CHAPTER XI
A RESCUE
When Alice Marcum opened her eyes the timber was in darkness. The moonhad not yet topped the divide and through an opening in the trees thegirl could see the dim outlines of an endless sea of peaks and ridgesthat stretched away to the eastward. The voice of the Texan sounded inher ears: "Come alive, now! We got to eat an' pull out of here in anhour's time if we're goin' to fetch the bad lands by daylight."
Peering around the edge of her shelter tent she could see him,coffee-pot in hand, standing beside the tiny flame that licked at thedry pine shavings of a newly kindled fire.
He turned and made his way to the creek that burbled over the rocks ashort way down the ravine and Alice drew on her riding-boots and joinedEndicott who had made his way painfully toward the fire where he stoodgazing ruefully at the begrimed wreck of a white collar which he heldin his hand. The Texan returned and placed the coffee-pot closeagainst the tiny blaze.
"When you get through invoicin' yer trooso, Winthrup, it wouldn't delayus none if you'd grasp that there hand-ax an' carve out a littlefire-fodder." He glanced up at Alice. "An' if cookin' of any kind hasbe'n inclooded in your repretwa of accomplishments, you might sizzle upa hunk of that sow-belly, an' keep yer eye on this here pot. An' ifWinthrup should happen to recover from his locomotive attacksyou an'hack off a limb or two, you can get a little bigger blaze a-goin' an',just before that water starts to burn, slop in a fistful of java.You'll find some dough-gods an' salve in one of them canvas bags, an'when you're all set, holler. I'll throw the kaks on these cayuses, an'Bat, he can wrastle with the pack."
Alice looked into the Texan's face with a peculiar little puckering ofthe brows, and laughed: "See here, Mr. Tex," she said, "of course, Iknow that java must be coffee, but if you will kindly render the restof your remarks a little less caliginous by calling the grub by itsChristian name, maybe I'll get along better with the breakfast."
The Texan was laughing now, a wholesome, hearty laugh in which was notrace of cynicism, and the girl felt that for the first time she hadcaught a glimpse of the real man, the boyish, whole-hearted man thatonce or twice before she had suspected existed behind the mask of thesardonic smile. From that moment she liked him and at the breezywhimsicality of his next words she decided that it would be well worththe effort to penetrate the mask.
"The dude, or dictionary, names for the above specified commodities isbacon, biscuits, an' butter. An' referrin' back to your ownetymological spasm, the word 'grub' shows a decided improvement overanything you have uttered previous. I had expected 'food' an' wouldn'thave hardly batted an' eye at 'viands,' an' the caliginous part of itis good, only, if you aim to obfuscate my convolutions you'll have todig a little deeper. Entirely irrelevant to syntax an' the alliedtrades, as the feller says, I'll add that them leggin's of yourn is onthe wrong legs, an' here comes Winthrup with a chip."
Turning abruptly, the man made his way toward the horses, and asEndicott approached with an armful of firewood, the contrast betweenthe men was brought sharply to the girl's notice. The Texan, easy andlithe of movement as an animal born to the wild, the very tilt of hissoft-brimmed hat and the set of his clothing bespeaking consciousmastery of his environment--a mastery that the girl knew was notconfined to the subduing of wild cattle and horses and the following ofobscure trails in the nighttime. Never for a moment had the air ofself-confidence deserted him. With the same easy assurance that he hadflung his loop about the shoulders of the Mayor of Wolf River he hadcarried off the honours of the tournament, insulted Purdy to his face,dictated to the deputy sheriff, and planned and carried out the releaseof Endicott from the grip of the law. And what was most surprising ofall, never had he shown a trace of the boorish embarrassment orself-consciousness which, up to the moment of his brutal attack uponher, had characterized the attitude of Purdy. And the girl realizedthat beneath his picturesque slurring and slashing of English, was afamiliarity with words that had never been picked up in the cow-country.
