'm Dr. Page," she said quietly. "Now if you'll tell me where you'rehit . . . and if Mr. Norton will get me some sort of a light. A firewill have to do. . . ."
Another little grunt came from Brocky Lane's tortured lips, this time awordless expression of his unmeasured amazement.
"I didn't want Patten in on this," Norton explained. "Miss Page is adoctor; just got into San Juan to-day. She's a cousin of Engle. Andshe knows her business a whole lot better than Patten does, besides."
"Will you get the fire started immediately, Mr. Norton?" asked Virginiasomewhat sharply. "Mr. Lane has waited long enough as it is."
"I'll be damned!" said Brocky Lane weakly. And then, more weaklystill, in a voice which broke despite a manful effort to make it bothsteady and careless, "I never cuss like that unless I'm delerious,anyhow I never cuss when there's a lady. . . ."
"If you'll keep perfectly still," Virginia admonished him quickly,"I'll do all the talking that is necessary. Where is the wound?"
"You don't have to have a light, do you?" Brocky insisted on beinginformed. "You see, we can't have it. Where'm I hurt, you want toknow? Mostly right here in my side."
Virginia's hands found the rude bandage, damp and sticky.
"It's nonsense about not having a light," she said, turning towardNorton.
"No," said the wounded man. "Nonsense nothing, is it Rod? How're wegoing to have a fire when my matches are all gone and Rod'smatches. . . ."
"Mr. Norton," Virginia cut in crisply, "in spite of your friend's talkand in spite of the bluff he is putting up he is pretty badly hurt.You give me some sort of a light, I don't care if they see it down atSan Juan, or you shoulder the responsibility. Which is it?"
Norton turned and was gone in the darkness; to Virginia's eyes itseemed that he was swallowed up by the cliff's themselves, as thoughthey had opened and accepted him and closed after him. She supposedthat he had gone to seek what scanty dry fuel one might find here. Butin a moment he was back carrying a lighted lantern.
"Look here, Rod. . . ." expostulated Brocky.
"Shut up, Brocky," answered Norton quietly. And, passing the lanternto the girl. "If you'll carry that I'll carry Brocky. It's only a fewsteps and I won't hurt him. We can make him more comfortable there;and besides, we can't leave him out here in the sun to-morrow."
Somewhat mystified, Virginia took the lantern and her own surgical casefrom the sheriff and watched him stoop and gather the tall form of hisfriend into his arms. Then going the way he indicated, straight acrossthe tiny flat, she lighted the way. She heard the wounded man groanonce; then, his teeth set to guard his lips, Brocky was silent.
After a dozen steps she came to a steep-sided, narrow chasm givingpassageway not six feet wide which twisted this way and that before her.
"Look out," called Norton sharply. "Watch where you step now. Goslow."
Virginia swinging her lantern up shoulder-high, looking ahead, grewinstantly stock-still, a shiver tingling along her spine. The narrowdefile through which she had passed had led out of the ring of peaksand now abruptly debouched into nothingness. As she had turned withthe twisting passageway, expecting to see another wall of rock beforeher, she saw instead the sky filled with stars. She stood almost atthe edge of a sheer precipice.
"Throw the light to the left now," commanded Norton. "See what lookslike the entrance to a cave? We go in there."
She walked on, moving slowly, warily, a little faint from the onestartled view before her, her body tight pressed to the rocks upon theleft, her feet only a pace from the edge of the cliff. Now she saw themouth of the cave, a black ragged hole just above a flat rock whichthrust itself outward so that it seemed hanging, balanced insecurely,over the abyss. By the pale rays of the lantern she saw the fairlysmooth, gently sloping floor of the cavern; then, stooping, she passedin, turned, and held the light for Norton.
He came on steadily, bearing his burden lightly. Still holding thelantern for him, turning as he came closer, she saw that the cave waslofty and wide, that it ran farther back into the mountain than herlantern's rays could follow.
"Back there," said Norton, "you'll find blankets. I'll hold him whileyou spread some out for him."
She hurried toward the farther end of the cave, came to a tumble ofblankets against the wall, dragged out two or three, spreading themquickly. And then, while Norton was stooping to lay Brocky's limp formdown, she busied herself with her case.
"He has fainted," she said quickly. "I'd like to examine the woundbefore he is conscious; it's going to hurt him. Pour me some waterinto any sort of basin or cup or anything else you've got here. Thenstand by to help me if I need you. . . . Hold the lantern for me."
Swiftly, but Norton marked with what skilful fingers, she removed thebandage and made her examination. Norton, squatting upon his heels ather side, holding the lantern, after one frowning look at the wound,kept his eyes fixed upon her face. Brocky Lane was near his death andthe sheriff knew it after that one look; his life lay, perhaps, in thehands of this girl. Norton had brought her when he might have broughtPatten. Had he chosen wrongly?
