Altsheler, Joseph - [Great West 01]

by The Great Sioux Trail (lit)

  He kept his eye steadily upon the ugly and wicked warrior, and as he watched for his chance and awaited the word from Boyd all scruples about firing disap- peared from his mind. It was that warrior's life or his, and the law of self-preservation controlled. Near- er and yet nearer they came and the time had grown

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  interminable when the hunter suddenly said in a low voice :

  "Fire!"

  Young Clarke pulled the trigger with a sure aim. He saw the hideous warrior draw himself into a bunch that sprang convulsively upward, but which, when it fell, lay back, outspread and quiet. Then he fired at a second figure, but he was not sure that he hit. The hunter and the Little Giant were already sending in their third and fourth bullets, with deadly aim, Will was sure, and the Sioux, after one mighty yell, wrenched from them by rage, surprise and fear, were fleeing down the pass under the fierce hail from the repeating rifles.

  In a half minute all the shadows, save those outlined darkly on the ground, were gone, and there was com- plete and utter silence, while the light smoke from the rifles drifted about aimlessly, there being no wind. The three did not speak, but slipping in fresh cartridges continued to gaze down the pass. Then Will heard a wild, shrill scream behind him that made him leap a foot from the ground, and that set all his nerves trembling. The next moment he was laughing at him- self. One of the horses had neighed in terror at the firing, and there are few things more terrifying than the terrified shriek of a horse.

  "Maybe you'd better go back and see 'em, Will," said Boyd. "They may need quieting. I've noticed that you've a gentle hand with horses, and that they like you."

  "And mules too," said the Little Giant. "Mine hev 109

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  already taken a fancy for young William. But mules are much abused critters. You treat 'em well an* they'll treat you well, which is true of all tame ani- mals."

  Young Clarke suspected that they were sending him back to steady his own nerves as well as those of the animals after such a fierce encounter, but if so he was glad they had the thought. He was willing enough to go.

  "Nothing will happen while you' re gone," said Boyd Cheerfully. "The Sioux, of course, would try to rush us again if they knew you were away, but they won't know it."

  Will crawled until he came to a curve of the cliff that would hide him from any hidden Indian marks- man, and then he rose to his feet, glad that he was able to stand upright. He found the horses and mules walking about uneasily at the ends of their lariats, but a few consoling strokes from him upon their manes quieted all of them, and, if they found comfort in his presence, he also found comfort in theirs.

  Then he kneeled and drank at the rill, as if he had been parching in a desert for days.

  CHAPTER V

  THE WHITE DOME

  THE tide of cool water restored Will's nerves. After drinking he bathed his face in it, and then poured it over his neck. Good as he knew water to be he had never known that it could be so very good. It was in truth the wine of life. He shook out his thick hair, wet from the rill, and said triumphantly and aloud to the animals : "We beat 'em back, Jim Boyd, the Little Giant and me, and we can do it again. We beat back a whole band of the Sioux nation, and we defy 'em to come on again. And you predicted it, all six of you ! And you predict that we'll do it a second time, don't you ?"

  He was in a state of great spiritual exaltation, see- ing things that others might not have seen, and he distinctly saw the six wise heads of the brutes, dumb but knowing so much, nod in affirmation.

  "I accept the omen!" he said, some old scrap of Latin translation coming into his mind, "and await the future with absolute confidence!"

  The horses and mules, stirred at first by the shots, and then not caring, perhaps, to rest, began to graze. All sign of alarm was gone from them and Will's

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  heart resumed its normal beat. He listened atten- tively, but no sound came from the pass where his comrades, those deadly sharpshooters, watched. Far overhead the cliffs towered, and over them a sky darkly blue. He looked at it a little while, and then went back to the pass.

  He had left his glasses with them, and they had not been able to discover anything suspicious.