Endicott tossed down his wood, and Alice could not help but notice thesorry appearance of the erstwhile faultlessly dressed gentleman whostood collarless and unshaven, the once delicately lined silk shirtfilthy with trail dust, and the tailored suit wrinkled and misshapen asthe clothing of a tramp. She noted, too, that his movements wereawkward and slow with the pain of overtaxed muscles, and that the stiffderby hat he had been forced to jam down almost to the tops of his earshad left a grimy red band across his forehead. She smiled as her eyesswept the dishevelled and uncouth figure.
"I am glad," said Endicott with asperity, as he brushed the dirt andbits of bark from his coat, "that you find the situation so humorous.It must be highly gratifying to know that it is of your own making."
The tone roused the girl's anger and she glanced up as she finishedlacing her leggings.
"Yes," she answered, sweetly, "it is--very. And one of the mostamusing features is to watch how a man's disposition crabs with themussing of his clothing. No wonder the men who live out here wearthings that won't muss, or there wouldn't be but one left and he'd bejust a concentrated chunk of unadulterated venom. Really, Winthrop,you do look horrid, and your disposition is perfectly nasty. But,cheer up, the worst is yet to come, and if you will go down to thecreek and wash your hands, you can come back and help me with the grub.You can get busy and dig the dough-gods and salve out of that sackwhile I sizzle up the sow-belly."
Endicott regarded her with a frown of disapproval: "Why thispreposterous and vulgar talk?"
"Adaptability to environment," piped the girl, glibly. "You can't getalong by speaking New York in Montana, any easier than you can withEnglish in Cincinnati."
Endicott turned away with a sniff of disgust, and the girl's lips drewinto a smile which she meant to be an exact replica of the Texan's asshe proceeded to slice strips of bacon into the frying-pan.
The meal was a silent affair, and during its progress the moon roseclear of the divide and hung, a great orange ball, above the high-flungpeaks. Almost simultaneously with the rising of the moon, the windrose, and scuds of cloud-vapour passed, low down, blurring the higherpeaks.
"We got to get a move on," opined the Texan, with an eye on the clouds."Throw them dishes into the pack the way they are, an' we'll clean 'emwhen we've got more time. There's a storm brewin' west of here an' wewant to get as far as we can before she hits."
By the time the others were in the saddle, Bat was throwing the finalhitch on his pack outfit, and with the Texan in the lead, the littlecavalcade headed southward.
An hour's climb, during which they skirted patches of scrub pine,clattered over the loose rocks of ridges, and followed narrow,brush-choked coulees to their sources, found them on the crest of theCow Creek divide.
The wind, blowing half a gale from the south-east, whipped about theirfaces and roared and whistled among the rocks and scrub timber.Alice's eyes followed the Texan's glance toward the west and there, lowdown on the serried horizon she could see the black mass of a cloudbank.
"You can't tell nothin' about those thunderheads. They might hold off'til along towards mornin', they might pile up on us in an hour, andthey might not break at all," vouchsafed the man, as Alice reined inher horse close beside his.
"But the wind is from the other direction!"
"Yes, it generally is when the thunder-storms get in their work. If wecan get past the Johnson fences we can take it easy an' camp mostanywhere when the storm hits, but if we get caught on this side withoutno moonlight to travel by an' have to camp over tomorrow in somecoulee, there's no tellin' who'll run onto us. This south slope'sinfested some plentiful by the riders of three or four outfits." Heheaded his horse down the steep descent, the others following in singlefile.
As the coulee widened Alice found herself riding by the Texan's side."Oh, don't you just love the wild country!" she exclaimed, breaking along interval of silence. "The plains and the mountains, the woods andthe creeks, and the wonderful air----"
"A
n' the rattlesnakes, an' the alkali, an' the soap-holes, an' thequicksand, an' the cactus, an' the blisterin' sun, an' the lightnin',an' the rain, an' the snow, an' the ice, an' the sleet----"
The girl interrupted him with a laugh: "Were you born a pessimist, orhas your pessimism been acquired?"
