CHAPTER XIV.
A CAVERN OF MYSTERY.
Snorting and plunging, White-eye wheeled and dashed off down thehillside. When they had first re-captured him, the two boys had, forgreater ease in leading him, fastened the rope through their belts.They were heartily sorry for this now.
As the pony turned and plunged off, they only managed to keep theirfeet by an effort, and the next instant they were perforce flying downthe steep mountain side attached to the leading rope of the frightenedpony.
Fortunately, the going was too rough for White-eye to be able to makehis full speed, otherwise they might have been dragged off their feetand seriously injured. As it was, their united weight and the ruggedhillside both combined to slacken the pony’s runaway gallop andenabled them to keep upright. But even so, they were hauled throughbrambles and brush, scratching their hands unmercifully and tearingeven the stout fabric of their hunting clothes.
It was an extraordinary situation. First came the terrified pony,making every effort to escape from the bear. Behind him, towed atthe end of the rope and helpless to relieve the stress of theirpredicament, came the two boys. Behind them again lumbered the bear,apparently not in any particular hurry, but still getting over theground uncomfortably fast for those he was pursuing.
The two boys had no opportunity to exchange words as they wereremorselessly hastened along. Hardware made an effort to reach hisknife, but he was unable to do so and carry out his intention ofcutting the rope. Even if he could have done this, their situationwould not have been much improved. There would still have remained thebear to be reckoned with, and both boys were so badly flustered thatit is doubtful if they could have used their rifles effectively.
Suddenly Harry Ware, who had cast a glance behind him, gave a yell.“He’s coming faster!”
The bear had quit his leisurely rolling canter and was now advancing ata pace that appeared incredibly swift for so cumbrous and awkward ananimal. He looked like a flying ball of fur as his short legs flashedunder his heavy body.
It seemed inevitable that the chase was to come to a suddentermination. Every instant the frightened boys expected to feel thecreature’s great claws pull them down.
But suddenly, something as startling as it was entirely unexpectedoccurred.
White-eye vanished from view ahead of them.
One instant they had seen him straining and tugging on the rope bywhich they were being so unwillingly towed along. The next minute theearth appeared to open and swallow him.
Simultaneously both boys were jerked off their feet by a sharp tugon the rope. They felt themselves being rushed forward over the roughground and yanked through a clump of scratching “scotch-cap” bushes.
A moment later they both gave a shout of terror as they felt themselvesfalling into a dark hole. Then came a plunge and a sudden bump asthey fetched up their career through space by abruptly alighting onsomething soft and warm.
For a time, so badly shaken were they by their fall and by terror, thatneither spoke. Then Persimmons’ voice came through the darkness.
“Rocketing radishes! are you dead, Hardware?”
“No, are you?” came the answer in a quavering voice.
“Not even scratched. But where under the sun are we?”
“At present we are lying on White-eye’s body. Poor brute, I guess he’sdead.”
“But he saved our lives. If he hadn’t fallen first to the bottom ofthis hole, or whatever it is, we’d have been killed or had our bonesbroken, sure.”
“Not much doubt of that. But what are we going to do now?”
“Get out of this place.”
“But how? Can you suggest a way? Look up above.”
Peering over the top of the hole, which was some twenty feet abovethem, was a shaggy head. As he gazed over into the hole down which hisprey had so unexpectedly vanished, the bear gave a growl and shook hisgreat head, while his red jaws slavered and dripped.
“Well, this hole in the ground, or cave, or whatever it is, saved usfrom that bear at any rate,” declared Persimmons.
“Yes; but it looks as if we had got out of the frying pan into thefire,” retorted his companion disgustedly. “Why didn’t we think to useour rifles? We’re a fine pair of hunters, we are.”
“We couldn’t have used them, anyhow,” was Persimmons’ response.
“Why not?”
“Because, like Mazeppa, we were hitched to a fiery steed, only wetrailed along instead of being on his back. Poor beast, he must havebeen killed instantly by his tumble.”
“I guess so. His head is doubled under his body. His neck must havebeen broken.”
“Well, this is a fine end to our horse hunt. I guess we’ll have to waithere till they come along and find us.”
“Looks that way,” was the moody reply. “At any rate I’m going to have ashot at the cause of all our trouble.”
“All right, if you miss, give me a chance at him.”
Harry Ware raised his rifle and fired directly at the bear’s head asthe great, shaggy creature peered down into the dark hole. His shot wasechoed almost simultaneously by a report from Persimmons’ rifle. Therewas no need for a third.
The great head sank lifelessly and hung limply over the edge of thehole above them.
“Good work!” cried young Simmons. “Now, if we can only get out of herewe can bring back a pelt that will astonish them.”
“True enough; but the problem is how to get out.”
“Let’s light up and see what sort of a place we have got into.”
As he spoke Persimmons struck a match from his pocket case and a yellowglow illumined their surroundings. They had fallen into a sort ofrift in the hillside with a narrow opening in it through which poorWhite-eye had plunged, dragging them with him. But the light of thematch, even in the brief period it endured, showed them that it wouldbe impossible to clamber out by the way they had so unceremoniouslyentered. The hole, or rift, was larger at the bottom than the top, andthey would have had to be able to walk upside down, like flies on asloping ceiling, to regain the mouth of the hole.
It was plain that they must find some other means of egress. But howthis was to be accomplished was a puzzling question.
The Border Boys in the Canadian Rockies Page 15