  "They won't come again into the mouth of the pass," said Boyd with confidence. "That rush cost 'em too much. They'll spend a long time thinking up some sort of trick, and that being the case you go now, Giant, and have a drink at the stream, and pour water over your head and face as Will has done."

  "So I will, Jim. I'm noticing that young William has a lot o' sense, an* after I've 'tended to myself fine I'll come back, an' you kin do ez much fur yourself. A good bathin' o' your face won't hurt your beauty, Jim."

  He was gone a half hour, not hurrying back, because he felt there was no need to do so. Meanwhile Will lay behind his rock and watched the dusky pass. Wisps of vapor and thin clouds were floating across the heavens, hiding some of the stars, and the light was not as good as it had been earlier in the night, but constant use and habit enable one to see through the shadows, and he also had the glasses to fall back upon. But even with their aid he could discern noth- ing save the stony steep.

  "They won't come again, not that way, as I told you before," said Boyd, when young Clarke put down his

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  glasses after the tenth searching look. "When they made the rush they expected to have a warrior or two hit, but they didn't know the greatest marksman in all the world, the Little Giant, was here waiting for 'em, and if I do say it myself, I'm as good with the rifle as anybody in the west, except Tom, and you're 'way above the average too, Will. No, they've had enough of charging, but I wish to heaven I knew what wicked trick they're thinking out now."

  The Little Giant returned, bathed, refreshed and joyous.

  "Your turn now, Jim," he said, "an' you soak your head an* face good in the water. Don't dodge it because you think thar ain't plenty o' water, 'cause thar is. It keeps on a-runnin' an' a-runnin', an' it never runs out. Stay ez long ez you want to, 'cause young William an' me kin hold the pass ag'inst all the confederated tribes o' the Sioux nation, an* the Crows an' the Cheyennes an' the Blackfeet throwed in."

  Boyd departed and presently he too returned, strengthened anew for any task.

  "Now, Will," he said, "you being the youngest, and it's only because you're the youngest, you'd better go back there where the horses and mules are. They've got over their fright and are taking their rest again. They appear to like you, to look upon you as a kind of comrade, and I think it's about time you took a bit of rest with them."

  "But don't hev a nightmare an' kick one o' my mules," said the Little Giant, " 'cause the best tem- pered mule in the world is likely to kick back ag'in."

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  Will smiled. He knew their raillery was meant to cheer him up, because of his inexperience, and their desperate situation. He recognized, too, that it would be better for him to sleep if he could, as they were more than sufficient to guard the pass.

  "All right," he said. "I obey orders."

  "Good night to you," said the hunter.

  "Good night," said the Little Giant, "an' remember not to kick one o' my mules in your sleep."

  "I won't," replied Will, cheerfully, as he went around the curve of the wall.

  He found the horses and mules at rest, and every- thing very quiet and peaceful in the alcove. The rill murmured a little in its stony bed, and, far overhead, he heard the wind sighing among the trees on the mountain. He chose a place close to the wall, spread two blankets there, on which he expected to lie, and prepared to cover himself with two more. He realized now that he was tired to the bone, but it was not a nervous weariness and sleep would cure it almost at once.

  He was arranging the two blankets that were to cover him, when he heard a rumbling noise far over his head. At first he thought it was distant th
under echoing along the ridges, but the wisps of cloud were too light and thin to indicate any storm. He saw the horses and mules rise in alarm, and then not one but several of them gave out shrill and terrible neighs of terror, a volume of frightened sound that made young Clarke's heart stand still for a moment.

  The sound which was not that of thunder, but of

  THE WHITE DOME

  something rolling and crashing, increased with terrific rapidity, stopped abruptly for a moment or two and then a huge dark object shooting down in front of his eyes, struck the ground with mighty impact. It seemed to him that the earth trembled. He sprang back several feet and all the horses and mules, rearing in alarm, crouched against the cliff.