The Texan did not lift his eyes from the trail: "Earnt, I reckon, wouldbe a better word. An' I don't know as it's pessimism, at that, to lookin under the crust of your pie before you bite it. If you'd et fliesfor blueberries as long as I have, you'd----"
"I'd ask for flies, and then if there were any blueberries the surprisewould be a pleasant one."
"Chances are, there wouldn't be enough berries to surprise you nonepleasant. Anyhow, that would be kind of forcin' your luck. Follerin'the same line of reasoning a man ort to hunt out a cactus to set onso's he could be surprised pleasant if it turned out to be a Burbankone."
"You're hopeless," laughed the girl. "But look--the moonlight on thepeaks! Isn't it wonderful! See how it distorts outlines, and throws amysterious glamour over the dark patches of timber. Corot would haveloved it."
The Texan shook his head: "No. It wouldn't have got _to him_. Hecouldn't never have got into the feel of stuff like that. Meakin did,and Remington, but it takes old Charlie Russell to pick it right out ofthe air an' slop it onto canvas."
Alice regarded the man in wonder. "You do love it!" she said. "Whyshould you be here if you didn't love it?"
"Bein' a cow-hand, it's easier to make a livin' here than in New Yorkor Boston. I've never be'n there, but I judge that's the case."
"But you are a cow-hand from choice. You have an education and youcould----"
"No. All the education I've got you could pile onto a dime, an' itwouldn't kill more'n a dozen men. Me an' the higher education flirtedfor a couple of years or so, way back yonder in Austin, but owin' tocertain an' sundry eccentricities of mine that was frowned on bycivilization, I took to the brush an' learnt the cow business. Thenafter a short but onmonotonous sojourn in Las Vegas, me an' Bat camenorth for our health. . . . Here's Johnson's horse pasture. We've gotto slip through here an' past the home ranch in a quiet an'onobstrusive manner if we aim to preserve the continuity of Winthrup'sspinal column."
"Can't we go around?" queried the girl.
"No. The coulee is fenced clean acrost an' way up to where even a goatcouldn't edge past. We've got to slip through. Once we get past thebig reservoir we're all right. I'll scout on ahead."
The cowboy swung to the ground and threw open the barbed-wire gate."Keep straight on through, Bat, unless you hear from me. I'll bewaitin' by the bunk-house. Chances are, them salamanders will all bepoundin' their ear pretty heavy, bein' up all last night to the dance."He galloped away and the others followed at a walk. For an hour no onespoke.
"I thought that fence enclosed a pasture, not a county," growledEndicott, as he clumsily shifted his weight to bear on a spot less sore.
"_Oui_, dat hoss pasture she 'bout seven mile long. Den we com' by deranch, an' den de reservoir, an' de hay fences." The half-breed openeda gate and a short distance down the creek Alice made out the darkbuildings of the ranch. As they drew nearer the girl felt her heartrace madly, and the soft thud of the horse's feet on the sod soundedlike the thunder of a cavalry charge. Grim and forbidding loomed thebuildings. Not a light showed, and she pictured them peopled withlurking forms that waited to leap out as they passed and throttle theman who had rescued her from the brutish Purdy. She was sorry she hadbeen nasty to Endicott. She wanted to tell him so, but it was toolate. She thought of the revolver that Jennie had given her, andslipping her hand into her pocket she grasped it by the butt. Atleast, she could do for him what he had done for her. She could shootthe first man to lay hands on him.
Suddenly her heart stood still and her lips pressed tight. A rideremerged from the black shadow of the bunk-house.
"Hands up!" The girl's revolver was levelled at the man's head, andthe next instant she heard the Texan laugh softly.
"Just point it the other way, please, if it's loaded. A fellow shot mewith one of those once an' I had a headache all the rest of theevenin'." His horse nosed in beside hers. "It's just as I thought,"he explained. "Everyone around the outfit's dead to the world. Bein'up all night dancin', an' most of the next day trailin' home, youcouldn't get 'em up for a poker game--let alone hangin' a pilgrim."