He had noted her hands before; now they seemed to him the mostwonderful hands ever possessed by either man or woman, strong, sure,quick, sensitive, utterly capable. He thought of Caleb Patten's hands,thick, a little inclined to be flabby.
"Open that bottle," she directed coolly. "One tablet into the water.That box has cotton and gauze in it . . . don't touch them! I wanteverything clean; just open the box and set it where I can get it."
One by one she gave her directions and the man obeyed swiftly andunquestioningly. He watched her probe the wound, saw her eyes narrow,knew that she had made her diagnosis. As she washed the ugly hole inthe flesh and made her own bandage Brocky Lane was wincing, his eyesagain open. Both men were watching her now, the same look in eacheager pair of eyes. But until she had done and, with Norton's help,had made Lane as comfortable as possible upon his crude bed, she gaveno answer to their mute pleading. Then she sat down upon the stonefloor, caught her knees up in her clasped hands, and looked long andsearchingly into Brocky Lane's face. The cowboy st
ruggled with hismuscles and triumphed over them, summoning a sick grin as he muttered:
"You're mighty good to take all this trouble. . . . I'm sure a hundredtimes obliged. . . ."
"And," she cut in abruptly, "you mean to tell me that you shot that manafter he had put this hole in you? And then you made him crawl out ofthe brush and come to you?"
"I sure did," grunted Brocky. "And if my aim hadn't been sort of bad,me being all upset this way, I wouldn't have just winged old Moragathat way, either! When he's all cured up and I'm all well again. . . ."
Then he broke off and again his eyes, like Norton's, asked theirquestion. This time she answered it, speaking slowly and thoughtfully.
"Mr. Brocky Lane, I congratulate you on three things, your physiquefirst, your luck second, and third, your nerve. They are a combinationthat is hard to beat. I am very much inclined to the belief that in amonth or so you'll be about as good as new."
Norton expelled a deep breath of relief; he realized suddenly thatwhatever this gray-eyed, strong-handed girl had said would have had hisfullest credence. Brocky's grin grew a shade less strained.
"When you add to that combination," he muttered, "a sure-enough angelcome to doctor a man. . . ."
"Growing delirious again," laughed Virginia. "Give him a littlebrandy, Mr. Norton. Then a smoke if he's dying for one. Then we'lltry to get a little sleep, all of us. You see, I had virtually nosleep on the train last night and to-day has been a big day for me. IfI'm going to do your friend any good I've got to get three winks. And,unless you're made out of reinforced sheet-iron, it's the same for you.You can lie down close to Mr. Lane so that he can wake you easily if heneeds us. Now," and she rose, still smiling, but suddenly lookingunutterably weary, "where is the guest-chamber?"
She did not tell them that not only last night, but the night beforeshe had sat up in a day coach, saving every cent she could out of thefew dollars which were to give her and her brother a new start in theworld; there were many things which Virginia Page knew how to keep toherself.
"This way," said Norton, taking up the lantern. "We can really makeyou more comfortable than you'd think."
At the very least he could count confidently on treating her to asurprise. She followed him for forty or fifty feet toward the end ofthe cave and to an irregular hole in the side wall, through this, andinto another cave, smaller than the first, but as big as an ordinaryroom. The floor was strewn with the short needles of the mountainpine. As she turned, looking about her, she noted first anotheropening in a wall suggesting still another cave; then, feeling a faintbreath of the night air on her cheek she saw a small rift in the outershell of rock and through it the stars thick in the sky.
"May you sleep well in Jim Galloway's hang-out," said Norton lightly."May you not be troubled with the ghosts of the old cliff-dwellerswhose house this was before our time. And may you always remember thatif there is anything in the world that I can do for you all you have todo is let me know. Good night."
"Good night," she said.
He had left the lantern for her. She placed it on the floor and wentacross her strange bedroom to the hole in the rock through which thestars were shining. It seemed impossible that those stars out therewere the same stars which had shone upon her all of her life long. Shecould fancy that she had gone to sleep in one world and now hadawakened in another, coming into a far, unknown territory where theface of the earth was changed, where men were different, where life wasnew. And though her body was tired her spirit did not droop. Ratheran old exhilaration was in her blood. She had stepped from an old,outworn world into a new one, and with a quick stir of the pulses shetold herself that life was good where it was strenuous and that she wasglad that Virginia Page had come to San Juan.
"And now," she mused sleepily when at last she lay down upon heaped-uppine-needles and drew over her the blanket Norton had brought, "I amgoing to sleep in the hang-out of Jim Galloway and the old home of thecliff-dwellers! Virginia Page, you are a downright lucky girl!"
Whereupon she blew out her lantern, smiled faintly at the stars shiningupon her, sighed wearily and went to sleep.