  A great bowlder lay partly buried. It had rolled from the edge of the cliff high above, and he divined at once that the Sioux had made it roll. They had climbed the stony mountains enclosing the defile, and were opening a bombardment, necessarily at random, but nevertheless terrible in its nature. While he hesitated, not knowing what to do, a second bowlder thundered, bounded and crashed into the chasm. But it struck much farther away.

  The Little Giant came running at the sound, leaving Boyd on guard at the mouth of the pass, and as he arrived a third rock struck, though, like the second, at a distance, and he knew without any words from Will, what the Sioux were now trying to do. As he looked up, a fourth crashed down, and it fell very near.

  "So that's thar trick?" exclaimed the Little Giant. "Simple ez you please, but ez dang'rous ez a batt'ry o' cannon. Look out, young William, thar's another."

  It struck so close to Will that he felt the shock and ran back to the shelter of the overhanging cliff, where, driven by instinct, the horses and mules were already crowding. Nor did the Little Giant, brave as he was, hesitate to follow him.

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  "When you're shot at out o' the sky," he said, "the best thing to do is to go into hidin'. One ain't wholly under cover here, but it ud be a long chance ef any o* them rocks got us."

  "What about Jim, watching at the mouth of the pass?"

  "He won't stir until he hears from me. He'll set thar, unmoved, with his rifle ready, waitin* fur the Sioux jest ez ef he expected them to come. I'll slip back an' tell him to keep on waitin,' also what's goin' on in here."

  "Skip fast then! Look out! That barely missed you! They're sending the rocks down in showers now."

  The Little Giant, as agile as a greyhound, vanished around the curve, and Will instinctively crowded him- self closely and more closely against the stone wall while the dangerous bombardment went on. The ani- mals, their instinct still guiding them, were doing the same, and Boyd's brave Selim, which was next to him, reached out his head and nuzzled Will's hand, as if he found strength and protection in the presence of the human being, who knew so much more about some things than he or his comrades did. Will responded at once.

  "I don't think they can get us here, Selim, old boy," he said. "The projection of the wall is slight, but it sends every rock out toward the center. Now, if you and your comrades will only be intelligent you'll keep safe."

  He arranged them in a row along the waH, where 116

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  none would interfere with the protection of another, and standing with Selim's nose in his hand, watched the great rocks strike. Luckily at that particular point the bottom of the defile was soft earth and they sank into it, but farther up they fell with a crash on a stony floor, and when they did not split to pieces they bounded and rebounded like ricochetting cannon balls.

  The tittle Giant returned presently, but as yet no damage had been done, although the bombardment was going on as furiously as ever.

  "They'll keep it up awhile," he said, as he huddled against the wall by the side of Will. "I knowed they would be up to some trick, but I didn't think 'bout them bowlders that lay thick on the mounting. They hev got 'nuff ammunition o' that kind to last a year, but arter a while thar arms will grow tired, an' then they'll grow tired too, o' not knowin' whether they hit or not. It wears out the best man in the world to keep on workin* forever an' forever without knowin' whether he's accomplishin' anything or not. All we've got to do is to hug the wall an' set tight."

  "Wouldn't it be well, Giant, when the bombardment lets up, to gather together our own little army and take to flight -up the pass ?"

  "An' whar would we fetch up?"

  "It's not likely to be a box canyon. I've /ead that they abound more in the southern mountains, and are not met with very often he^e. And even if the pass itself didn't take us out we might find a cross canyon or a slope tha* vye tould climb."

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  "Sounds good, young William. We'll git the hosses an* mules ready, packs on 'em, and bridles in thar mouths, an' ez soon ez the arms an' sperrits o* the Sioux git tired, I'll hot foot after Jim, an' then we'll gallop up the pass."

  The Little Giant's psychology was correct. In a half hour the bombardment began to decrease in vio- lence, and in ten more minutes it ceased entirely. Then, according to plan, he ran to the mouth of the pass and returned with the hunter, who had promptly accepted their plan. Coaxing forth the reluctant animals, which were still in fear, they set off up the great defile, passing among the bowlders, some of great size, which had been tumbled down in search of their heads.