Alice's fear vanished the moment the Texan appeared. His air ofabsolute self-confidence in his ability to handle a situation compelledthe confidence of others.
"Aren't your nerves ever shaken? Aren't you ever afraid?" she asked.
Tex smiled: "Nerve ain't in not bein' afraid," he answered evasively,"but in not lettin' folks know when you're afraid."
Another gate was opened, and as they passed around the scrub-cappedspur of a ridge that projected into the widening valley, the girl drewher horse up sharply and pointed ahead.
"Oh! A little lake!" she cried enthusiastically. "See how themoonlight shimmers on the tiny waves."
Heavy and low from the westward came an ominous growl of thunder.
"Yes. An' there'll be somethin' besides moonlight a-shimmerin' aroundhere directly. That ain't exactly a lake. It's Johnson's irrigationreservoir. If we could get about ten miles below here before the stormhits, we can hole up in a rock cave 'til she blows over. The creekvalley narrows down to a canyon where it cuts through the last ridge ofmountains.
"Hit 'er up a little, Bat. We'll try an' make the canyon!"
A flash of lightning illumined the valley, and glancing upward, Alicesaw that the mass of black clouds was almost overhead. The horses wereforced into a run as the hills reverberated to the mighty roll of thethunder. They were following a well-defined bridle trail and scarcelyslackened their pace as they splashed in and out of the water where thetrail crossed and recrossed the creek. One lightning flash succeededanother with such rapidity that the little valley was illuminatedalmost to the brightness of day, and the thunder reverberated in onecontinuous roar.
With the buildings of Johnson's ranch left safely behind, Alice'sconcern for Endicott's well-being cooled perceptibly.
"He needn't to have been so hateful, just because I laughed at him,"she thought, and winced at a lightning flash. Her lips pressedtighter. "I hate thunder-storms--to be out in them. I bet we'll allbe soaked and--" There was a blinding flash of light, the whole valleyseemed filled with a writhing, twisting rope of white fire, and thedeafening roar of thunder that came simultaneously with the flash madethe ground tremble. It was as though the world had exploded beneaththeir feet, and directly in the forefront the girl saw a tall deadcottonwood split in half and topple sidewise. And in the same instantshe caught a glimpse of Endicott's face. It was very white. "He'safraid," she gritted, and at the thought her own fear vanished, and inits place came a wild spirit of exhilaration. This was life. Life inthe raw of which she had read and dreamed but never before experienced.Her horse stopped abruptly. The Texan had dismounted and was pullingat the huge fragment of riven trunk that barred the trail.
"We'll have to lead 'em around through the brush, there. We can'tbudge this boy."
Scattering rain-drops fell--huge drops that landed with a thud andsplashed broadly.
"Get out the slickers, Bat. Quick now, or we're in for a wettin'." Ashe spoke the man stepped to Alice's side, helped her to the ground, andloosened the pack-strings of her saddle. A moment later he held a hugeoilskin of brilliant yellow, into the sleeves of which the girl thrusther arms. There was an odour as of burning sulphur and she sniffed theair as she buttoned the garment about her throat.
The Texan grinned: "Plenty close enough I'll say, when you get a whiffof the hell-fire. Better wait here 'til I find a way through thebrush. An' keep out of reach of the horse's heels with that slickeron. You can't never trust a cayuse, 'specially when they can't more'nhalf see. They're liable to take a crack at you for luck."
Grasping his b
ridle reins the Texan disappeared and by the lightningflashes she could see him forcing his way through the thicket ofwillows. The scattering drops changed to a heavy downpour. Themoonlight had long since been obliterated and the short intervalsbetween the lightning flashes were spaces of intense blackness. Ayellow-clad figure scrambled over the tree trunk and the cowboy tookthe bridle reins from her hand.
"You slip through here. I'll take your horse around."
