CHAPTER XX.
PRISONERS!
“W-w-w-what under the canopy was that?” stammered Ralph as soon as hehad recovered himself somewhat from his surprise.
“Mountain lion, cougar, some calls ’em. Lucky she didn’t claw you,boy,” responded Mountain Jim. “If she hadn’t dived off so quick I’dhave shot her. But hullo, what’s that?”
From the back of the cave came a plaintive sound of mewing, as if therewere a litter of kittens concealed there.
“Young ones, by the Blue Bells of Scotland!” exclaimed Mountain Jim.“Say, we’re mighty lucky that the old lioness didn’t attack us.”
“Why didn’t she?” asked Ralph.
“Dunno. There’s no accountin’ for the freaks of wild things. At onetime they’d attack a battleship, at another time they’ll run likecotton-tails. But I reckon this old lioness is off looking for hermate.”
“And they will come back and attack us?”
“That ain’t worryin’ me. We’ve got good rifles, and cougars are mostlydumb cowards anyhow.”
“I hope these are,” said Ralph fervently, “although I’d like a shot atone, all right.”
They went to the back of the cave to look at the kittens. There werefour of them, pretty little fluffy, fawn-colored creatures, whose eyeshad apparently only just opened. They blinked as the lightning flashedand the thunder roared outside the cave.
But the two did not bend over the litter of lion cubs for long. Thestench of decaying meat around the den was terrible. The carcasses ofat least a dozen deer lay there, besides the bones of smaller creatures.
“The old man goes hunting and brings all that truck back,” saidMountain Jim as they sought the front of the cave where the air wasfresher.
“I’d like to get one of those cubs and tame it,” said Ralph.
“What for? He’d get so savage when you raised him that you couldn’t domuch with him ’cept shoot him. Puts me in mind of a fellow that used tolive back of Bear Mountain long time ago, and trained a grizzly so thathe could ride him. Like to hear the yarn?”
There was a twinkle in Mountain Jim’s eye as he spoke that warned Ralphto prepare for a wonderful tale of some sort; but anything would serveto pass the time, so as Jim drew out his old brier and lighted up, theboy nodded.
“Well, this here fellow, Abe Brown his name was, Abe J. Brown,caught this grizzly young and trained him so as he was most as goodas a saddle horse. Abe and his bear was known all over the countrythereabouts, and was accounted no common wonder.”
“I should think not. Do you mean to say that this fellow actually rodehis bear just like a horse?”
“The very same identical way--Wow, what a flash!--Well, as I was sayin,Abe, he’d ride this bear all about, huntin’, fishin’, and all. Well,sir, one day Abe goes up on the mountain after a deer. The mountain wasa famous place for grizzlies in them days, and what does Abe do butride plumbbango right into the middle of a convention of sixteen ofthem that was discussing bear business.
“Well, Abe and his bear got mixed up right away, and Abe’s bear gotkilled in the scrap, being sort of soft from having been raised a pet.”
“But what happened to Abe?” asked Ralph.
“He wasn’t no ways what you might call communicative about whathappened in that canyon on the mountain, Abe wasn’t,” went on MountainJim, fixing Ralph with his eye as if to challenge any doubt in hisstory, “but the next day Abe come into Baxter’s cross-roads riding oneof them wild bears, and with sixteen skins, includin’ that of his tamebeast, tied on behind. He was some hunter, Abe was.”
“And some story teller, too,” laughed Ralph. “Do you believe that, Jim?”
“I ain’t sayin’ no and I ain’t sayin’ yes. I’m jes’ relatin’ the factsas they was told to me,” said Jim, with a twinkle in his eye.
Ralph had half a mind to tell Mountain Jim some of the staggering yarnshe had heard along the southwestern border during his experiencesin that country of tall men and tall stories; but at that instantsomething happened that quite put everything else out of his head.
Just above the entrance to the cave there was a huge rock whichappeared, either from constant frost and thaw or from some other cause,to have slipped from its position among the other giant boulders, forit was now perilously poised just above the small entrance to thecavern. The boy had noticed this rock when they slipped into the cave,but with the excitement of the cougar and the roar and crash of thestorm, which was now at its height, he had quite forgotten it.
He now noticed that all around this rock the water from the hillsideabove was pouring in a perfect torrent. The rain was coming down sohard that it fairly hissed on the ground as it fell. Under theseconditions the whole steep hillside was a roaring sheet of water, butjust above the pile of rocks under which they crouched was a smallgully which, of course, attracted more water than any part of thehillside in the vicinity.
“That water’s coming down in a pretty considerable waterspout,”remarked Mountain Jim, as he followed the direction of Ralph’s eyes andnoticed the cascade of rain water that was pouring like a veil in frontof the cave mouth.
“Yes, Jim, and I’ve noticed something else, too. See that rock upthere?”
“Yes, what of it? The water’s coming against it and it is dividing thecataract so that it doesn’t splash back in here.”
“Not only that; but it’s doing something else; something that may maketrouble for us.”
“How do you mean?”
“Why, I’m certain that I saw the rock move.”
“Great Blue Bells of Scotland, you’re dreamin’, boy. That rock is assolid as the etarnal hills.”
“I’m not so sure. I’m sure I saw it quiver a minute back, when thatroll of thunder shook the ground.”
“Guess you’re mistaken, boy. Jumpin’ Jehosophat! Come back here! Quick!”
Ralph had stepped forward to gaze up at the big poised rock. As hedid so, there had come a brilliant flash and an earth-shaking peal ofthunder.
The ground quivered and shook, and as it did so the great stone gavea lurch forward. The next instant it crashed downward right upon thespot where Ralph had been standing. But the boy had been snatched backby Jim’s muscular arm.
“Safe! Thank the Lord!” gasped out Mountain Jim fervently.
“But look at the rock, Jim! It has blocked the entrance to this place!We’re prisoners!”
It was only too true. The big stone was lodged in front of the smallcave mouth, shutting out the light and almost excluding the air exceptfor a small space at the top. To all intents and purposes they were asmuch captives as if a jailer had clanged a steel gate upon them andlocked it securely.
The Border Boys in the Canadian Rockies Page 21