  "Thar's one consolation," said the Little Giant, philosophically, "ef any o' them big rocks had hit our heads we wouldn't hev been troubled with wounds. My skull's hard, but it would hev been shattered like an eggshell."

  "They may begin again," said Boyd, "but by then we ought to be far away."

  It was a venture largely at random, but the three were agreed that it must be made. The Sioux un- doubtedly would resume the bombardment later on, and they might also receive reinforcements sufficient to resume the attack at the mouth of the pass, or at least to keep up there a distant fire that would prove troublesome. Every motive prompted to farther flight, and they pushed on as fast as they could, al- though the bottom of the defile became rough, sown with bowlders and dangerous to the fugitives.

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  They made no attempt to ride, but led the horses and mules at the ends of their lariats, all the animals becoming exceedingly wary at the bad footing.

  "It's a blind canyon after all !" suddenly exclaimed the Little Giant in deep disgust. "The stream comes down that mountain wall thar, droppin' from ledge to ledge, an' here we are headed off."

  "Then there's nothing to do," said the hunter, "but choose a good place among the rocks and fight for our lives when they come."

  Will looked up at the steep and lofty slopes on either side. The one on the right seemed less steep and lofty than the other, and upon it hung a short growth of pine and cedar, characteristic of the region. His spirit, which danger had made bold and venturesome, seized upon an idea.

  "Why not go up the slope on the right?" he asked.

  "It's like the side of a house, only many times as high," said Boyd in amazement.

  "But it isn't," said the lad. "It merely looks so in the dark. We can climb it."

  "Of course we could, but we'd have to abandon the horses and mules and all our packs and stores, and then where would we be?"

  "But we won't have to leave 'em. They can climb too. You know how you boasted of our horses, and the Giant's horses are mules which can go anywhere."

  "I believe the boy's right," said the Little Giant. "By our pullin' on the lariats an' thar takin' advan- tage o' ev'ry footgrip, they might do it. Leastways we kin try it."

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  "It's a desperate chance," said the hunter, "but I think with you, Tom, that it's worth trying. Now, boys, make fast the packs to the last strap, and up we

  go."

  "Bein' as my hosses are mules," said the Little Giant, "I'll lead the way, an' you f oiler, each feller pullin* on two lariats."

  He started up the sl
ope, whistling gayly but low to his mules, and, after some hesitation, they at- tacked the ascent, Tom still whistling to them in his most cheerful and engaging manner. There was a sound of scrambling feet, and small stones rolled down, but not the mules, which disappeared from sight among the cedars.

  "Thunderation ! I wouldn't have thought it!" ex- claimed the hunter, "but I believe you're right, Will! The mules are climbing the wall. Now, we'll see if the horses can do it !"

  "Let me start with 'em!"

  "All right! But pull hard on the lariat, whenever you feel one of 'em slipping."

  Will attacked the steep wall with vigor, but he had to pull very hard indeed on the lariats before he could make the horses try it. Finally they made the effort, and, though slipping and sliding at times, they crept up the slope. Behind him he heard Boyd, coming with the last two and speaking in encouraging tones to Selim.

  The lariats were a great help, and if Will had not hung on to them so hard his horses would have fallen. But he was right in his judgment that the face of the

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  wall was not so steep as it looked. Moreover there were little shelves and gullies, and the tough clumps of cedar were a wonderful aid. The horses justified their reputation as climbers, and, although Will's heart was in his mouth more than once, and his hands and wrists were cut and bleeding by the pull on the lariats, they did not fall. Always he heard in front of him the low and cheerful whistling of the Little Giant, to his mules, which, sure-footed, went on almost without a slip.

  At last they drew out upon the crest of the slope and the three human beings and the six animals stood there trembling violently from exertion, the perspiration pouring from them.