On the other side, the cowboy assisted her to mount, and pulling hishorse in beside hers, led off down the trail. The rain steadilyincreased in volume until the flashes of lightning showed only a greywall of water, and the roar of it blended into the incessant roar ofthe thunder. The horses splashed into the creek and wallowed to theirbellies in the swirling water.
The Texan leaned close and shouted to make himself heard.
"They don't make 'em any worse than this. I've be'n out in someconsiderable rainstorms, take it first an' last, but I never seen itcome down solid before. A fish could swim anywheres through this."
"The creek is rising," answered the girl.
"Yes, an' we ain't goin' to cross it many more times. In the canyonshe'll be belly-deep to a giraffe, an' we got to figure a way out ofthe coulee 'fore we get to it."
Alice was straining her ears to catch his words, when suddenly, abovethe sound of his voice, above the roar of the rain and the crash androll of thunder, came another sound--a low, sullen growl--indefinable,ominous, terrible. The Texan, too, heard the sound and, jerking hishorse to a standstill, sat listening. The sullen growl deepened into aloud rumble, indescribably horrible. Alice saw that the Texan's facewas drawn into a tense, puzzled frown. A sudden fear gripped herheart. She leaned forward and the words fairly shrieked from her lips.
"It's the reservoir!"
The Texan whirled to face the others whose horses had crowded close andstood with drooping heads.
"The reservoir's let go!" he shouted, and pointed into the grey wall ofwater at right angles to their course. "Ride! Ride like hell an' saveyourselves! I'll look after her!" The next instant he whirled hishorse against the girl's.
"Ride straight ahead!" he roared. "Give him his head an' hang on!I'll stay at his flank, an' if you go down we'll take a chancetogether!"
Slipping the quirt from the horn of his saddle the cowboy brought itdown across her horse's flank and the animal shot away straight intothe opaque grey wall. Alice gave the horse a loose rein, set her lips,and gripped the horn of her saddle as the brute plunged on.
The valley was not wide. They had reached a point where its sidesnarrowed to form the mouth of the canyon. The pound of the horse'sfeet was lost in the titanic bombilation of the elements--the incessantcrash and rumble of thunder and the ever increasing roar of rushingwaters. At every jump the girl expected her frantic horse to go down,yet she was conscious of no feeling of fear. She glanced over hershoulder, but the terrific downpour acted as a curtain through whichher eyes could not penetrate with the aid even of the most vividflashes of lightning. Yet she knew that the Texan rode at her flankand that the others followed--Endicott and Bat, with his pack-horseclose-snubbed to his saddle-horn. Suddenly the girl felt her horselabouring. His speed slackened perceptibly. As abruptly as it startedthe rain stopped; and she saw that water was swirling about his knees.Saw also by the aid of a lightning flash that throughout its width thevalley was a black sea of tossing water. Before her the bank was veryclose and she jerked her horse toward a point where the perpendicularsides of a cutbank gave place to a narrow plane that slanted steeplyupward. It seemed to the girl that the steep ascent would beimpossible for the horses but it was the only chance. She glancedbackward. The Texan was close behind, and following him were theothers, their horses wallowing to their bellies. She had reached thehill and so steep was its pitch that her horse seemed perpendicular tothe earth's surface. She leaned over the horn and twisted her fingersinto his mane as the animal, his feet clear of the water, clawed andscrambled like a cat to gain the top. Another moment and he had pulledhimself over the edge and the girl leaped to the ground. The Texan hadnot followed to the top but had halted his horse at the edge of thewater that was mounting steadily higher. Bat swung in with his packhorse and with his quirt Tex forced them up the embankment. Endicott'shorse was all but swimming. The water came above the man's knees asthe animal fought for footing. The Texan leaned far out and, graspingthe bridle, drew him in to the bank and quirted him to the top. Then,as the three watched, he headed his own horse upward. Scarcely had theanimal come clear of the water when the eager watchers saw thatsomething was wrong.
"De cinch--she bus'!" cried the half-breed excitedly. "Dat dam' Purdycut de cinch an' A'm trade Tex mine for ride de outlaw, an' we tradeback. _Voila_!" As the man talked, he jerked the coiled rope from hissaddle and rushed to the edge. Alice, too, crowded to the bank, herhands tight clenched as she saw the man, the saddle gone from underhim, clinging desperately to the bridle reins, his body awash in theblack waters. Saw also that his weight on the horse's head was causingthe animal to quit the straight climb and to plunge and turnerratically. It was evident that both horse and rider must be hurledinto the flood. The fury of the storm had passed. The rumble ofthunder was distant now. The flashes of lightning came at greaterintervals, and with a pale glow instead of the dazzling brilliance ofthe nearer flashes. Through a great rift in the cloud-bank the moonshowed, calm and serene above the mad rush of black waters.
For a single instant Alice gazed into the up-turned face of the Texan,and in that instant she saw his lips curve into the familiar cynicalsmile. Then he calmly let go the reins and slipped silently beneaththe black water, as the released horse scrambled to the top. Besideher, Endicott uttered an oath and, tearing at the buttons of hisslicker, dashed the garment to the ground. His coat followed, andstooping he tore the shoes from his feet and poised on the very edge ofthe flood. With a cry she sprang to his side and gripped his arm, butwithout a word he shook her roughly away, and as a dark form appearedmomentarily upon the surface of the flood he plunged in.
Alice and Bat watched as the moonlight showed the man swimming withstrong, sure strokes toward the spot where a moment before the darkform had appeared upon the surface. Then he dived, and theswift-rushing water purled and gurgled as it closed over the spot wherehe had been. Rope in hand, Bat, closely followed by the girl, ranalong the edge of the bank, both straining their eyes for the firstsign of movement upon the surface of the flood. Would he never comeup? The slope up which the horses had scrambled steepened into aperpendicular cut-bank at no great distance below, and if the currentbore the two men past that point the girl knew instinctively thatrescue would be impossible and they would be swept into the vortex ofthe canyon.
There was a cry from Bat, and Alice, struggling to keep up, caught ablur of motion upon the surface some distance below. A few stepsbrought them opposite to the point, where, scarcely thirty feet fromthe bank, two forms were struggling violently. Suddenly an arm raisedhigh, and a doubled fist crashed squarely against the jaw of a white,upturned face. The half-breed poised an instant and threw his rope.The wide loop fell true and a moment later Endicott succeeded inpassing it under the arms of the unconscious Texan. Then the rope drewtaut and the halfbreed braced to the pull as the men were forcedshoreward by the current.
With a cry of relief, Alice rushed to the aid of the half-breed, andgrasping the rope, threw her weight into the pull. But her relief wasshort-lived, for when the forms in the water touched shore it was tobrush against the side of the cut-bank with tea feet of perpendicularwall above them. And worse than, that, unhardened to the wear ofwater, the bank was caving off in great chunks as the current gnawed atits base. A section weighing tons let go with a roar only a few yardsbelow, and Bat and the girl worked as neither had ever worked before totow their burden upstream to the sloping bank. But the force of thecurrent and the conformation of the bank, which slanted outward at anangle that diminished
the force of the pull by half, rendered theirefforts in vain.
"You stan' back!" ordered Bat sharply, as a section of earth gave wayalmost beneath their feet, but the girl paid no attention, and the tworedoubled their efforts.
In the water, Endicott took in the situation at a glance. He realizedthat the strain of the pull was more than the two could overcome.Realized also that each moment added to the Jeopardy of the half-breedand the girl. There was one chance--and only one. Relieved of hisweight, the unresisting form of the Texan could be dragged tosafety--and he would take that chance.
"_Non_! _Non_!" The words were fairly hurled from the half-breed'slips, as he seemed to divine what was passing in Endicott's mind. ButEndicott gave no heed. Deliberately he let go the rope and the nextmoment was whirled from sight, straight toward the seething vortex ofthe canyon, where the moonlight revealed dimly in the distance only awild rush of lashing waters and the thrashing limbs of uprooted trees.
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